A Baule Figure, "waka sona" ("blolo-bla")

Female figure, "waka sona" ("blolo-bla") Baule, Côte d'Ivoire Mit Sockel / with base Wood, glass beads. H 43,5 cm. Provenance: Sandro Bocola (1931-2022), Zurich. "We cannot live without beautiful things" - this confession of a Baule could also come from the mouth of a Western art lover. Surrounding themselves with charming objects was a similarly fundamental concern for the Baule in Côte d'Ivoire as it was for Western collectors of African art. This Baule view of life was expressed in finely crafted ritual figures as well as in lovingly decorated objects of daily use. The attribution of the figures called "waka sran" (also "waka-sona") (waka = wood, sran or sona = person, statue, idol) is difficult outside the social context and in retrospect. In general, a distinction is made in usage between symbolic partners from the "other world" and divination figures, although the boundary between these groups was often fluid. The loving blolo-bla and blolo-bian figures are based on the idea that every Baule has a spiritual partner in the afterlife (blolo = other world), i.e. a wife (bla) or a husband (bian), and must strive to live with him in the best possible relationship. If he does not succeed in this, his afterlife partner makes his life difficult. The more sacrificed "divination figures" are called asye-usu and are related to all untamed things of nature. They were used in ritual acts to gain the attention of the bush spirits. These omnipresent beings always had to be appeased, also because they were considered extremely capricious and could occasionally take possession of the unwary. Further reading: Vogel, Susan M. (1997). Baule. Yale: University Press. CHF 1 000 / 2 000 EUR 1 000 / 2 000