A one-legged Aklama figure of the Ewe belongs to a rare group of ritual sculptures connected with the spiritual and protective practices of the Ewe and Dangme populations living between southeastern Ghana and southern Togo. Aklama figures are generally understood as “helper spirits” or intermediary beings which could accompany an individual, a family, or a shrine. They were associated with protection, fertility, healing, divination, and communication with invisible forces. Their forms are often highly abstract, reduced to essential anatomical signs, and intentionally asymmetrical. Missing limbs, exaggerated heads, compressed torsos, or reduced bodily features were not necessarily signs of damage, but frequently part of a symbolic visual language. Incl stand. The unusual one-legged form of this figure may refer to liminality, instability, spirit movement, or altered physical conditions associated with trance, sacrifice, or spiritual mediation. In Ewe religious thought, physical irregularity can indicate closeness to the spirit world rather than imperfection. Such figures were commonly kept on domestic altars, grouped in ritual bundles, or wrapped in cloth together with medicine substances and sacrificial materials. Many surviving examples show heavy ritual use, layers of pigment, oil, kaolin, or encrusted sacrificial matter. The most important scholarly publication concerning these figures is the monumental monograph by the German artist and collector Horst Antes, whose study collection brought international attention to the Aklama tradition. The book Aklama – Helper Spirits of the Ewe and Dangme from the Study Collection of Horst Antes was published in 2016 by the Studienstiftung Horst Antes. The bilingual German-English volume contains more than 500 pages and illustrates over 1400 Aklama figures photographed by Rémi Bazan. Essays by Gigi Pezzoli, Philipp Plath, and Nii Quarcoopome examine the religious, historical, and artistic context of these sculptures. The publication is considered the foundational modern reference work on Aklama traditions and revealed an artistic field that had previously remained largely overlooked by museums and scholars. Horst Antes collected Aklama figures over several decades, recognizing in them a highly individual sculptural language that differed radically from the better-known monumental traditions of West African art. The book demonstrates the extraordinary diversity of Aklama carving styles: some figures are reduced almost to geometric signs, while others possess expressive heads, multiple faces, elongated limbs, or strongly eroded ritual surfaces. Many of the sculptures appear strikingly modern in their abstraction, despite their deeply traditional ritual functions. References Philipp Plath, Gigi Pezzoli, Nii Quarcoopome: Aklama – Helper Spirits of the Ewe and Dangme from the Study Collection of Horst Antes, Studienstiftung Horst Antes, Karlsruhe, 2016 A. de Surgy: Le Système Religieux des Evhe, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1985 Robert Sutherland Rattray: Religion and Art in Ashanti, Oxford University Press, 1927 Melville J. Herskovits: Dahomean Narrative, Northwestern University Press, 1958 University of Ghana research on Aklama spirituality and Ewe religious material culture