A female Kulango sculpture, Ivory Coast, standing on a pedestal, with slender limbs, long, pointed breasts, a long neck, and a schematically designed face. Dark wood, partly shiny patina; signs of use and age. This wooden figure is attributed to the Kulango (also spelled Koulango), a Mande-speaking population historically established in the border region of present-day northeastern Côte d’Ivoire and northwestern Ghana. The Kulango formed part of the wider cultural and commercial networks of the western Sudan, maintaining political and ritual affiliations with neighboring Akan and Mande groups. Sculptural production among the Kulango is comparatively rare in museum collections, and extant examples are therefore of considerable art-historical importance. The head—often proportionally emphasized in West African figuration—serves as the locus of spiritual agency and cognitive power. Kulango figures are generally understood to have functioned within protective and therapeutic contexts. Oral traditions and comparative field documentation indicate their association with shrines dedicated to tutelary spirits, ancestors, or localized earth powers. The accumulation of sacrificial matter—oils, blood, kola nut residue, and vegetal substances—would have activated and sustained the figure’s efficacy. In this respect, the sculpture operated not as a portrait in the Western sense but as a receptacle and mediator of immaterial force. Stylistically, Kulango sculpture demonstrates both autonomy and dialogue with neighboring Akan traditions. While Akan court art frequently privileges regalia and emblematic symbolism, Kulango carving tends toward a restrained formal vocabulary and a more austere surface articulation. This distinction underscores the diversity of artistic expression within the forest–savanna interface zone of West Africa. Lit.: Fischer, Eberhard, Die Kunst der Kulango. Zürich, Museum Rietberg, 1994.