A royal Baule mask, Daoukro region, Cote d’Ivoire. Signs if ritual use and age. Incl stand. "The Baule are originally part of a breakaway group of the Akan people from Ghana. In the 17th century, Queen Abla Pokou led a group on an exodus away from the main Ashanti Confederacy after a war broke out due to disagreements among the factions. Pokou realized that she and her followers may be in harms way, so she took her people and headed westward. Legend says the group came upon the Comoé River, with its dangerous waters and needed a way to safely cross. With the enemy gaining on them, Queen Pokou asked a diviner for advice. The diviner, after much thought, told her the gods required a sacrifice. Everyone began throwing their most prized possessions into the river; gold, ivory, cattle, everything they owned, hoping to appease the gods. The diviner shook his head and said that our sons are our most prized possessions. Pokou, knowing that her duty as queen was more important than that of a mother, decided then to sacrifice her only son, throwing him into the water and calling out “Ba ouli”, translated to “the child is dead”, giving them the name Baule. After the sacrifice was made, hippopotamuses came up from the river and formed a bridge allowing the queen and her people to cross." "Differing from most cultures, the Baule are a matriarchal society. Not only are genetic lineages traced by the mother’s blood line, but they refrain from participating in secret societies and initiations that usually forbid women. They believe women’s rights are sacred and are for the most part, given the same opportunities as men. They do however, have some objects such as special men’s masks or anthropomorphic monkeys that women are forbidden to see due to fear of harm or death." Lit.: Alain-Michel Boye/Patrick Girard/Marceau Rivière: Arts Premiers de Côte d´Ívoire, Sepia 1997, p. 83-84. Susan M. Vogel: Baule: African Art Western Eye, 1997, p. 169 (169-187); Bernard de Grunne: Über den Baule-Stil und seine Meister. In: Eberhard Fischer/Lorenz Homberger: Afrikanische Meister. Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zurüch 2014, p. 81-106; Alain-Michel Boyer: Baule. Visions of Africa, Milan 2008.