Gbekre, the beggar monkey - Baule - Côte d'Ivoire

Grand mendicant monkey, Ivory Coast
Representing "gbekre", the forest genius holding in its hands a cup for offerings.
Powerful head projected forward, many rings in the ears.
The hands and feet are delicately digitized.
A leather loincloth girds the waist and the neck.
Between its legs sits its little one.
The surface of the monkey is covered with a thick crusty sacrificial patina, residues of poured offerings: chicken blood, millet beer, bearing witness to its power, an 'object of power' belonging to the initiatory society of which it upheld the authority.
Beautiful patina of use.
This cynocephalic baboon monkey, with strong dynamism, tailless and humanoid, was feared and admired at once, and played an important role in Baoulé imagination.