A Lobi sculpture, in bent position, without arms, standing on a single foot, a smaller figure in the same shape in front, probably a “Lobi-Betise”, It is said that the Lobi usually performed sexual intercourse “from behind" so that none of the man's sperm was lost. I cannot confirm whether this assumption, which is often repeated in the literature, is correct through my own research in the land of the Lobi. It is also strange in this sculpture why the small figure is so small in front of the large male one. Normally the woman is depicted as taller than the man because the woman is more important for reproduction and therefore for the survival of the "clan" than the man. All Lobi figures are commissioned by the fetishist. It is not the carver who decides on the type of figure. It is important to note that none of the figures serve aesthetic purposes. All figures serve spiritual purposes such as healing, ancestor veneration, averting danger, ancestral veneration or have their significance in the context of funeral ceremonies. The actual purpose of this particular piece cannot be verified. Encrusted patina; signs of use. Certificare of origin and provenance Question to the sculptor Kilité Noufé: "Why is the female sculpture so much bigger than the male?" Kilite's answer: "The woman is more important than the man!" Question: "Why do women have portable altars (the vessel on top of the figure´s head) instead of the men?" Kilite: "So that the woman can go anywhere, the man has to go inside the house to perform certain ceremonies." From an interview in 2011. Wolfgang Jaenicke and Kilite Noufe discussing about the enclosed couple of the carver, in the background a fetish-altar at the working place of Kilite (last photo sequence). Lit: Floros & Sigrid Katsouros/Stephan und Petra Herkenhoff: Anonyme Schnitzer der Lobi, Hannover 2006; Piet Meyer: Kunst und Religion der Lobi, Zürich 1981; Galerie Flak: Magie Lobi, Paris 2003; Kat. Ausst.: Lobi. Westafrikanische Skulpturen aus der Sammlung Greschik, anlässlich der Ausstellung „Die Entdeckung des Individuums“, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 2016, Berlin 2016. Wolfgang Jaenicke, Kilite Noufe und die neuen Zeichen. Besuch bei Kilite Noufe am 11.7.12.