A Senufo wood sculpture, Boundiali region, Ivory Coast. This sculpture is an authentic anthropomorphic female pestle statue called Déblé (or Debele) from the Senufo culture. Also known by the English term “rhythm pounders,” these sacred works were used by initiates of the Poro secret society to pound the ground in time with the drums during major funeral processions. The figure has a general silhouette and proportions that are long and slender; the woman’s body is extremely elongated vertically, an aesthetic ideal typical of Senufo statuary intended to accentuate the figure’s spiritual tension and dignity. Instead of detailed feet, the lower legs merge directly into a thick, heavy, cylindrical block of wood that forms the base (sedine). This massive base was used to strike the ground in order to make contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The face has a triangular, prognathic shape projecting forward, ending in a pointed chin. The nose forms a long, slender, straight ridge. The eyes are depicted in a minimalist style as small slits. The top of the skull is crowned by a high, curved median sagittal crest (evoking an animal figure or a ceremonial helmet) that ends in a small circular bun at the back. The head is supported by a slender, long, and rigid neck. The slender torso supports two long, pointed, conical breasts that hang down in parallel, symbolizing fertility, the matrilineal lineage, and the nurturing spirit. Notably, the arms extend away from the body in an elegant, hollow curve (creating open negative spaces on either side of the torso). The stylized hands, with engraved fingers, do not touch the abdomen but rest parallel to one another on the upper thighs. The navel is depicted in relief as a prominent protrusion at the center of the elongated abdomen. Wood with a dark, satiny patina; the work is carved from a single block (monoxyl) of very heavy hardwood, essential for withstanding repeated impacts against the floor at Sothe by’s. The surface features a very dark brown, almost black patina—glossy along the edges and more matte, speckled with earthy residues, in the crevices of the wood and on the pilon base. "Burkhard Gottschalk writes that this is not a rhythm pounder (Débéle, do:ogèlè), but a very rare stationary used guardian figure. These sculptures are called propi:ibèlè, „children of the Poro". "Their membership of the Poro would be an explanation for our little knowledge of their significance, because this organisation, which largely determines the village world of the Senufo, is a secret society. ... Even rarer are the statues [propi:ibèlè] … of which it is only said that they belong to the Poro, because there is no reliable information about their use.“ Burkhard Gott schalk, Kunst aus Schwar zafrika. SENUFO. Unbekannte Schätze aus privaten Sammlungen, 2009, p.174, 179. Lit.: Burkhard Gottschalk, Senufo. Massa und die Statuen des Poro, 2002; Staatliche Museen der Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, Die Kunst der Senufo, Elfen beinküste. Miteinem Beitrag von Till Förster, 1990; Museum Riet berg Zürich, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, 1988; Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Senufo unbound. Dynamics of art and identity in West Africa, Cleveland 2015 page 78, Fig. 41 Private collection McClain Gallery, Houston, Sothe bys, 14 November, 2008, Lot 63. This type of sculptures - kown under the name deble - is one of the most famous works of West African Art. After the early 1960th, when the Massa-movement destroyed most of the important Senufo objects, only a few old, authentic Rhythm Pounder were saved and came to Western world. There are no sculptures from the time before 1960 existing anymore in the Senufo region of Ivory Coast, Burkina and Mali. But in some rural regions the old animistic tradition is still existing and also the funeral ceremonies, in which the deble rhythm pounder has it´s ritual function. There are differences in the ceremonies in comparison to the years before 1960. In particular the holy groves, doesn´t exist anymore or arn´t known by Western ethnologists. It were secret fields, where the Senufo placed their ritual sculptures in the forest. These precious objects would probably be stolen immediately, because in nearly every village the Islamic influence becomes stronger and there are more people, who are against the old animistic tradion than decades before. Now these objects are protected in huts close to the village. Many of these Rythm Pounders were used like a hammer to open symbolically or more or less directly a hole in the thick adobe wall of a hut, to carry the dead body of a man - it´s a male sculpture - outside for funaral purpose. In the literature is only described the pounding on earth and the swinging over the ground, but not the described function, which is the reason for the desolat conditions of many déblé bases. This sculpture showes signs of use at the base but is in a rather good condition. W. J. Lit.: Anita J. Glaze, Art and Death in a Senufo Village, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1981. Robert Gold water, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa - The Museum of Primitive Art New York, 1964. acques Kerchache, Jean-Louis Paudrat and Lucien Stéphan, Art of Africa, New York, 1993. Hans-Joachim Koloss, Till Förster, Die Kunst der Senufo, Elfenbeinküste, 1979. Burkhard Gott schalk, Senufo. Massa und die Statuen des Poro, Düssel dorf 2002. Till Förster, Smoothing the Way of the Dead, A Senufo Rhythm Pounder, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2005): 54ff., ill. Some of the information is generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Informant: Bakari MAZ15854