A Baule statue, Toumodi region, Ivory Coast. The wooden statuette depicts a woman standing on an oval plinth. Her body is upright and quite stocky, with sturdy legs, prominent breasts and arms resting alongside her stomach. Her hands are clasped near her hips. Her face features half-closed eyes, a short nose and a slightly smiling mouth. The hairstyle consists of several rounded sections. A carved belt, highlighted in red, encircles the hips. The wood has a dark, black and brown patina, with numerous traces of wear, dust and old paint. In Baoulé art from Ivory Coast, female figures symbolise beauty, fertility, dignity and the continuity of the family. The stable posture, neat hairstyle and calm expression reflect a highly valued image of the adult woman. A sculpture of this type might have been associated with an ancestor, a spirit or a spouse from the invisible world, sometimes referred to as blolo bla. "The other world man or woman is a solitary individual linked to only one human being. I have written that the Baule never use the words "hunsband" (wun) or "wife" (yi) in relation to the Other-World person. He or she is always referred to as the Other-World man or Other-World woman; in other words, the association is a dyadic sexual relationship, rather than the polyvalent marriage relationship that links two families in a web of mutual obligations.. There is an actuality to this relationship that situates it in the immediacy of lived experiences. Unlike the preexistance reality of the nature world, the blolo is a world that is revealed suddenly and experienced authentically: the palpable passion of a male/female relationship. The living partner admits to being "desired", in fact " demanded," by an invisible, sexual being." Philip Ravenhill, The Self and the Other, Personhood and Images anmong the Baule, Ivory Coast, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1994:37 Woman with her husband and the figure of her Orther-World man. Toumodi region, Ivory Coast, 1981 (last photo sequence). "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. 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 Inv. No. MA///Z18//60//5