Description

This wonderful small old Lobi bateba divination figure, is the type characteristically placed at teh Lobi altar.
Bateba are believed to embody the spirit of the thila, and once the bateba is placed at the household altar, he or she, becomes active.
A Lobi household could have several altars dedicated to the placement of various and different thilbia – spirits incarnated as statuettes. There may be various stages prior to a thil being incarnated as a statue of wood, metal, or clay.
The Lobi view the intermediary bateba figures on a level superior to human beings, whom they resemble, but inferior to the village protective spirits or thila, from whom they derive their powers.
Lobi statuary sets itself aside from the majority of African statuary, in that there exists a large variety of forms and individualistic styles.
Nice encrusted patina, mid to late 20th century – Collected in Burkina Faso.