LOBI Figural Stool, Burkina Faso, GREAT Piece

Title: LOBI Figural Stool, Burkina Faso, GREAT Piece
Type of Object: Stool
Ethnic Group: Lobi
Country of Origin: Burkina Faso
Materials: Wood
Approximate Age: mid to late 20th century
Dimensions: 15 inches L.
Overall Condition:  Good.  Most of our pieces have spent decades on at least two continents, and have been treasured by several owners.   Small splits, scrapes and cracks are a normal part of their patina attesting to their age and extensive use.  We examine each piece carefully when we receive it and report any damage we find in our listings.  Please look carefully at the pictures which may also reveal condition and damage.
Damage, Repair: Age cracks and chips

Lobi hand carved figural stool.

Additional Information: This stool is in excellent condition and would be an impressive addition to a serious collection of African Art. Used exclusively by Lobi men, stools are three legged and those for women four legged. Lobi stools are carved from a heavy, dense wood and their simple, abstract forms carries great visual power and the shiny dark patina and wear on the middle leg extended to the front show much use and age. The end of this extended leg does have a visual pun in play in that the leg ends in a roughly sculpted foot. The heads extending from the seat is finely carved and typical of Lobi sculpture. The design of the stool allowed Lobi men to carry it on their shoulder when not being sat upon. Lobi stools such as this were used by men to sit . They  also were used to beat upon the ground when an elder approached as a sign of respect for the older person.

The Lobi gorgeous three-legged stools can be crude and undecorated, or have animal or bateba-like heads or figures like on this example. Almost the entire artistic output of the Lobi is devoted to the famous shrine figures known as "Bateba," which are thought to embody the spirits of the "Thil," an all-purpose but unseen being. The thil, who represents the creator god, also unseen, is consulted via a prescription from a diviner, who might require the carving of a bateba as an intermediary component of this prescription. The bateba come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and postures.The Lobi also craft numerous cast or forged metal figures and animals, made by the men during the off-season. Utilitarian objects like slingshots, flutes, and canes are also made. The Lobi, oddly, do not have a masking tradition at all.

The Lobi have no system of centralized government, nor for that matter do they elect chiefs or venerate elders based on lineage. Instead of elected leaders, or chiefs who inherited their power, the Lobi rely on a cult of nature spirits led by the Thil, and his human interpreter, the village diviner, or "buor. When needed, the buor performs a ceremony and consults the thil.

Most of the Lobi, who are considered among the most ancient occupants of West Africa, fled from Ghana and the Akan around 1770, crossing into Cote 'd'Ivoire and the former Upper Volta in search of uncultivated land. The Lobi stubbornly resisted the influence of the French occupation, and maintain their animist traditions to this day. Their arts, architecture, and complicated belief system make them among the most remarkable, though underrated cultures in all of Africa. Spread across the boundaries of three countries the Lobi live in individual fort-like family compounds in small villages surrounded by cultivated fields. Within the walls of the compound family life includes the family head, his wives, married sons and their families.

Recommended Reading:

Meyer, P. Kunst und Religion der Lobi. 1981.

Bocola, S. African Seats, 1994.

AFRICAN MASTERPIECES FROM MUNICH-The Stratlisches Museum fur Volkerkunde.

LOBI SKULPTUREN AUS DER KOLLECTION KATSOUROS.

I have examined this piece and agree with the description.
Niangi Batulukisi, PhD.

All content, including pictures, Copyright Africa Direct Inc., 2006