Lobi Figure With Sacrificial Patina

Lobi figures were carved in a many sizes for a variety of uses. Among these were as objects of veneration representing ancestral spirits on household altars. In addition to figures such shrines also included vessels, terra cotta representations, carvings of animals and other so-called fetishes. Traditional practice included the sacrificing of live chickens and other domestic fowl onto the shrine, the splashing of blood and local millet beer as well as other ritual mixtures. The degree of practice and preferred offerings varied from household to household and among regions as the Lobi are not a single cohesive ethnicity with a central leadership; rather they are a cluster of interrelated groups who were lumped together by colonial era ethnographers for political expediency. Among the patinas we see on Lobi shrine objects are crusty surfaces such as we have here, the resultant accumulation of repeated ritual lashings of chicken blood, feathers and fermented millet. To this has been added airborne dust, particularly during the “Harmattan” (the season of dust storms blown south from the Sahara). Since figures installed on the shrine are not normally moved and because they are positioned with there backs to, if not leaning on, the enclosing wall, they typically bear the bulk of their accumulated patina on their front side particularly on the face and upper torso. The erosion of the lower extremities, specifically the feet and calves, is common in older shrine figures. As they stand in the same place year after year there is ample opportunity for all varieties of vermin to wither them from below. Here both feet were slowly reduced over time and yet throughout the figure remained on the shrine representing the ancestral spirits and receiving blessings. 20.5″ tall.

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