Browse Items (9 total)

This crocodile-shaped game board has recessed cups in its back for game use and holding the playing pieces. This mathematical game is played with cowrie shells or pebbles, and is similar to chess. The game board is carved out of wood with and dark…

Goli masquerades are rich with social commentary pertaining to knowledge, gender, aesthetics, and the hierarchies surrounding village life. Communication comes forth through the medium of entertainment with elaborate costuming. Performance takes…

Baule people are prolific carvers. A statue is usually on a base with legs bent slightly, and hands at rest on the abdomen to communicate a feeling of peacefulness. The coiffure is generally detailed. The statue represents the spirit of the bush and…

This fly whisk has a rounded circular handle with an elephant standing on top of it. The handle is carved wood with a brown patina, covered with 24K red gold leaf. The shaft of the handle has ancestral faces. The horse tail attachment for shooing…

Fly whisk features two elephants with their trunks entwined around a tree. The center shaft is missing the blue indigenous fabric for shooing away flies. It is made of carved wood with brown patina and 24K red gold leaf.

This monkey figure is referred to as a gbekre, a brother of the buffalo spirit known as Guli. It is carved out of natural unstained wood. This figure fulfils a deity role by receiving offerings in agricultural rituals and protects the living. A…

Diviners (highly respected fortune tellers) use a mouse and a divination pot called a "gbekre" to predict future events.

Fly whisk features two elephants with their trunks entwined around a tree. The center shaft is missing the blue indigenous fabric for shooing away flies. It is made of carved wood with brown patina and 24K red gold leaf.

Fertility dolls are believed to induce pregnancy and ensure the safe delivery of a child. This doll with a simple, undefined body is made of carved wood with a rich light brown washed patina.