A female Senufo Rhythm pounder

A female Senufo Rhythm pounder - called Débéle - from Nafou village in the Boundiali region, Ivory Coast.

This Déblé Senufo statue from Nafou village in the Boundiali region of Côte d’Ivoire embodies the spiritual and social principles central to Senufo cultural practice. Traditionally produced by a master carver under the guidance of elders or ritual specialists, such statues were integral to initiation rites, ancestral veneration, and protective ceremonies, serving as conduits between the living community and the spirit world. The creation of the figure was itself a sacred process, involving ritual invocations and offerings to awaken its spiritual presence. Functioning as both a moral guide and a protective emblem, the statue played a vital role in sustaining communal harmony, transmitting cultural knowledge, and embodying the enduring Senufo ideals of continuity, guidance, and the balance between human and ancestral realms.

“These large-scale statue are a very rare work of art among the Senufo, institutional style of professional sculpture, yet on some special occasions large works of art were commissioned by the male Poro society and also by their female counter equivalent society, the Tyekpa society. In the case of the Poro society, large statues of pairs were placed on public display near wooden shrines or shelters where the chosen society’s initiators gathered to celebrate and organize special events and funerals. The Poro society would commission statues such as this one to be carried and used in ritual processions or placed on the ground to serve as a focus point for the ceremonial dancers.