A female Senufo Rhythm Pounder

A female Senufo Rhythm Pounder, called Déblé, region Nafoun, standing on a cylindrical base, slightly bent legs, a loin cloth covering the genitalia, the protruding navel is decorated with radiating linear scarification marks, also scarification marks on the sagging breasts and in the face, hanging shoulders, the arms are elongated, the hands are touching the thighs, one bracelet on each wrist and two armlets on each upper arm, around the elongated slender neck an amulet on a pearl chain, a small head with a protruding mouth, a lip-plug through the lower lip, a flat curved nose, arched brows and round big eyes, the coiffure forming a high crest with a curl sticking up above the forehead, a curl at the nape of the neck and one over each ear; a light sacrificial patina, shiny parts where the Déblé was lifted and held, especially at the upper arms, traces of age and ritual use, heavy hard wood. Provenance Mohamed Belo Garba.

Lit.: Burkhard Gottschalk: Senufo. Massa and the Statues of Poro, 2002; State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Museum of Ethnology Berlin, The Art of Senufo, Ivory Coast. With a contribution by Till Förster, 1990; Museum Rietberg Zurich, The Art of Senufo from Swiss Collections, 1988; Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi: Senufo unbound. Dynamics of art and identity in West Africa, Cleveland 2015.

Height: 139 cm
Weight: 8,30 kg