Female Figure

The Senufo, an agricultural people, occupy a wide area of the northeastern Ivory Coast that extends across the borders into Mali and Burkina Faso. Among the Senufo, the strongest social and religious forces are men’s and women’s associations, especially the Poro and the Sandogo, whose members work together to solve community problems. Carved sculptures and masks play a prominent role in such rituals.

The Art Museum’s statue, which originally formed part of a male-and-female pair, represents Katieleo, the primordial or ancestral mother. Senufo women who belong to the Sandogo (a society of female diviners) pray to Katieleo for fertility; her prominent navel and breasts symbolize her maternal aspects. This sculpture, which was probably intended as a guardian figure, is one of the largest and most important known examples of the type. Adorned with a crested coiffure, Katieleo bears incised geometric cuts on her upper arms and stomach.