Baule Blolo or Spirit Spouse Figure

Slit eyes, a long straight nose. This one keeps his thoughts to himself.

A Baule carver in Ivory Coast made this blolo, the likeness of a spirit spouse, in the 20th century. Such figures were made when a diviner found that a partner in the other world required attention. The eleven-inch body is painted red, with black hair, and the arms are carved close to the torso, hands meeting at the belly. A long vertical crack runs down the front through chest and hip, and the paint is rubbed thin at the edges and feet.

An inward expression, and a body that has lived with it.