A Senufo ceremonial staff from the Korogho region, which is called Tefalipitya in the literature, but according to our research it is called Tilepitchia (Pretty Woman or Pretty Girl) and is given to brave women or girls, on top a woman sitting on a four-legged stool, short legs, very long arms, each decorated with two bracelets, the hands rest on the thighs, broad but flat gluteae, tapering breasts pointing downwards, prominent navel, ears far back, the open mouth with gritted teeth, long nose broad at the tip, closed coffee-bean eyes, a crested hairstyle with a pony-like braid hanging in front of the face, further braids on the sides and at the back of the head, scarification marks all over the body; dark brown patina, a crack on the right arm, right foot broken off, the lower part of the staff well-worn from ritual use.

Lit.: Jean-Paul Barbier, Art of Cote d´Ivoire, 1933. Anita Glaze, Art and Death in a Senufo Village, 1981. Glaze, Anita, Woman Power and Art in a Senufo Village. In: African Arts 8, 1975.

sold

Height: 160 cm
Weight: 1.3 kg

Both pictures from: Bernard De Grunne, Senufo. Champion Cultivator Staffs, 2014.