A Baule sculpture, standing on a fragmentary base, shortened, bent legs, beneath a columnar torso, the angled arms ending in stylized hands, the thick, cylindrical neck surmounted by a large head with a threeparted goatee, an ovoid mouth, a flattened t-shaped nose framed by almond-like eyes with high arched brows, an extremly fine, striated coiffure with a pigtail at the back; a brownish patina shiny and aged with intensive signs of sacrifications.

When I heard the first time about the cultural purpose of the Blolo Bian and the Blolo Blan, I must think about the psychological theory of C.G. Jung about the Anima and the Animus. In his essay about "The marriage as a pychological relationsship" he wrote: "Anima and Animus are both characterized by an extraordinary many-sidness. In a marriage it is always the contained who projects this image* upon the container, while the latter is only partially able to procect his unconscious image upon his partner. The more unified and simple this partner is, the less complete the projection. In which case, this highly fascinating image hangs as it were in mid air, as though waiting to be filled out by a living person."

C.G. Jung, The Collected Works, volume seventeen, The
Marrige as a pychological Relationsship, London 1954:198

* The Blolo Blan/Bian-cult is not an Ancestor-cult. It seems to be someting which is close to that inner world, which Jung is describing, when he invented his theory of "anima and animus". For me it´s always fascinating to compare the intellectual view of western science with the spiritual experiences of african cults.
W.J.

Nguessan: If you had two girlfriends and one had a blolo bian and the other didn´t, wich would you take to marry?
Old Man: If the two liked me, I would marry them both.
Nguessan: No! You have to choose one.
Old Man: I would take the one who did not have a blolo bian.
Nguessan: Why?
Old Man: Because of the arguments?
Nguessan: What arguments?
Old Man: Instead of having a rival, I would rather take the one who had none. That way we would be equals (since I have no spirit wife) (Boreakpokro, Agba region, 1994)
Baule Art Western Eyes, Susan Vogel, New Haven, Yale University Press 1997: 258

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Height: 38 cm
Weight: 1,1 kg