Lobi Bateba Phuwe Figure

A hand-carved wooden male figure with delineated legs, a distended abdomen, slender arms hanging beside the torso and lightly rounded shoulders. The enlarged head has cupped ears, bulging almond-shaped eyes, a triangular nose and tab-shaped lips beneath a central hair crest. Figures of this protective type, known as bateba phuwe or ordinary carved figures, were placed on or around an altar among groups of related images. Each was carved in response to a seer's vision for an afflicted individual, so the meaning of a particular posture is difficult to establish.