According to Jan Strybol, figurative sculpture enhanced the influence and reputations of leaders and religious specialists in Mumuye society by furthering their efforts to predict the future, heal the sick, and make rain fall.2 Their interaction with these figurative implements is characterized as a dialogue prompted by physical handling. According to some accounts, applications of substances such as the juice of the gadele plant on the figure's face might serve as a catalyst for activating its power to communicate. When manipulated over the course of judicial trials, the figure may judge the veracity of testimony provided, and its heightened awareness enables it to identify criminals.3

In the dynamic figural abstraction shown here, the attenuated columnar form of the torso constitutes the dominant feature. Within its boundaries, a lyrical play of negative and positive space unfolds around the vertical axis framed and circumscribed by bodily appendages. At the top, the helmetlike head includes two prominent sagittal crests flanked by lateral extensions. The only facial feature given form here is the gaping orifice of the mouth.

The smooth, polished surface of the torso is minimally articulated through finely rendered nipples and a boldly projecting conical navel carved in relief. The shoulders are represented as a continuous mass that extends down into long lateral arms, bent at the elbows; the forearms reach around toward the front, terminating in the abbreviated masses of the hands at the level of the pelvis. At this juncture, the lower body, consisting of a horizontal element that bridges blocky legs with accented knees, echoes the passages of the shoulders and the head. A sense of vitality and a suggestion of swaying motion are introduced into the design through subtle modulations of the bilateral symmetry. These include the slightly higher angle of the arm and shifting of weight on the figure's left side.

This monumental sculpture is very closely related in form to one in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, attributed by Arnold Rubin on stylistic grounds to the regionally important carving center of Pantisawa.4 Although sculptors do not ordinarily enjoy positions of privilege in Mumuye society, the work of the best sculptors is held in sufficiently high regard that their reputations live on beyond their lifetime.5