Diviner’s figure

This elegant female figure was likely the property of a Baule diviner, a practitioner who had the ability, first appearing to him or her in a trance, to be possessed by and communicate with asye usu – the nature spirits that inhabit the areas around villages. To the Baule, “the world is inhabited not only by people, but by numerous powers that can interfere with human life for better or worse” (Vogel 1997:50). Objects, including figure carvings, harness and contain these powers, while the spirits speak to the diviner through the carvings.

The owner of a figure like this would have inherited the carving or commissioned it from a carver and kept it in a special shrine room along with other objects, many of which were related to sacrifices made for spirits. It would be kept alongside sacrificial objects such as an egg, traces of blood offerings from sacrificed chickens, empty gin bottles, a cow-tail whisk, and other amulets. All of these objects, especially the carving, would be covered with a white cloth. Spirits can come in and reside in the figure or possess the trance diviner. When the diviner is consulted, he or she would allow the spirit to come into his or her body through trance. The diviner could also perform in public for the benefit of the client or the whole community. Those performances take the form of dances in a courtyard with the sculpture placed nearby, under a white cloth. The diviner’s special abilities give him or her prestige, power, and some income from clients who come for help.

This graceful and elongated example is further elaborated with beaded necklaces, anklets, and traces of white kaolin around the eyes. After a diviner dies, his or her objects will be wiped with kaolin and water and protected in a cotton bag. A member of the family may inherit the sculpture but only when he or she is chosen by the asye usu as the successor. Diviner figures are closely related to Baule spirit spouse figures, made by the same artists, but the traces of kaolin suggest that this figure would have been used in divination.

Enid Schildkrout, 2025
Curator Emerita, American Museum of Natural History