Lobi Bateba: Carved Figures Treated as Living, Seeing Beings
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Most figure traditions documented in this book carve an object to represent a spirit, an ancestor, or an idea, a stand-in that the community treats symbolically rather than literally. The Lobi of Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana treat their bateba figures as something closer to actually alive: capable of seeing, communicating, and intervening on behalf of the thil spirit attached to them, not a symbol of a living being but a living being in its own right. That literalism, a carved figure that is asked to see and speak rather than merely represent, is the throughline worth carrying through this piece. The Lobi carve no masks whatsoever, channeling all of that same intermediary function into freestanding figures and guardian heads instead, objects built to do real work on behalf of spirits rather than simply to depict them.
Who Are the Lobi?
The Lobi number 160,000 to 300,000 people. For a long time they avoided contact with Europeans and so escaped ethnographic observation, meaning their sculpture wasn’t fully documented until the 1950s. Very few Lobi have converted to either Christianity or Islam. Their land is well watered and sparsely forested, with enough seasonal rainfall to grow sorghum, millet, corn, and root crops such as yams; the men work the fields, while the women sow and carry the ears of corn in large baskets on their heads, and cattle and poultry are raised primarily for sacrifice and bride price payments.
Thil Spirits and a Society Without Central Authority
The Lobi were never organized under centralized authority, instead forming groups of patrilineal and matrilineal clans. They revere spirits known as thil, who communicate religious laws to the community through diviners, and these laws govern communal life in the absence of any single ruling structure. Sculptors, who live primarily off farming, devote only part of their time to carving, and their apprenticeship period may be reduced, meaning the resulting objects vary widely in quality, from carefully made to quite mediocre.
Bateba: Figures That See, Speak, and Intervene
The Lobi do not use masks, but they create male and female spirit figures called bateba, along with heads sculpted atop a post planted in the ground. A bateba is considered a living being, one that may see, communicate, and intervene on behalf of its thil spirit, and Lobi figures range between 2 and 35 inches in height. Every house sets apart a small shrine room for the worship of ancestral spirits, built to the thil under a sorcerer’s instruction and filled with wooden statues alongside clay sculptures, iron staffs, bottles, pots, and similar objects. Frequent sacrifices are made at these shrines to secure the goodwill of the ancestors and to avoid illness and misfortune. The figures occupy a space between spirits and people, somewhere between the dead, a ghost, or a bush spirit, and preside over foundation rites essential to protecting a new home, in addition to being consulted by soothsayers and family cult leaders.
Guardian Heads Set Into Walls and Shrines
Large heads depicted on a post or stake form a unique category of Lobi sculpture, many carved with great care and attention to detail. Unlike the full-bodied bateba figures, these heads often show a triple scarification at the temple. They were fixed into the ground at various shrines and in the open air, and some were set with their spike into the top of an external wall, where they served as guardians of the house, a literal watch kept over the household rather than a purely decorative presence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the Lobi use masks?
No. The Lobi do not use masks at all. Instead, they carve bateba spirit figures and guardian heads set on posts.
What is a bateba?
A bateba is a male or female spirit figure considered to be a living being, capable of seeing, communicating, and intervening on behalf of its attached thil spirit.
What are thil spirits?
Thil are spirits revered by the Lobi who communicate religious laws to the community through diviners, governing communal life in the absence of centralized political authority.
What are the Lobi guardian heads used for?
Large carved heads on posts, often marked with triple scarification at the temple, were fixed into shrines or set into the top of external walls, where they served as guardians of the house.
See also: African Masks by Region and Tribe · Every Traditional African Mask You Should Know · African Funeral Traditions: How Different Cultures Honour the Dead
