High-Backed Chair with Six Figures
Origin: Lobi Tribe, Burkina Faso
Composition: wood (one piece)

This piece, incredibly carved from a single piece of wood, is thought to represent protective spirits. The artistic output of the Lobi tribe is almost completely focused on the creation of bateba figures, which serve to protect Lobi families in various ways. It was acquired on a field-collecting trip to Burkina Faso in 2007.

The Lobi live in southwestern of Burkina Faso, and also in northern Ivory Coast and Ghana. They follow traditional, ancestor-based beliefs and their traditions are some of the best preserved in Africa. The live in distinctive fortress-like mud-brick compounds. The Lobi don’t use masks. Most of their woodcarvings are of human figures that are kept in ancestral shrines that are found in every Lobi home (Ref: "Lobi," Lonely Planet, pg 224).