Lobi statuette from Burkina Faso embodying spiritual and cultural protection

Important Lobi statuette, Burkina Faso The Lobi live in southwestern Burkina Faso and northern Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. They are extremely resistant to any form of centralized political authority. Instead, their communities are founded on the laws of God. The central figure in every Lobi community is the religious specialist known as the Thildar. This diviner is responsible for communicating with the spirits that rule the community and protecting the members of each family from accidents, disease, violence and all the multiple threats people encounter in the hostile environment of West Africa. The Lobi carved figures to represent the spirits of nature, whom they called Thil. Each of these figures displays different gestures or postures, some of them may have two or even three heads, and some female figures carry a baby under their arm. These unique characteristics represent the particular talent or power of the spiritual being they embody. A figure raising an arm puts up a barrier to malevolent spirits entering the family home.