This unique terracotta figure came from a Mono River area on the border of Togo and Benin. It was placed on ancestral altars and sacrificed with millet gruel; their name 'kronkronbali' (children of earlier times) is a clear indication of the Ewe's idea of rebirth which equates birth with death to some extent: one is origin, the other return.
Open at the bottom and hollow within, this multi-face terracotta figure is an essentially upside-down pot and was doubtlessly made by a potter. Figures such as this one have been described as protective and as representations of ancestors, and they may signify one of the many Vodun that come into being when an important person dies. Figures with the same tufted coiffure, but with squatter bodies, have been collected in southern Ghana and are said to have been brought there in the 1930s. Others come from the border between Togo and Republic of Benin.
Similar artefact published in Schaedler, K.F., 1997, Earth and Ore; 2500 Years of African Art in Terra-cotta and Metal (page 191)
Exhibited:
Tribal Art Show London, Mall Galleries
Provenance:
Ex-private collection, UK
Bonham's, London, UK
David Malík PhD
Founder/Director
