The Baoulé Tribe
The Baoulé Tribe
Genres: tribal, african
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Ethiopiques
About The Baoulé Tribe
The Baoule, estimated to number I million at the beginning of the a century, form part of the Akan group of the Ivory Coast. They occupy a part of the eastern Ivory Coast that is both forest and savanna land. The Akan created a series of kingdoms and city-states that progressively occupied the entire forest region all the way to the Gulf of Guinea. During the eighteenth century, the queen, Abla Poku, had to lead her people west to the shores of the Cornoe, the land of the Senufo. In order to cross the river, she sacrificed her own son. This sacrifice was the origin of the name Baoule, for baouli-ineans "the child has died." (I. N. Loucou, 1984) Since the regime was rnatrilinear, at the queen's death her niece succeeded her and ruled over the kingdom of Sakassou, which brought together the tribes that had followed the queen in her exodus. Yet, as the political system was a decentralized one, the relations of Sakassou were limited to the payment of tributes, to appealjudgments, and to matters of religion. The effective authority of the queen did not reach beyond the village in which she resided and her role was nothing more than one of prestige. The regional powers were entrusted to members of the royal Wareho clan. They exploited the regions rich in gold, and developed a new civilization, a synthesis of the Akan and the conquered autochthones. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the administrators, A. Nebout and then a few years later M. Delafosse, judged the Baoule to be in a "state of perfect anarchy, tempered by traditions, customs, and common sense." According to Delafosse, Baoule society was characterized by extreme individualism, great tolerance, a deep aversion toward rigid political structures, and a lack of age classes, initiation, circumcision, priests, secret societies, or associations with hierarchical levels. Each village was independent from the others and made its own decisions under the presiding presence of a council of elders. Everyone participated in discussions, including slaves. It was an egalitarian society. Baoule social organization is founded on the extended family, which forms an aulo. If there are several families in the same village, the richest, most eloquent, or shrewdest man is chosen to manage the matters of common interest with the council of notables. There is no distinction between paternal or maternal relatedness, nor is there preferential marriage, with the exception of certain taboos, such as, for example, the prohibition of marriage with a member of another aulo for four generations to come if a union already has taken place between those two aulo. The political unit is the village, but the chief does not have the power to impose an unpopular decision, nor does he have the means to enforce it. When the French arrived, women often occupied the role of village chief. Delafosse observes in this regard that the Baoule language does not have a word for "chief" in the ordinary sense, unless it means head of the family. Numerous legends have been collected concerning the creation of the world, the flood, the changing of the course of the Bandama River, the crossing of the Comoe, and the conquest of the Baoule territory. The anirnal-hero is a male spider, greedy, sly, anct mean, but in the end he is always punished. The Baoule believe in an intangible and inaccessible creator god, Nyarnien. Asie, the god of the earth, controls humans and animals. The spirits, or Amuen, are endowed with supernatural powers. The real world is the opposite of the spiritual world, bloto, from whence come the souls at birth and to which they shall return at their death. Religion is founded upon the idea of death and the immortality of the soul. Ancestors are the object of worship but are not depicted. Earlier, a death was never considered to be natural: and thus it was necessary to unmask the one responsible. Duiing the course of the ritual, two men would carry. the corpse on their heads: guided by the spirits, the feet of the dead person would bump into the guilty party, who would then have to undergo a trial by poison. Women and slaves would be sacrificed to the deceased one's double, if he were a notable. The heir was the brother or sister born of the same mother as the deceased, for one "can never be sure that one is the son of one's father." Rituals evolve: the creation of a new cult may be decided upon following a dream or during a trance of possession during which the spirit reveals itself and tells the "chosen" one about the ritual, the rules, and the objects which must be acquired or produced, specifying hairdo, age, posture, and scarifications, if it concerns a statuette. (S. Vogel, 1981) Wooden sculptures and masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world. Baoule figures answer to two types of devotion: one depicts the "spiritual" spouse who, in order to be appea@ed, requires the creation of a shrine in the personal hut of the individual. A man will own his spouse, the bloto bian, and a woman her spouse, the blolo bla, which they carry around everywhere they go. Other figures are sculpted to give shelter to the natural spirits, the Asie usu. A great mobility of people and works of art has been observed among the Baoule, and a move is the occasion for commissioning a sculpture or importing a new type of dance which a village member may have seen during a trip. Artists may have been trained in a certain studio and produce works in different styles. They travel and work for clients who sometimes come from far away. Masks correspond to three types of dances: the gba gba, the bonu amuen, and the goli. They never represent ancestors and are always worn by men. Guro in origin, the gba gba is used at the funerals of women during the harvest season. It celebrates beauty and age, hence its refined features. This double mask represents the marriage of the sun and the moon or twins, whose birth is always a good sign. The bonu amuen protects the village from external threats; it obliges the women to a certain discipline; and it appears at the commemorations of deaths of notables. The bush spirits have their own sanctuaries where they receive sacrifices. When they intervene in the life of the community, they take the shape of a wooden helmet that represents a buffalo or antelope and which is worn with a raffia costume and metal ankle bracelets; the muzzle has teeth which incarnate the fierce animal that is to defend the group. The very characteristic, round-shaped "lunar" goli is surmounted by two horns. It was borrowed from the Wan for a celebration adopted by the Baoule after 1900. Celebratirg peace and joy, they would sing, dance, and drink palm wine. In the procession, the goli preceded the four groups of dancers, representing young adolescents. The goli would be used on the occasion of the new harvest, at the visit of dignitaries, or at the funerals of notables. Not inherited, the sculptor's profession is the result of a personal choice or of a desire manifested in a dream or during a possession trance. Certain types of Standardized objects are no longer made for specific ritual purposes-for example, gongs or pulleys are fabricated and stored. Baoule statuary is characterized by a certain realism; one can distinguish canons of beauty, as the Baoule see them: round calves for the women, long hands with tapered fingers, small buttocks. The harmonious coiffure is made up of innumerable fine braids. The beard is neat and sometimes braided. The patina is smooth. The Baoule have also created monkey figures that more or less resemble each other. Endowed with a prognathic jaw and sharp teeth and a granular patina resulting from sacrifices, the monkey holds a bowl or a pestle in its paws. Sources differ on its role or function: some say it intervenes in the ritual of divination, others that it is a protection against sorcerers in the male associations, or a protective divinity of agragrian rites, or a bush spirit. This cult does not predate the conquest of Samori, and is thus relatively recent. Baoule statuary is quantitatively very important, but great masterpieces are rare.
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