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28 (page 26) AKYÉ FEMALE EFFIGY (CÔTE D’IVOIRE) WITH GOLD LEAF
SURFACE
This striking and unique statue, which has deservedly been reproduced several times1, shows clearly, through its style, that it was made by an artist from the lagoon region in Lower Comoé, in the south-east of Côte d’Ivoire. It was acquired in La Rochelle some thirty years ago by Patrick Girard, from an old family that may have had links with Ivorian trading posts. After remaining in the possession of Patrick Girard for five years, it was bought by Samir Borro, before becoming part of the present private collection. An exceptional effigy It is exceptional for a number of reasons. For its age, first of all, but also because it is the only known example of a statue in human form by the "Lagoons" people with gold leaf, even though they wore a great deal of jewellery made of the same metal, and to the north there are a few statues in human form that are covered in gold: one of them, made by the Baoulé people, which was formerly at the Barbier-Mueller Museum, is now at the Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town.2 Among the Anyi, with one or two exceptions,3 there are figures at the top of fly chasers or sceptres, like the Ashanti models.4 Further confirmation of the statue’s rarity is that, even regarding "ordinary" statuary, without gold-leaf decoration, the "Lagoons" people have always produced far less than the Baoulé, the Anyi or the Guro, particularly since urbanisation in Basse-Côte led to traditional forms of worship being given up more than in central parts of the country. The last major phenomenon explaining the small number of masks and statues to have survived among the "Lagoons" people is their destruction in huge numbers due to the spread of syncretic iconoclastic beliefs, commonplace in the south. From 1914, the "prophet" William Wadé Harris from Liberia, nicknamed Latagbo in Basse-Côte, enjoyed great success; with the cry "Burn your fetishes!", he forbade animist cults and prohibited all manufacture of statuettes (even terra cotta funeral effigies), and the work of eradication was pursued by other "prophets".6 We have no hesitation in saying that this represented an artistic disaster, that has left intact only tiny traces of works prior to the early 20th century. This vandalism has few comparable examples, even with the Massa among the Senufo people, which, in any case, took place later and was short-lasting.7 Today, the "Lagoons" people are Harrist, Catholic, Protestant; the animist cults have only survived in a residual form. It is true that over the past few decades there has been a "revival", with festivals originating more in folklore than tradition, but which are essential for tourism. Who are the "Lagoons" people? This term is used for fourteen different peoples, who are small in number (some with only a few thousand members), but who possess diversified social institutions and speak relatively differentiated languages. Settled near Abidjan and the border with Ghana, they have lived for centuries under the cultural and linguistic influence of the Anyi. Their names are: the Abidji, Abure, Adiukru, Alladian, Aizi, Avikam, Ehotilé, Esuma, Gwa, Kyaman (or Ebrié), Krobu, Nzima and Abé (Morie, Tioffo, Kos), and, although they live further north, the Akyé8 near the town of Alépé. Their social organisation is based to a large degree on a complex system of age groupings, which has been studied in depth by anthropologists9, with no hierarchical political system,
except among half of the Abure, where there is a chiefdom.10 Fourteen different peoples living in a territory that is barely one hundred kilometres wide: it took an Akyé just a few hours to go down the Comoé and meet the Abure, an hour to reach the Ehotilé to the east and to go half an hour to the west to trade with the Kyaman. Is it conceivable that the aesthetic influences down the centuries should not be countless, to the extent of creating, not an interlocking of styles, but a fusion? All the more so, since, as so often in Africa, renowned scu
