The Baule people of modern-day Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) believe that before a person is born, they reside in blolo, the Spirt World. There, every spirit is married, but when the individual is born, they leave their Spirit Wife (blolo bla) or Spirit Husband (blolo bian) behind. In the other world, these spirit lovers can become jealous or angry; in this case, misfortune might befall an individual. The only way to remedy the situation is to devote a shrine (tata) in the private part of the house, and to place upon it a figure of the spirit lover. There it was regularly oiled, appointed with clothes and jewellery, and treated with reverence. Only its owner could look upon it; if it was displayed to visitors, it was customary for them to be looked upon surreptitiously with a ritual glance known as nian klekle.

This Spirit Wife has a long ovoid face, with round eyes, a gracile nose, and thick full lips. She sports a complex hairstyle, in which the hair is bunched in braids at the back and sides, a large disc shape at the top, and a twisted sidelock. She has low-slung breasts, and thin arms. Her long torso ends in a rounded stomach, with a prominent navel. She has short, stocky legs, and small, sharply rounded buttocks. She stands in a powerful bent-leg pose. She wears a thong made of fibres. She holds a tiny baby in her hands, as though presenting him. The baby has simplified, abstract features, but is proportioned correctly as a baby, with a large head, and short legs. Across her body are square markings representing scarification. For the Baule, scarification was a mark of civilization, contrasting the bodies of humans with the naked and untamed bodies of animals. This figure is a companion to the Spirit Husband figure also in the Barakat Collection (CC.42).

The Baule are one of the Akan peoples; they arrived in the Ivory Coast in the eighteenth century, and adopted sculptural and mask-making traditions from their neighbours, the Guro, Senufo and Yaure peoples. Baule figures are among the most elegant and sculptural pieces from Africa. This piece shows a developed execution of the face, hair and scarification. It served as a home for the spirit; when the spirit needed to be consulted, a diviner was brought in, and the spirit would be transferred from the statue to possess the diviner.