Among most of the peoples of Africa, there is a close veneration of magical figures made from wood, which are imbued with spirits, often those of the ancestors. Among the Baule people of what is now the Côte d’Ivoire, there is an especially close affinity for their waka snan (‘people of wood’). But, unusually, this devotion is not directed towards an ancestor, but to another spiritual entity entirely: the spirit spouse. In the complex cosmology of the Baule, there are two parallel universes. One is the physical universe, within which you or I live out our allotted number of earthly days. The other, blolo, is a spirit-world. In the western imagination, a term like ‘spirit world’ implies a plane inhabited by the ghosts of the deceased; for the Baule, blolo is more of a metaphysical plane where one’s spirit lives before birth, and to which it returns after death. In the Baule belief, every spirit is partnered up with a spirit spouse before birth, for men a ‘spirit wife’ (blolo bla) and for women, a ‘spirit husband’ (blolo bian). These spirit entities are kinds of perfect manifestations of what a wife or husband should be; they are kind, beautiful, respectful, always sexually available, and ever-loving. Birth is, however, a traumatic experience for them. While the infant human often forgets their pre-birth partner entirely, the spirit spouse mourns the loss of their beloved. This upset may fester for years, especially after their former partner marries an imperfect earthly spouse. Eventually, this jealousy grows to the point where the spirit spouse interferes in the life of their former partner, bringing misfortune or even illness to them. When a misfortune befalls a Baule, especially one relating to marriage or conception, it becomes incumbent on the individual to appease their spirit spouse to redress the balance.

The best way to appease a spirit spouse was to show it proper honour. Usually, this involved the creation of a wooden effigy of one’s imagined spirit spouse. This effigy would be kept on a special alter in one’s bedroom, where it would be anointed daily with the same oils and unguents as a living Baule, would receive clothes or decorations, and would be washed and fed as a member of the household. Once a week, the owner of such a figure would sleep alone, apart from their spouse or sexual partner, to honour their spirit spouse. The figure was jealously guarded, only made visible to certain select people. For partners of both sexes, the figures acted both to bring good fortune upon the household, and as a refuge from one’s imperfect earthly spouse. Marital problems are often resolved through conversation with the spirit partner, who has a special insight into the earthly relationship. When a Baule dies, they are thought to reunite with their spirit partner, and so such figures cease to be functional. They are often, therefore, destroyed or discarded or, more recently, sold to European colonialists as trinkets of their stay in Africa.

This ‘spirit wife’ (blolo bla) is an especially large and well-formed example of the genre. Indeed, we might speculate that the owner, a man, experienced some serious difficulties – perhaps an inability to find an earthly partnership, to maintain a temporal marriage, or perhaps some kind of sexual dysfunction – which warranted such a remarkable figure. She is the epitome of Baule beauty. Her firm legs are depicted slightly bent at the knee, and her broad hips and ample buttocks are decorated with a kind of decorative girdle known as waist-beads, which are popular in West and Central African cultures far beyond the Baule. Her hands rest gently on her hips, and the slenderness of her arms and fingers are in stark contrast to the stockiness of her legs. She has a slightly distended stomach, with a gently bulging navel, which in African art is taken to indicate the umbilical connection between the earthly world and that of the ancestors. Her pointed breasts are large and pert, and can be taken along with her hips as an indication of her readiness for childbearing. Her long neck leads to a traditionally beautiful Baule face, with a strong chin and high forehead. Her pursed lips, wide eyes, and high-arching eyebrows place her in a kind of contrast with the ancestor figures more familiar from the continent. Whereas most African ancestor figures are distinguished by markers of death – mostly-closed eyes, bared teeth, a grim smile – this blolo bla remains lively and engaging. She is also beset by markers of beauty, fashion, and high class.

Spirit spouse figures are still made today, and often bear a designer dress, high-heeled shoes, or even an iPhone; in the first years of the Twentieth Century AD, more traditional markers of status were included. Her neck, back, and abdomen are covered in scarification marks, which were an important indicator of status among the Baule. For the Baule, scarification is a mark of civilisation, which differentiates the cultured, socialised and beautiful human body from the natural and unadorned bodies of animals. The volume of scarification marks, and their arrangement and placement on the body, were used to denote social status and identity, For example, the marks sometimes known as ‘cat’s whiskers’, sets of three horizontal marks across the cheeks, were an indicator of slavery, since they were associated with the Senufo, whom the Baule once conquered. However, if various children of a family died young, the next child would be given the ‘cat’s whiskers’ so that the spirits of death would think it low-class and not be attracted to him or her. Another marker of status, and an important indicator of beauty, was the traditional Baule tripartite hairstyle, the central portion of which rises like a crest above the figure, and adds considerable extra height to her.