Baule Figure, Côte d'Ivoire

blolo bian

Paolo Morigi, Magliaso
Private Collection, acquired from the above

The Baule distinguish the visible from the invisible world, also known as the 'other world', or blolo, which is inhabited by spirits. Before being born every human had a spouse and children who remain in the other world, and who are not reunited until death. Vogel explains that 'so far as people know, the other world resembles this world, and blolo spirits live in villages complete with elders and families, very much like those on earth. The concept of blolo includes a sense of vagueness  and distance; the word itself contains this connotation. The blolo is not associated with any particular direction: it is neither above nor below the earth, nor is it where the dead are buried, though after their sojourn in this world they return there. The blolo is also the source of human life, the place from whence comes each newborn baby. Everyone originally came from the blolo and is never entirely free from relations with the spirits left behind there. Everyone had in the blolo an entire family that can continue to interfere with life after birth. Most often, however, it is the spouse in the other world who causes problems, and a Baule man or woman often has a figure carved to represent and appease his blolo bla, or spirit wife, or blolo bian, spirit husband.' (Vogel, Baule, 1997, p. 67).