Used as the means of communication with the madebele, the bush spirits
or, according to some informants, the ancestors, the primordial couple, or
recently deceased elders. "They act as a visual reference and a substitute
for the real and invisible madebele" (Glaze 1981:67). Indeed, they
"speak" for the madebele, "communicating their messages from the
spirit world to the diviner" through the diviner's ability to interpret the
configuration of a variety of objects that she (all Sando diviners are women)
casts on the cloth or mat where she and the client sit, facing in opposite
directions holding one another's right hands.
The sculpted visual witnesses to the divination rite (tyele) image male and
female in highly stylized representations. The face is defined in terms of a
slightly concave, heart shaped area with delicately carved almond shaped eyes on
either side of an inverted T-shaped nose above a small mouth just above the
thrust of the chin. The coiffures are similar, although the female is a bit more
elaborate. Their fully developed bodies, erect stance, and arms bent at the
elbows with hands thrust forward image the fullness of human power, a power
which mandebele can give or compromise.
Helmut
Gernsheim-1987
photo: Bill Wright
Bibliography:
Leuzinger; "Die
Kunst von Schwarz Africa", Kunsthaus Zürich 1970-1971
(see Helmut's Gernsheim's biography at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/photographygs/gernsheim/
)
Helmut
Gernsheim was famous for his photography
collection and writings mainly, he re-discovered the world's first photograph,
taken by Niepce in France in the 1820s, in England 1952, but he had also a
very big collection of African Art.
Helmut Gernsheim-photo: Ida Kar 1962
This fine Senufo piece is sold
+32- 3-227.35.40