Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lobi
Tucked away in southwestern Burkina Faso, northern Côte d'Ivoire and northern Ghana,
the Lobi have held fast to their traditions and ancestor-based belief systems more than most
groups in the region. The Lobi are also distinguished by their architecture (they live in dis-
tinctive mud-brick compounds resembling small fortresse) and by the fact that they don't
use masks. Their name means 'Children of the Forest'.
Most Lobi woodcarvings are of human figures, typically 35cm to 65cm high, which rep-
resent deities and ancestors. The woodcarvings are used for ancestral shrines, and tradition-
ally occupied every home. The Lobi also carve staffs and three-legged stools with human
or animal heads, as well as combs with human figures or geometric decorations. Lobi
carvings are distinguished by their rigid appearance, and for their realistic and detailed ren-
derings of certain body parts, particularly the navel, eyes and hair.
Many Lobi ceremonies take place on or near the banks of the Mouhoun (or Black Volta)
River which divides Ghana and Burkina Faso and, in Lobi tradition, separates this world
from the afterlife. Fish and animals in the river are believed to be sacred, while fetishes, the
spirit world and village priests still play an important role in daily Lobi life.
Lobi tradition, backed by the accounts of some Christian missionaries, holds that a Lobi man once conver-
ted to Christianity and threw his fetishes in a nearby lake, whereupon the fetishes leapt from the water to
reclaim him.
