Altar Bidjogo Orebuko Okoto

Family altar intended to worship ancestors. For Bidjogo everything sacred is called “iran”, whether it is an altar, a statue or a seat, and they are respected and feared objects. This is an old and very rare piece.

For Añakiinhabitants of Canhabaque, a orebuko (plural: arebuko) is any sacred, material or immaterial object or made by themselves to be the seat in which a divinity or an ancestor is incarnated. East orebuko just like all cylindrical body represents a represents Yakunuethe spirit of the land of the people and it is the whole people who worship him on the occasion of the agricultural festivities and on those in which thanks are shown to the king, for it is the king who is responsible for the custody of this orebukoHe is also involved in questioning the deceased.

The altar is topped by the figure of a human head with a long ringed neck, which is undoubtedly a figuration of the ancestor. The head is covered with an animal skin headdress. The Aguilean nose face, rare in the African statuary, wears a mustache of fibers that look like thin leather foils. The eyes are apparently made up of two metal sheets, glued and painted simulating human eyes. From a wooden crossbar hangs a pumpkin and a kind of bag with magical ingredients. The pumpkin contains the water that keeps life in nature and is the main receptacle to contain usually magical ingredients. From the left shoulder hangs another bag with amulets and magical substances hidden like the spirit of the ancestors to whom he worships.

There are abundant remains of sacrificial materials. Very old patina.