FEATURE a vague Lobi infl uence. The style is drier, and the fi gural conception is more static and stereotyped. This rigidity is further reinforced by the elongation of the arms and of the chest. The facial features are fl attened and a depression on the lower part makes the cheekbones more prominent. These stylistic variations may have appeared after this Teebo family of sculptors settled in an area inhabited mainly by Lobi families. Infl uenced by the new elements in their environment, Gnokithe and his peers would have adopted local formal characteristics, thus developing a more “Lobi” leaning in the evolution of the style. In any event, after Gnokithe’s death (1950/1955), the family, which had been together until then, dispersed. His sons emigrated to Côte d’Ivoire, while his brother’s sons, including the sculptor Bangite Sib, left for Bagara. Although 114 many continued to sculpt, the family’s relocations affected the sculptors’ work14 and the way in which the style was maintained (fi g. 20). As the elders of Holly stated, these migrations had an unfortunate negative impact on the power of the style: “Wibrika’s gourd came here to Keko, and then went elsewhere. To fi nd it, one eventually had to go all the way to Bagara, but along the way, its contents were spoiled!” Inquiries made in the remote Bagara area about Bangite Sib, the last representative of the style, confi rm the decline the Holly elders speak of. To be sure, there is a vague relationship between this sculptor’s fi gures and those in the Kou thilduu, as one of Bangite’s works that he personally gave me for the future Poni Museum15 demonstrates (fi gs. 10 and 11). After having served as the mnemonic instrument of Kou history, and having embodied the relative unity of the group through the statuary in the Kou thilduu, the Holly Keko style came to an end with Bangite. Again according to the elders of Holly, after Bangite’s death in 1995, no one solicited the Holly Keko sculptors’ talents. Moreover, the Kou lineage itself had undergone a major split after the migration of Ontore’s older brother, Kontithe Kambou, to Côte d’Ivoire in the early 1960s. This resulted in a new and separate Kou lineage, which became offi cially recognized with the joro initiation ceremonies of 1988–1989.16 By necessity, it restructured itself around Kontithe’s rela-
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