The Holly Keko Style hands, while others are more likely the work of other sculptors in the family, or even of other inhabitants of the area, who simply borrowed elements of their style. An important pair of fi gures offered by Sotheby’s in Paris in 201017 resonates with the female fi gure made to honor Irakua Da by Magnuor Pale around 1870 (fi gs. 12 and 13). Their formal conception and their symbolism both make it possible to identify these works as being buthiba, used for healing practices, and Magnuor himself could have made these for Ithe Da. The female fi gure, with its head turned to the side, represents the power of Hinataa, revered by Ithe Da and, before him, by his father. Each healer-diviner had a personal “power chamber,” where he practiced his ritual procedures with such buthiba, whose sculptural language depended on the cult he practiced and his own particular skills (fi g. 17). Aspects of the confi guration of this couple could relate it to the cult that paid homage to the power of Hinataa. This was associated with the “returning,”18 all the more so because, according 115 FIG. 12 (far left): Effi gy of Irakua Da, wife of Kou-Jina Kambou, carved by Magnuor Pale. Photo: Daniela Bognolo, Holly, 1988. FIG. 13 (left): Buthiba pair in the Holly Keko style attributed to Magnuor Pale. Hardwood, natural patina. H: 57 and 55 cm. Private collection. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s. © Sotheby’s. FIG. 14 (above): Sculptures in the Holly Keko style found in the bush by Bohumil Holas, c. 1949. Reproduced from Bohumil Holas, Sculptures ivoiriennes, 1969, p. 163. FIG. 15 (right): Statue in the Holly Keko style by Magnuor Pale. Hardwood, shiny patina. H: 52.5 cm. Ex Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, Myron Kunin. Bruce Frank Collection. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s. © Sotheby’s. FIG. 16 (far right): Statue in the Holly Keko style with the insignia of an important Birifor hunter. Wood, dark patina, traces of kaolin. H: 82 cm. Private collection. Reproduced from Piet Meyer, Kunst und Religion der Lobi, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1981. FIG. 17 (right): Interior of the “chamber of power” of a diviner-healer in Donko. Photo: Daniela Bognolo, 1986. tives, who were thus elevated to the rank of ancestors to become the new “tutelary powers” of his family history. Because of this schism, the former ancestral protectors of the lineage, along with the cult objects that represented them, were defi nitively relegated to a distant past. The consequence was the abandonment, or perhaps the deliberate dispersion of the thilduu effi gies of Holly. Making Attributions Some of the effi gies from the Holly thilduu, whose history is now known, are now in important private collections. These include the large fi gure dedicated to the memory of Ithe Kambou, created by a Teebo sculptor around 1840 that is truly the touchstone of the Holly Keko style (fi g. 6). The origins and contexts of manufacture of many other works in this style, which in many cases have been in private or public collections for quite some time, remain obscure. Some of the works in this style are unquestionably the creations of master
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