This rare ensemble consists of five monumental wooden ancestral and guardian figures, each carved from a single tree trunk and ritually planted into the earth. Two figures hail from South Sudan, while one originates from Ethiopia—likely from the culturally rich Konso region. These sculptures served as both spiritual guardians and vessels of ancestral presence, rooted in the land to protect, remember, and connect. Their vertical placement in the soil was no accident—it was a conscious act of anchoring ancestral force within the earth. Together, these figures embody Africa’s profound traditions of honoring the past not as history, but as a living force that continues to protect and shape the present.
Origin: Africa
Year: Early to mid of 20th century
Material: wood
Height: (from left)
No. 1 Height: 164cm Width: 13cm Depth: 11cm
No.2 Height: 160cm Width: 11cm Depth: 11cm
No. 3 Height: 161cm Width: 13cm Depth: 11cm
No. 4 Height: 132cm Width: 20cm Depth: 18cm
No. 5 Height: 177cm Width: 18cm Depth: 16cm
Cultural Significance & Function
- In many African cultures, such figures serve as intermediaries between the living and the ancestral realm. They represent the continued presence and influence of the forebears, while offering protection, guidance, and spiritual anchoring.
- The act of burying the figures upright was deeply symbolic, connecting the spiritual power of the ancestors to the land itself—protecting families, villages, and sacred spaces.
- These sculptures often formed the center of ritual activity, such as offerings, ceremonies, or communication with the spirit world..
Regional Origins: South Sudan & Ethiopia
- In South Sudan, Nilotic communities carved large-scale wooden figures to mark sacred territory and to anchor the spirits of ancestors firmly within the earth.
- The Ethiopian figure may relate to traditions found among the Konso people of southern Ethiopia, who erect waka figures—wooden steles carved in memory of important ancestors. These serve not only as memorials, but also as territorial markers and spiritual guardians.
- In all cases, these sculptures were never created as mere decoration, but as functionally charged objects of spiritual intent.
Visual & Symbolic Qualities
- The figures are monumental in size, each carved from a solid hardwood trunk, possibly bearing marks of age, ritual use, or weathering.
- Stylistically, they display abstracted forms: pronounced heads, strong shoulders, or expressive faces—emphasizing the spiritual essence rather than naturalistic representation.
- The fact that they were planted into the ground reflects a worldview where spiritual energy rises from the earth, grounding communities in ancestral strength and protection.
The Influence of African Ancestral Figures on Giacometti’s Work
The powerful presence of African ancestral and guardian figures—with their stylized forms, monumental impact, and spiritual resonance—had a profound influence on modern European art, particularly on Alberto Giacometti. In the 1920s and 1930s, Giacometti immersed himself in studying non-Western sculpture, and the abstraction and symbolic depth of African figures left a lasting impression on his creative vision.
The upright, totemic posture, the radical reduction of form, and the sense that these sculptures represent presence rather than likeness all reemerge in Giacometti’s later iconic bronze figures. Like many African ancestral statues, his sculptures appear as embodied memory—fragile yet unwavering connections between the visible world and the unseen.
For Giacometti, these figures were not exotic artifacts, but existential revelations. They offered a new way of seeing the human being—not merely as a body, but as a vessel of history, spirit, and the intangible.
Price for the whole set €35,000
