Bété people

The Bete are a little-studied Ivory Coast group with strong cultural and artistic links to the Dan, the We (Gwere) and the Guro, among others. There are 93 distinct groups within the Bete polity. They are united only in that they subsistence farm to survive, but base most of their social and cultural lives around the hunt. Social control was exercised by the leading member of individual lineages (of which there were several in each village) who exercised judicial and financial power within the community. Spiritual authority was wielded with an array of paraphernalia, notably including the “gre” mask, a horned and decorated creation (originating with the We) designed to instil terror in the onlooker, to quell social unrest, and to be worn when meting out justice after conflict. Statuary is uncommon, and is based around feminine iconography that refers to the mythical mother figure. There is no recognised liturgical function, although some early reports indicate that a pair of figures was often placed under a rain shelter in a village in order to represent the founders. This evocation of a primeval couple has widespread resonance in African culture. Rare figures with exaggerated genitalia are probably linked to a magico-religious appeal for fertility; alternatively, they may have constituted a more general role, evoking or celebrating the fertility of the village/land, its founders, or the forest from which the people made their living.

References

*Bacquart, J. 1998/2000. "The Tribal Arts of Africa". Thames and Hudson.