Bankoni lamb

Saga lamb in terracotta Bankoni (Bamako region, Mali)

The Mandé (or Mali) empire, an immense confederation of twelve kingdoms created in the 13th century, was governed by an assembly (Gbara) made up of clans and guilds. One of these guilds was that of the blacksmiths (Kanté), whose women were responsible for everything that had to do with clay and ceramics.
During the following two centuries, several artistic centers (each with its own style) would flourish throughout the empire, in which human or zoomorphic figures were modeled with an evident ritual character. Djenné, Bankoni or Tenenku in the current Republic of Mali, Komaland in northern Ghana, Bura de Tilaberi in Niger are some of the most renowned pottery centers of that period.
According to some treaties, when the zoomorphic figure represented was that of a domestic animal, the Mandé artisan was alluding to the meekness of the common people because, in the same way that humans hold a right of divine origin over the life and death of goats, sheep and cows, the emperor could dispose of his subjects as he saw fit.
The ancient terracotta that we present in Black Market represents a "saga" lamb (the sheep with a domed face typical of the riverside regions of the Niger River), the protagonist of ritual sacrifices among the animist or Muslim communities during the Mandé empire.

Height: 36.0 cm; Length: 38.0 cm; Weight: 5.85 Kg