Mbole Ofika convict figure

Initiation practices and African art

This African Mbole statuette with a dark patina officially represents a person sentenced to death by hanging for having broken the laws of the lilwa society or violating the social order. The meaning of the ofika or "statuette of a hanged man" is explained to young boys during the rites of passage. More informally, some condemned on the orders of a highly initiated member in order to reach the highest rank (isoya).

These statuettes are receptacles for the spirits of the deceased and prevent their return among the living.