Tchitcheri sakwa (lineage founding-ancestor figure)
The large-scale tier of Moba tchitcheri, 80–160 cm, representing a founding clan ancestor and planted permanently into the ground at the lineage shrine.
Within the Moba tchitcheri typology, sakwa designates the large format — figures ranging from roughly 80 to 160 cm — that embody the founding ancestors of a clan or lineage rather than recently deceased relatives. Their scale alone signals their scope of authority: a tchitcheri sakwa is not a household object but a communal one, tended by lineage elders and placed at the central outdoor or compound shrine accessible to all members of the descent group. The defining feature of use is their installation directly into the earth, post-like legs driven into the soil so that the figure is literally rooted at the ancestor's domain. This embeddedness produces the characteristic physical evidence — eroded and rot-damaged bases, soil crust compressed into the grain — that distinguishes genuinely used sakwa from reproductions.
The sakwa figure serves as the focal point for collective petitions: agricultural fertility, protection from misfortune, resolution of lineage disputes, and the intercession of the founding spirit on behalf of all living descendants. Field documentation records that access to the figure and the right to conduct sacrifices at it are governed by lineage seniority; it is not a private devotional object but an instrument of collective ancestral negotiation. Monumental tchitcheri sakwa with documented shrine provenance — indicated by severe soil-base erosion, heavy libation crust, and where present, deeply rusted iron bindings — represent the highest tier of Moba sculptural production and the objects most sought by serious collectors.