Currently settled in modern-day Côte d’Ivoire, the Baule have a variety of gold regalia for their influential class, including golden rings, bracelets, crowns, and footwear. This particular crown takes the form of a narrow velvet headband. Small wooden ornaments covered in gold foil dot the surface. These decorative elements include beads, masks, horns, and bamboo doors (srala). The patterned rectangles, or srala, resemble the screens hung at the entryways to bedrooms in traditional Baule houses. Just as a screen allows one to see both inside and outside a room, a leader must know what happens within and beyond his village.

Excerpt from

Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2018