An Akuaba fertility puppet, Ghana, of anthropomorphised shape, the main handle is the body, with delicately suggested legs, with a T shape form to suggest the arms, the ringed neck and a large round disc shaped head, with delicately carved features of a small mouth, stout nose, and two half circled eyes; glossy by use. Certificate of origin and provenance.

“Reproduced in M D McLeod, ‘The Asante’, BMP 1981, who discusses the class of akua’ba (fertility dolls) on pp.163-7. ‘Tens of thousands of these were carved, and they form a distinct class by virtue of their shape, use and number … These carvings were found in very large numbers throughout all areas of Asante and among all strata of society … perhaps one women in three or four possessed an akua’ba at some stage in her life. … These images were exclusively the property of women… the main reason a woman obtained a doll was a fear that she was infertile … She would carry the akua’ba held on by her cloth at the back in the position in which a real child is carried. The doll was carried face forward with only the top of the back of the head protruding from the cloth. … According to some informants the doll was carried until the woman became unmistakeably pregnant; according to others, until she was successfully delivered of her child.’ The earliest documented such figure with the round head and vestigial body comes from the 1860/70s, and almost all those that survive seem to come from the 1880s to 1930s when produced for local use seems to have ended.” Source: The British Museum, curators notes.

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Height: 25 cm
Weight: 170 g