A Bamana sculpture of Dokamissa (initiation society of the women and mythical figure of the Bamana people, probably similar like Jo and Gwan), standing on a circular base, eyes in deep sockets, a comblike coiffure with a pigtail at the back, u-shaped ears, heavy, hard bumbu wood, the arms with hands bent forwards as a symbol of fertility.

The Dokamissa figure is not merely decorative—it played an active role in Bamana ritual life. Such sculptures were essential tools in spiritual education, female initiation, and community fertility rites.

The value of children in women´s lives is expressed in a song sung by newly exised Bamana women (Luneau 1974:539)

"The child you bear
The child you bear
Is an ornament
Even if you have placed gold
On the ears of your wife
A woman´s ornament is
The child she bears."

"If you are not afraid of females, Master
If you are not afraid of females,
You´re not afraid of anyth‚ing"

collected in the Tamani region, Dodougoubani village, 90 km from Segou, on the other side of the Niger. The patina of this sculpture was created by the same procedue Kate Ezra is describing in the exhibition catalogue of the National Museum of African Art "A Human Ideal in African Art", Washington 1986,
"The respective leaders of Jo and Gwan - the initiation societies of the Bougouni area, where Kate Ezra made her researches - remove the sculptures from the house and arrange them in a row in front of it. Women bring hot water and soap, and the sculptures are washed and rubbed with oil.

Everyone has soap in hand. The calabashes of oil are set doen. When you have finished washing it you anoit it. Thus it is done; each washes it with hope, saying I have come this year with worries about the child affair.Interview with the chief of Birani village , Oct. 8, 1978

Wolfgang Jaenicke, youtube, The Sacrifice of a Bamana Dokamissa, Wolfgang Jaenicke, youtube, Sacrifices of a Gwandusu, a Dokamissa and other Bamana Sculptures

The clean sculptures, glistening with oil, are then adored with loincloths, headties, and beads, contributed by women.

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Height: 86 cm
Weight: 7,6 kg