Images(2)

Fertility Figure (akua'ba)

Artist Asante artist

Datelate 19th–early 20th Century

MediumWood

Dimensions15 1/2 × 5 3/8 × 2 in. (39.4 × 13.7 × 5.1 cm)
(with mount): 15 3/4 × 5 3/8 × 2 1/2 in. (40 × 13.7 × 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Amy Sweeney

Object number2019.2

On View

On view

Label TextPerhaps the most iconic African art form, akua’ba fertility figures (plural, akua’mma) are recognizable by their disklike heads, pole-like and often abstract tubular bodies, and stiff, projecting arms reminiscent of Egyptian ankhs. Because Asante are matrilineal, these figures are tenderly carried on the backs of women hoping to conceive baby girls and are always female.

The physical features of the akua’ba—high, oval forehead; neck rings signifying health and prosperity; delicate mouth set low on the face; and diagnostic scarification below the eyes and/or on the torso—is meant as a prayer, or an invocation for the beauty and healthiness of the anticipated child. While most figures are abstract, this full-bodied example is quite rare and probably a twentieth-century innovation within the akua’ba sculptural tradition.

ProvenanceBarbara and Joseph Goldenberg, Los Angeles, CA; to Ernest Wolfe and Amy Sweeney, Los Angeles, CA; given to NCMA, 2019.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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