ClassificationsAfrican Art

Female Figure, Akua'ba

Place CreatedGhana, Africa

CultureAkan

Date20th Century

MediumWood, beads

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions14 3/4 x 4 15/16 in. (37.5 x 12.6 cm)

Object number1994.004.796

Label TextThe akua'ba figure found among the matrilineal Akan in West Africa was once a renowned way of treating infertility among Akan women. Although rarely practiced today, an akua'ba would be commisioned by a woman unable to conceive and cared for as if it were a living child in hopes of bringing forth a healthy baby of her own. Once a child was born to her, these figures were passed on to daughters, younger sisters, and nieces to ensure their fertility. The high, flat forehead, small mouth, and ringed neck said to depict rolls of fat, characterize Akan idealized female beauty. Although this figure borrows the traditional facial features, neck design and breasts, it differs from the more exaggerated disk-shaped bead and cylindrical abstracted torso of the classical Akua'ba style. This full-bodied naturalism is a twentieth-century style that probably came out of the workshops of Osei Bonsu, chief carver of the last three Asantehenes in Kumase, Ghana.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Installation, May 11, 1993 - July 1994
Five Continents - Nine Millennia, Hartsfield International Airport, Concourse E, Atlanta, Georgia, March - November 1995
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 1, December 15, 1995 - February 1997
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 2, February 1997 - July 1998
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, April 2011 - March 7, 2013

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia.

Status

Not on view

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