AKAN, GHANA

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Disk-headed akuaba figures are perhaps one of the most iconic forms in the African figural corpus. They are ritually consecrated images that depict children and are carried by aspiring mothers who seek the aid of community spirits to overcome barrenness. Their use arose out of an Akan legend about a woman named Akua, who used such a figure for exactly this purpose. Akuaba (“Akua’s child”) are often carried flat against the back, wrapped in skirts, exactly as a human child would be. After successfully influencing a pregnancy, they are placed in shrines as a testament to the power of the spirits, or they are kept by the family as a cherished reminder of their child.

Akuaba are often single figures, some with abstract, tubular bodies and others with fully modeled limbs. The example offered here is of a significantly rarer type, featuring a pair of figures positioned back to back and seated upon a large stool. While unusual in composition, the figures themselves bear the classic akuaba hallmarks: a large, flat, disk-shaped head connected by a ringed neck to horizontally outstretched arms, and joined eyebrows and nose in simple relief. They are carved in full length, with a relatively wide torso. Scarification motifs are found beneath the eyes and between the small breasts, and a prominent umbilicus shows forth from the abdomen.

An old collection number, #550, is found on the underside.

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