African Arts Gallery

The Zaramo and the tribes around them, Kwéré, Doé, designed barely distinguishable dolls generally associated with fertility, but to which other virtues would be attributed. Their first role is played during the period of confinement of the young initiate Zaramo. The novice will behave towards the object as with a child, and will dance with it during the closing ceremonies of the initiation. In case the young woman does not conceive, she will adopt the "child". Among the Zaramo, this carved motif is repeated on the top of canes, decorates ritual objects and even appears on burial posts. The form is recurrent, a stylized head, topped with a double or single crest surmounting a tubular bust devoid of arms where the breasts and the umbilicus are indicated by a slight relief. The use of pearls is frequent in the ornamentation of Zaramo, Kwéré and Doé statuary.