African Arts Gallery

The Zaramo and the tribes that surround them, such as the Kwéré and the Doé, designed dolls generally associated with fertility, but to which other virtues would be attributed. Its primary 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 shape is recurrent, a stylized head, topped with a double or single crest surmounting a barrel bust where slight reliefs indicate the breasts and the umbilicus. Light brown satin patina.