Collections: African Art

Seated Female Shrine Figure

This figure is probably from a witch-catching shrine. It does not represent a deity, but the child of a deity—a spiritual assistant. As embodiments of social propriety, such figures act against forces of witchcraft, which is greatly feared by the Asante, as well as by many other African peoples.

Seated Female Shrine Figure
Ghana, Asante people, Attributed to Yaw Mprah
Ca. 1912-1979
Wood, clay and glass beads
(71.144)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Milton Gross

“Lovely Maiden" Mask
(mwanaphwo)

Mwanaphwo literally means "young woman." Masks like this depict an archetypal ancestral personality who died at a young age. The mask's eyes are rendered as narrow slits, indicative of a dead person. Only male dancers wear these masks; women never do. The masks are used in village performances for boys' initiation, or "coming of age," ceremonies. Such masks also symbolize the prominence women enjoy in the Chokwe's matrilineal society.

Children of Poro
(A Pair of Ritual Pounders)

Figures such as these are made for use by societies called Poro. In various dialects, a single such figure is known as "person of Poro," "child of Poro," "bush spirit," or simply "pounder." They are used mainly, but not exclusively, in the various rituals that take place before and after the burial of a deceased Poro elder. They are carried by initiates who visit the house of the deceased. One is sometimes placed beside the shrouded corpse at the public ceremonies that follow. They then accompany the corpse to its burial place and are swung and pounded on the ground in time to the solemn music of the Poro orchestra. When the interment is complete and the soil rapidly heaped over the body, a male initiate may leap onto the grave with a pounder and beat the soil seven times. This pounding ensures that the spirit of the deceased person does not linger in the vicinity but passes on its way to the "village of the dead." The pounders may also be used in supplementary rituals on ensuing days.

Seated Figure

Dogon sculpture usually reflects the myths of tribal origin. This complex Dogon figure can be identified initially with the Primordial Couple (progenitors of the Dogon People), here represented by the female alone. The stool is a symbol of political power and divine right. The direct ancestors of man were the four pairs of nommo, arising from the union of the Primordial Couple. The four figures supporting the stool are nommo. The two disks of the stool are symbols of the earth and sky. The stool itself represents the world.