WHAT ARE AFRICAN DOLLS?

Answering this question is not simple. Certainly, dolls are made for children’s playthings all over the African continent. But dolls also serve social, ritual, and spiritual purposes.
In these cases, we can distinguish ‘dolls’ from other sorts of small
African figural sculptures because dolls intercede in child-centered
family matters - notably conception, birth, children’s health and
maturation, and the effects of a child’s death. African dolls are commonly
crafted of wood, less commonly of clay or gourds; they frequently gleam
with beads, shells, metal, leather, and fabric; they range from highly
abstract to realistic representations of human beings. Given the
variety of styles, materials, and functions, African dolls have great appeal
for collectors. Dolls are fascinating to look at and to touch, and
they can act as guides to many types of cultural practice.

A well-known type of doll fashioned primarily for children’s enjoyment is the Biiga,
from the Mossi people of Burkina Faso. These abstract wooden figures
feature a prominent head with a crested hairdo, small angular breasts,
and incised decorations. Sometimes little girls play with them and
discard them; in other instances they are used for years to teach about
motherhood, being washed, fed, and carried as a baby would be. A Biiga
can be passed down from mother to daughter, and barren women can
commission larger ones - which are also tended like live babies - to increase
chances for successful conception. Similarly, the Namchi people of
Cameroon carve simple wooden figures as children’s toys. These dolls
have a thin columnar torso, a small round head, and limbs that project at
right angles from the body and form another right angle at the knees
and elbows. When shells, beads, fabric, and animal skins are added,
however, the doll gains the power to help women become pregnant. Their
owners care for them as a Mossi woman cares for a Biiga.

Some figures seem to be created solely as fertility dolls. Most familiar to
Westerners are the Akua’ba dolls from Ghana’s Akan-speaking peoples. The Asante
(central Ghana) version of the Akua’ba doll is characterized by a
schematized, dark-stained wooden body surmounted by a large, disc-shaped
head, although some examples exist with more naturalistic bodily features;
the Fante (southern Ghana) version - the wood of which is left
unstained - has a trapezoidal head, pronounced neck rolls indicating health and
beauty, and a much more abbreviated torso. The doll’s name comes from
the legend of a woman called Akua (meaning born on Wednesday) who was
having trouble conceiving a child (ba). A priest told her to commission
a carving of a child to be carried about, fed, tended, and given gifts.
Akua followed his advice, and her hopes were realized. Today,
traditional Akan-speaking women still use these dolls to insure fertility and
the birth of healthy children; after the Akua’ba has fulfilled its
function, it can be placed in the family shrine. The Bidjogo people of the
Bissagos Islands off Guinea-Bissau also make fertility dolls. Called
Eiamba, these simple, armless figures are formed from forked tree
branches and can be carried on a woman’s hip. In fact, most sub-Saharan
African cultures have produced fertility dolls at some point in their
history.

Tangentially related to fertility dolls are betrothal dolls, given
to prospective brides. Among the Fali people of Cameroon, men make
small phallic-shaped wooden figures that they decorate with fabric,
fibers, beads, and other ornamental or magical objects. They present these
dolls to their fiances, who wear them in a baby carrier. The doll
symbolizes their commitment to marriage and their future child. Parallel
customs appear among the Ndebele of Southern Africa. A suitor will
place a doll outside a woman’s hut, indicating his intent to propose. If
accepted, the doll is cared for and named, and the first child from the
marriage will be named after the doll. Ndebele dolls are noted for
their exquisite beadwork and are now made for export, often by women’s
cooperatives. These export dolls are either conical, with abstract
features, or more realistic portrayals of women in traditional Ndebele
attire, including beaded capes and aprons. The neighboring Zulu people also
create charming beaded dolls for export.

Perhaps classifiable as betrothal dolls are the wedding marionettes made by the Zaramo and Kwere
peoples of Tanzania. As a joined pair, these wooden figures with
articulated limbs are given to newly married couples; as single marionettes,
they are used in funeral rituals. More directly linked to uses by and
for children are the Mwana Hiti carvings found throughout East Africa.
These small wooden sculptures exhibit a stylized female torso and a
double-crested coiffure. They are employed by girls during their
pre-initiation seclusion as surrogates for husbands and children, indicating
that the dolls’ embodied powers are both male and female. The name “Mwana
Hiti” means daughter of the throne or child of the initiation stool,
connecting these figures to beliefs about ancestry and lineage
continuity. More clearly identifiable as dolls in the conventional sense are
dressed and decorated carvings from the Turkana and Samburu peoples of
Kenya. These figures - and similar ones from other East African groups -
may have ritual as well as entertainment functions, but scholarly
research on art from this part of the continent remains relatively
sketchy.

No discussion of African dolls can be complete without mentioning the
Ere Ibeji, the sacred images of twins. The Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin
- who have one of the world’s highest rates of twin births - commission
these figures upon a twin’s death. Because twins are seen as a
blessing (although centuries ago, twins were considered malevolent
monstrosities), the death of a twin is a calamity to family wellbeing, requiring
elaborate appeasement of the deceased child’s soul. With the help of
priests and diviners, the grieving parents select the appropriate
woodcarver to make an image that both represents the lost child and serves as
a material point of contact between the dead child’s soul and the
survivors. It dwells on a family shrine to the Yoruban god Elegba, but it
is fed, washed, dressed (when possible, in clothes matching those of the
surviving twin), and anointed as if it were alive. Responsibility for
tending the Ibeji falls to the mother, other female relatives, and the
surviving twin if there is one. Proper care of the Ibeji will avert
evil and strengthen the family, as the Ibeji has assumed the status of a
minor deity.

The style of Ibeji carving varies throughout Yorubaland,
but common traits include a large head with an elaborate, upswept
hairdo and a calm, spiritually charged demeanor; a naturalistic although
proportionately small body with adult sexual attributes and a strong,
upright stance; and decoration in the form of scarification, beaded
jewelry, capes, and colored cosmetic powders. The faces of antique Ibeji may
be almost completely worn away, due to decades of handling. A single
Ibeji indicates the death of one twin, whereas a complementary pair of
figures indicates the death of both. What is often called the Ibeji
‘cult’ exists today in Nigeria and Benin, but contemporary technology and
trade practices increasingly allow the traditional wooden figures to be
replaced by photographs or commercial plastic dolls.

The Ewe people of Togo and Benin share a comparable twin-centered belief system. They
make twin figures that are subjects of reverence similar to that
lavished on Yoruban Ibeji. Ewe twin dolls, however, do not visually resemble
Yoruban ones, being blocky little figures of unstained wood, animated
by painted or blackened features rather than carefully carved ones. The
Ewe dolls used for children’s play, for fertility, and for prophylaxis
are indistinguishable from those commemorating twins, the difference
stemming from enacted purpose rather than from appearance.

A final type of African doll is the collectable export dolls. Produced all over the
continent, these dolls showcase the customary dress or masquerade
regalia of the region where they are made. Like the Ndebele and Zulu beaded
dolls mentioned above, handmade African costume dolls are often
fabricated by economically disadvantaged women re-working cultural tradition
to support themselves and their families.


References:

Elisabeth
Cameron and Doran Ross, Isn’t She a Doll? Play and Ritual in African
Sculpture
Esther A. Dagan, African Dolls: For Play and
Magic

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All text and images are copyright of Africa Direct, Inc. 2006