Fertility doll, Ashanti Ethnicity.

Fertility doll, Ashanti Ethnicity.
Ganha.
Wood.
Measurements: 35 x 14 x 5 cm; 38 x 9 x 8 x 8 (base).
Reproduction of the original piece from the "American Museum of Natural History", New York.
The Ashanti are a people, a matrilineal society that inhabits the old Gold Coast, renamed in 1975 as Ghana.
Akua'bas are ritual fertility dolls, which are much more elaborate than in other ethnic groups. They are worn by young women who are pregnant and want to bring healthy babies into the world or want to become pregnant, always on their backs, like the desired child. Far from being a toy, it represents the child's dependence on the mother.
They possess the schematic representation of their ideals of beauty: round face, small mouth and eyes, long neck and thin eyebrows.
Among the Akan people, the care of children is an important responsibility for women, who are not considered to have fulfilled their purpose on earth until they have children. Since the Ashanti are a matrilineal society, they prefer to have girls.
The tradition of the origin of the akua'ba is based on the story of a childless woman, named Akua, who went to her local shrine to consult with the priest about her desire to become a mother. The priest advised her to have a small figurine carved and treat it as if it were a real baby, carrying it in a cloth on her back. At first she was ridiculed, but later she succeeded in having a real baby, a girl child. The child was named Akua or "born on Wednesday." Since then, women of the Ashanti people who wish to have children carry a carved figure with them at all times.