- I traveled to Africa for the first time in the,
oh about the 70s or so. And with my educational
background, I did not know a lot about African Art, other
than, that there were masks and that there were shields and spears.
And all of those things are sort of old way of looking at African Art.
So when I went and I saw these beautiful figures
and the first thing I thought, oh, this is a doll
and perhaps a doll that we interpret the sense of doll
that is something that little girls will play with.
But instead I began to learn something about it, and what it is,
is more of a spiritual aspect of the culture.
So after a young woman was married usually at a very early age.
And wanted to conceive and may have been having some difficulty.
She would go to the spiritual advisor and they would have
a doll carved so it would be carved by a craftsman.
It's just not any person who can, you know, carve the akua'bas.
It has to be a craftsperson who himself is spiritual.
Because in traditional crafting that the person himself or
herself usually it's him, usually it's a man, had
to be spiritual enough. So when she comes to the spiritual leader
and says that I would like to become pregnant
then he authorizes the artist to carve, this very disk shaped figure
with long cylindrical bodies. Then she is instructed
as to what to do with it. And what she does is to
carry it with her constantly. It isn't something you appropriate
and then you leave on the shelf at home. That in traditional dress that as women
would wear the wrap which is just a long piece of fabric
and the doll would be tucked either in the front or the back.
And so she carries it with her constantly. And at night she will be
careful where it is placed.