Asante Female Fertility Figure Akua'ba

Asante people, early 20th century, Ghana

Exceptional early Asante fertility figure, akua’ba (“Akua’s child”), masterfully carved from fine-grained wood and exhibiting a smooth, lustrous patina acquired through years of devotional handling. The figure depicts an idealized, abstract female form—a long cylindrical torso with small horizontal arms, a ringed neck—embellished with a strand of pink glass beads symbolizing beauty and prosperity, and a large, flat, disklike head embodying knowledge and spiritual power.

According to Akan legend, a woman named Akua once sought to overcome her infertility through divine intervention. Guided by a priest, she commissioned a sculptor to carve a wooden surrogate child, which she carried on her back as if it were her own. Through her devotion, she miraculously conceived and gave birth to a healthy daughter. Since then, women desiring children have commissioned and cared for akua’ba figures as vessels of fertility and blessing.

Infused with spiritual potency, akua’ba figures were treated as living beings—washed, dressed, anointed, and adorned with beads—their owners entrusting them with prayers for conception, safe childbirth, and healthy offspring. After fulfilling their purpose, the figures were either passed to other women in the family or offered to shrine priests in gratitude.

The protruding breasts denote youth and fertility, while scarifications on the face reference traditional medicinal practices for protection. Always female, these figures reflect the matrilineal structure of Asante and Fante society, in which women are the bearers of lineage and continuity.

The Asante people (also Ashanti), a major Akan group native to modern-day Ghana, established a powerful kingdom in the 17th century under King Osei Kofi Tutu I. Their traditional religion venerates Nyame, the supreme being, alongside a pantheon of abosom (gods), asuman (spirits), and nsamanfo (ancestral souls). The akua’ba stands as one of the most enduring and elegant symbols of Asante spirituality, femininity, and aesthetic refinement.

Good condition. Wear commensurate with age and use, with worm holes, chips and fractures. Size approx. 29,5cm x 12,0cm x 4,5cm (excluding modern stand).

Provenance: Dutch private collection.

References and further reading:

Akua'ba Asante. Wednesday Child, Ron van Doorn & Herbert M. Cole, Published by Dongen, 2021.

The Asante, M. D. McLeod, Published by British Museum Publications, London, 1981.

Isn't S/He a Doll: Play and Ritual in African Sculpture, Elisabeth Lynn Cameron & Doran H. Ross, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1996.

Religion and art in Ashanti, Robert S. Rattray, 1927, p. 281 fig. 194-195.