Bearing children is an essential goal for Akan women. A woman who has difficulty conceiving, or who wishes to ensure her baby’s well being, commissions an akua ba from a woodcarver at the advice of a priest. The broad head, neck rings and high forehead are indications of an ideal appearance. Throughout the pregnancy, the akua ba is treated well and after birth, it remains one of the woman’s most cherished possessions.
Wood
15 x 5 3/4 in. (38.1 x 14.6 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.325
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., pp. 53-54, reproduced pl. 59 (as "akuaba").
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
