Rare Mende Doll

The role and a use of child-images in Africa is varied and complex. Dolls as children’s playthings can be found in virtually all cultures but this does not mean that the form and use of such toys are culturally proscribed. Among some ethnic groups such as the Ambo of Angola children’s dolls have a relatively uniform ethnic appearance while in others an individually adorned bottle or stick of wood suffices. Many child-images the African art world describes as dolls are not children’s playthings at all. Rather they are used by pubescent and mature women to impart lessons of motherhood, signal age of marriageability or promote fertility. I do not know whether the Mende of Sierra Leone ever had a tradition of fertility dolls. It’s possible that a healer might have occasionally proscribed the carving of such figures on a case by case basis. Then again, it’s also possible that this early 20th c. carving with inset glass eyes was carved by an adult for a young girl to play with. Mounted on a hardwood base.

10.5″

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