Cleveland Museum of Art

Figure (kgöngwana-tshingwana/Ngwana sehô)

Date

1800s–1900s

Medium

Wood, glass beads, cloth, thread, and copper alloy

Culture

Southern Africa, Lesotho, Southern Sotho-style maker

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Fertility figures like these were used during the initiation ceremonies of pubescent girls. Integrating talismanic materials in their fabrication, the figures were meant to guarantee fertility and prevent or cure barrenness—a gourd’s womblike shape and the seeds within symbolize fecundity. They are sometimes also called “child figures” because a young bride would care for them as she would for her future children, carrying them on her back and sleeping with them until her first child was born. These figures were symbolic infants that recently married women would take care of until their first child was born.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.