Mossi Biiga or Doll / Fertility Figure

Girls carried them. Young women kept them. In Burkina Faso, a small wooden doll was never just a toy.

This is a Mossi biiga, made in the 20th century and a little over eight inches tall. Girls cared for such dolls as they would a baby, and women hoped, by keeping one, to bear children. Hence the name fertility figure. It is strongly abstract. A tall crested coiffure, incised with diagonal lines, crowns a blocky torso with short arms. The skirt flares, hatched in the same fine lines, above two squared legs.

The wood is deep brown and smooth at the edges from long touch. Some objects are made to be held.