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Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-7869-1880

Abstract

This article explores the art and traditional sculpture of the Ashanti people of Ghana. The study delves into the symbolic, spiritual, therapeutic, and psychological implications of ritual fertility dolls known as Akua’ba, which serve as a means for infertile women to experience the joy and delight of motherhood. The study will also focus on how accessing motherhood is highly esteemed and regarded as a social obligation in most African cultures. The psychological burden and pressure associated with the social duty of bearing children to avoid ‘‘social death’’ or being ‘‘the dead end of human life’’ is undoubtedly at the root of the creation of fertility dolls. This traditional and spiritual art of crafting ritual dolls highlights the Ashanti concept of the ideal woman and the central role of maternity in the lives of Akan women. In the Ashanti anthropological structures of the imaginary, fertility dolls serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they enable women to procreate and preserve their status as good women; on the other hand, they reveal beauty standards.

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