Figure of a Woman Carrying a Child

Place of OriginTabwa peoples, Ujiji region (modern Tanzania)

DateBefore 1880

Dimensions20 × 4 1/2 × 4 7/8 in. (50.8 × 11.4 × 12.4 cm)

MediumWood, pigment, fiber (skirt), metal (earrings)

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

2011.12

Not on View

DescriptionMaternity figure representing a mother carrying an infant. Carved from a single piece of wood. The mother has metal loop earrings and wears a textile skirt. Carved from a single piece of light-colored, soft wood, on top of an integral circular base, a woman stands with a small child clinging to her back. The woman’s flat feet and short bent legs lead to rounded hips covered by a fiber skirt. Her head is a small oval with the chin raised at an angle on the elongated neck. Demilune ears are pierced to hold metal earrings. The cap-like hairstyle consists of asymmetrical circular braid patterns. Both torsos are long, framed by flattened, shelf-like shoulders and attenuated arms with wide hands flattened against the hips that point toward the navel. The woman’s thighs and buttocks are incised with X-shaped scarifications; her, torso, back, neck, and head and the child’s back are incised with lines of scarification. Dark brown stain was applied to the surface, after which the scarifications and some anatomical details (mouth, eyes) were cut to reveal the pale reddish color of the wood.

Label TextWhile images of mothers holding their children are common in African art, this sculpture is the only maternity figure known from the Tabwa people of what is now Tanzania. Tabwa peoples trace their ancestors through the mother’s family lines, and ancestor figures, called mikisi, were kept in small shrines. This figure must have represented a specific mother and her child. The scarification on the mother—decorative and symbolic patterns cut into the skin—emphasizes the importance of the navel, which represents the beginning of life and symbols of origin. The placement of the mother’s hands on her stomach symbolizes the family line as she keeps watch over her descendants.Published ReferencesEvan M. Maurer and Allen F. Roberts, Tabwa: The Rising of a New Moon: A Century of Tabwa Art, exhibition catalogue, The National Museum for African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January–March 1986, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, April–August 1986; Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, September–October 1986; p. 246, reproduced checklist no. 173. African and Oceanic Art, Sotheby’s, New York, 14 November 2003, lot 95.Exhibition HistoryAfrican Tribal sculpture from the Collection of Ruth and Ernst Anspach, exhibition, The Museum of Primitive Art [now The Museum for African Art], November 1967-February 1968, cat. 97 (not illustrated). African Sculpture: Rare and Familiar Forms from the Anspach Collection, exhibition, Brainerd Hall Art Gallery, State University College at Potsdam, New York, October 1974, cat. 64 (not illustrated). Roslyn Walker, African Women/African Art, exhibition catalogue, The African-American Institute, New York, 13 September – 31 December 1976, p. 24, p. 57, cat. no. 28 (not illustrated). Herbert Cole, Mother and Child in African Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5 December 1985–6 July 1986, plate 47. Toledo Museum of Art, Student Curators Present: African Art, April 27-July 24, 2012 (Hitchcock Gallery).