"Mwana Hiti" fertility doll Kwere / Zaramo, Tanzania

Mwana hiti, "children of wood", is the name given to this type of figurines produced by the Zaramo and Kwere peoples living in eastern Tanzania.
The head is in the shape of a flattened dome and the hair is represented by two ridges at the top of the head. The thick neck rests on the flat shoulders and the body is frustoconical in shape with the small breasts and navel. The waist is shown as a skirt flared to the hem. Pearl necklaces adorn the neck and waist.
Magnificent patina of use in nuanced honey and shiny brown.
The Mwana Hiti, always linked to a symbol of fertility, are given to young girls at the time of initiation while they are withdrawn from the community to be placed in isolation. These figurines are objects of attention, washed, dressed, wearing a tuft of hair and decorated with pearls. This symbolic use materializes the education of young girls for their future role as wife and mother.
These very particular figures are also found carved at the top of sticks, sometimes used by diviners, and also included small containers filled with medicines. Others, more rarely, adorned fly swatches that were displayed in matrilineal societies of East Africa by both women and men of high rank.

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Origin
Ex French collection