West Africa, Burkina Faso, Mossi peoples, ca. early 20th century CE. A hand-carved wooden female figure known as a ninana standing nude atop broad feet and conjoined ankles. Covered in red pigment, the dark wood figure presents with delineated legs, a slightly distended abdomen above an incised waistline and revealed sex, a pair of lengthy arms flanking a pair of pendulous breasts, and several necklaces incised atop her clavicle. Her ovoid head exhibits serene, downcast eyes, a triangular nose, thin lips curled into a smile, and earlobes adorned with inserted iron wire earrings, all beneath an intricately incised coiffure bearing a herringbone pattern. An oval of black pigment encircles her face and is perhaps indicative of ritual tattooing or scarification. Size: 4.75" W x 14.2" H (12.1 cm x 36.1 cm); 15.375" H (39.1 cm) on included custom stand.

An agricultural community, the Mossi inhabit the central plateau region of Burkina Faso and were developed in the 15th and 16th centuries when the local population intermarried with invading horsemen from northern Ghana. Those descended from the invaders, known as Nakomse, assumed political power over the original inhabitants and became the elite of Mossi society. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, "Figures of this sort were displayed in public at annual sacrifices honoring the ancestors and then stored in the residence of the chief's senior wife. While on view, the figures were dressed with a cloth wrapper covering the lower portions of their bodies in imitation of Mossi women's traditional dress… The use of sculpture parallels the divisions in Mossi society. Masks are employed exclusively by Tengabisi groups to propitiate and manipulate spirits for the good of the community. Figures, usually female, are reserved exclusively for the ruling elite, the Nakomse, as symbols of political power."

Cf. The Brooklyn Museum, accession number 76.20.5

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-Merton Simpson collection, New York, USA

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#172631

Repair to front of left foot, and loss to front of right foot as shown. Several stable hairline fissures, with light encrustations, fading to red and black pigment, and softening to some finer details. Nice remains of pigment throughout.