This is a picture of what is known to be a Mossi Doll or
Biiga (Child). This wood doll is approximately
11.25” tall and is formed from a single piece of wood standing on a broader
base. These dolls are traditionally made by a male blacksmith and given to female
children. They are depictions of adult woman, suggestive features include,
facial features, elaborate hairstyles, and usually mature breasts to represent
the fulfillment to motherhood.
Mossi dolls are also the focus of rituals associated with
motherhood. At festivals if a girl gives
her Biiga doll to an older woman is customary for the woman to respond “May God
give you many children” and when the doll is returned to the child she also gives
the child a small gift. Rituals that use
this doll as a focal point are for fertility in a marriage, signified by giving
the doll a name, and caring for the doll to ensure the survival of the future
children.
Another ritual associated with the dolls includes bringing
the doll back to market before marriage.
A few days after marriage the woman is given some straw in place of the
doll and is asked what sex her first child will be. The doll is then returned to the woman so she
can give the doll the first few drops of milk after a child is born and is
carried on the woman’s back before the child does for the first time. Additionally the doll is then passed down
through the female generations for the ritual to repeat itself.
Anthropologists speculate that these dolls where believed to
ensure the newborns soul enters the world (the real world of the parents)
called Yisa Biiga (to call the child), and to prevent it from returning (to the
world of the ancestral spirits) called gidga ti da biiga lebera me.
Sources:
Elisabeth, Cameron, ISN'T S/HE A
DOLL-PLAY AND RITUAL IN AFRICAN SCULPTURE, 1996
Roy, Christopher., The Art of the Upper Volta Rivers,
1987.
Roy, Christopher & Thomas G. B. Wheelock, Burkina Faso
Land of the Flying Masks. The Thomas G. B. Wheelock Collection, 2007
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