Fertility Post

Fertility, whether from fields or from people, is one of the central themes of traditional African societies. And so it translates into numerous sculptural responses. The woman who cannot have children is in most African peoples the greatest misfortune that can happen in a family. She loses her dignity as a woman, is forgotten, despised, cornered by her society to the point of being totally isolated. The barren or unmarried man faces reproach, mockery and contempt of all, sometimes having to leave the village in both cases because life in it has become unbearable. Securing an offspring is paramount in families so that the lineage can last in time. Men and women are made to transmit life and if they cannot do so they lose the first attribute that confers upon them their human nature, just as a barren earth loses its nature of nutritious earth and becomes something arid incapable of generating life. A land that does not bear fruit is a great disgrace to the community by depriving it of the necessary food.

There are many rituals and cults intended to promote fertility, in which women's fertility is normally linked to the fertility of the fields. Both form a whole. And many are also the material forms that embody the spiritual forces to which these rites are directed. Numerous masks and statues are elaborated and consecrated for this purpose. An object used very often in many places is the so-called fertility pole that places in front of the door of the hut of the woman who is near the delivery to protect her from any adversity and prevent her from entering the danger. He's the watchman who keeps the house and protects it from all evil. These posts acquire different shapes and sizes according to ethnicities as well as fertility dolls, statues and other objects carved for this purpose.

The pole represes a pregnant young woman standing on a pedestal on a pointed base to be piled to the ground. Natural wood aged by time.