The body is made of a palm fruit, with attachments of leather and red and blue glass beads.
Mounted on a stand.
Such dolls emphasise the interaction between a woman and her lover or husband, not between mother and child. A woman's mother makes a doll from large nuts that replicate the shape of male genitalia and decorates it with beads donated by the man's best friend. The doll, named after this friend, becomes the young couple's son. During the day, the woman wears the doll, which is attached to a string, around her neck or over her shoulder. At night, she hangs it by the string safely inside her house. When a woman calls out her "sons" name while dancing, her lover responds by dancing with her. *Johannes Kaddatz was, among others, a close friend of Werner Fischer, Hans Himmelheber, Boris Kegel-Konietzko, Bernd Muhlack and Nils von der Heyde and spent many years in East and West Africa.
Lit.: Cameron, Elisabeth L., Isn't she a doll? Los Angeles 1996, p. 31, ill. 24 |
