Koma Terra Cotta Funerary Figure

Pale as chalk, bearded and sad-eyed, with a tapering body like a stretched goatee.

This Koma terra cotta funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa. Funerary figures in many African traditions are generally linked with remembrance of the dead and with family ties to ancestors, though meanings differ widely from one community to the next. Light, powdery cream surface with a crenellated crown and drooping eyes. A roughly beaded beard clusters beneath a flat, straight mouth, then the body narrows into a long, smooth point. A few rust-colored flecks dot the surface. It is 2.25 inches wide, 2.5 deep and 6 high.

Wise-looking and slightly put-upon, like a patient professor.