Koma Ceramic Funerary Figure, Based

Arms looped out from the sides like handles, with hands meeting at the waist.

This based funerary figure is Koma, from Northern Ghana, West Africa, and dates to between the 13th and 17th centuries. It is terra cotta. Koma figures with arms and hands are generally less common than simple heads, and the gesture of hands brought together at the body recurs across the corpus. A rounded head with a coiled eye and an open, toothy mouth sits on a thick neck. Below, a beaded necklace drapes across the chest above two small breasts. The arms curve outward in open loops and return to meet at the waist. It is 8.5 inches high, 3.25 wide and 2.5 deep.

Arms akimbo, and entirely at ease.