Mossi Biiga or Doll / Fertility Figure

One arm up, as if asking to be called on.

This biiga, or doll, is a Mossi fertility figure from Burkina Faso, West Africa, carved in wood and leather in the 20th century. Such dolls are often treated like children, carried, washed and dressed, and associated with hopes for motherhood. The spade-shaped head is weathered to a pale gray-brown, and a single peg arm angles upward. A scrap of dark leather clings to the torso, and the slender body ends in a round, domed foot.

About 17 inches tall. Tall, spare and quietly opinionated.