Ashanti Figure Depicting Fertility Rites

Two elongated figures tangled together on a thin slab.

This brass figure depicting fertility rites from the Ashanti is Ashanti, from Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. Small brass figures from Ghana often show people in action, and such scenes can record daily life, custom and story. Slender, angular limbs interlock as one figure leans over the other on a flat rectangular base. A wide-brimmed head tilts upward. Surface is olive green with darker brown spots and a worn, bumpy texture. It is 3 inches wide, 2 deep and 3 high.

Knots of limbs with a story neither is telling.