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68 UMMA Objects
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Dogon (Dogon (culture or style))
Female Ancestor Figure
1900 – 1971
Museum Purchase assisted by the Friends of the Museum of Art
1971/2.24
Female figure with crossed legs, breastfeeding a child. The large mother figure is decorated with scarifications on her breasts, shoulders and back. She bears filed teeth, is wearing an elaborate headdress and her face has been decorated with three brass tacks. Mirror fragments were used to evoke eyes. On the back of the sculpture a mirror covers a raised addition containing unknown elements. The figures are seated on a rectangular base with geometric decorations. 
Yombe (Yombe (culture or style))
Mother and child figure
1885 – 1895
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.187
This carved, wooden Yaka figure depicts a man standing with an animal perched atop his head. The carving is stylized and exhibits characteristics typically seen among northern Yaka figural representations: flexed knees; arms bent with upturned palms positioned at shoulder level; and, an animal figure upon its head. In this case, the creature has a curved body and appears to be an anteater. The male figure has a narrow, cylindrical body; a slightly protruding belly; a simple coiffure; an elongated face; barely-open eyes from which vertical lines extend downward; a disproportionately large, pointed nose, and a darkened beard.
Yaka (Yaka (Kwango-Kwilu region style))
Figure
1915 – 1925
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.193
This wooden mortar is decorated by finely carved geometric patterns and features two anthropomorphic heads bearing recognizable Chokwe characteristics including coffeebean-shaped eyes enclosed in large ocular cavities. The lower head, the face of an idealized female (<em>mwana pwo</em>), forms the body of the mortar. The upper head, turned at a 90 degree angle from the lower head, is wearing a headdress which extends behind his face. Resting on top of the upper head is the bowl of the mortar.
Chokwe (Chokwe (culture or style))
Mortar
1865 – 1875
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.205
As one of a pair of delicately carved, ivory statuette-pendants, this female figure stands upright, as opposed to her counterpart whose head and upper body lean slightly forward. Both, however, have a round head with a convex face; large, coffeebean-shaped eyes; a rectangular mouth with prominent lips; a cylindrical neck; and, a coiffure decorated on the back with a cruciform pattern. Additionally, both female figures clutch their breasts in their hands. The statuettes have been pierced through, allowing them to suspend from a string.
Luba (Luba (culture or style))
Power Figure
1845 – 1855
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.220.1
This wooden&nbsp;figure depicts a female with a strikingly large, balloon-shaped animal skin sack tied above the crown of her head. An animal horn has been embedded within this massive sack. Representative of the northern style of Kusu carvings which is known to have sharp, angular forms, this&nbsp;<em>kakudji</em>&nbsp;features an ovoid head; a rounded, convex face and forehead; large ears; prominent cheekbones; coffeebean-shaped eyes within large ocular cavities; a well-defined, pointed nose; an elliptical mouth with slightly parted lips; a long, cylindrical neck; arms bent at the elbow, forming a 90-degree angle at the waist; and breasts that are situated nearly at shoulder level. The figure possesses a swollen belly, indicating pregnancy, and hence, representing the themes of maternity, fertility, and the continuation of the lineage. Animal skin enshrouds the female&rsquo;s lower body. Tukula powder, derived from the camwood tree and used to consecrate&nbsp;<em>kakudji</em>, appears on the figure&rsquo;s
Kusu (Kusu (Luba region style))
Power Figure
1915 – 1925
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.223
This double-faced sculpture has been carved from semihard wood. The male is distinguished by the beard, formed by a double row of small triangles. The female, which faces the opposite direction, shares a neck and trunk with her male counterpart. The heads are disproportionately large and both faces are ovoid-shaped, with a wide convex forehead and broad features. Their coiffures converge to form a single cone composed by stratified, semi-circular rings. A cavity on the top of the coiffure likely held medicinal substances, imbuing the figure with power. The male and female each have sharply protruding bellies, marked with round umbilici.  Both possess two sets of arms, which are detached from the body and situated on either side of their respective abdomens. Three of the four feet have broken off. The encrusted surface of the <em>kabeja</em> reveals that it was once the recipient of libational offerings.   
Hemba (Hemba (culture or style))
Power Figure
1865 – 1875
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.226
This carved wooden figure depicts a standing male, and is one of a pair that includes a female figure also carved by the same hand. According to noted art historian Niangi Batulukisi, these two figures deviate from the classical Bembe style and are “an extreme rarity” due to the fact that they are likely connected to an ancient pre-Bembe style.<br /><br /> The male figure’s trunk is disproportionately long, while the legs are slightly flexed at the knees. His facial features includes closed eyes set in round, ocular cavities and a perfectly rounded, open mouth.  The hairstyle bears geometric motifs. Most striking, however, is that medicinal substances have been tied around the male’s entire torso--indeed from his neck to his pelvis--by tightly-wound, resin-covered strings. Moreover, a hole appears on the crown of his head, likely intended for the placement of an animal horn containing even more medicinal ingredients. A small sliver of a white shell appears across the figure’s chest. Traces of tukula powder ca
Bembe (Bembe (Kongo))
Male Figure
1865 – 1875
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.196.2
Elaborately carved staff with, from the top: a male figure wearing Western-style clothes, with painted eyes, eyebrows, mouth, moustache, hat and clothes, sitting on a simple stool, resting his hands on his knees; a U-shaped snake on one side and a mortar on the other; a pair of a male and a female figure on either side (the male is standing on one leg, bending the other at the knee to make a triangle); a dark black spherical form; a row of three turtles on one side and two salamanders and a frog on the other; and finally three outstretched snakes (painted yellow, brown and red, respectively), one of them eating a small frog.
Kongo (Kongo (culture or style))
Staff
1900 – 1950
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.42
Staff with a short, pointed handle. The top of the handle is surmounted by a rectangle with two inverted triangles. Underneath the triangles is a small face and a neck with four raised grooves.  
Igbo (Igbo (Southern Nigerian style, culture))
Staff
20th century
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.43
This wooden Chokwe staff features a smooth, narrow rod and a large carving of a female figure at its finial.  The female bears an elaborate, ridged coiffure, closed, coffee-bean shaped eyes, raised scarifications on her face, torso, and back, rounded shoulders, arms positioned down by her side, and a protruding navel. 
Chokwe (Chokwe (culture or style))
Staff
1900 – 1950
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.69
This wooden staff has pieces of cloth wrapped on both extensions. One end depicts an abstract anthropomorphic face, while the other appears to function as a handle and is embellished with two strings of black and white beads and a loop of blue and white beads.
Kongo (Kongo (culture or style))
Staff
1900 – 1950
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.73
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