“Akua’ba (sometimes spelled Akwaba or Akuba) are wooden ritual fertility dolls from Western Ghana and nearby areas. The best known akua’ba are those of the Fanti people, “Fanti Dolls” whose akua’ba have large, disc-like heads. Other tribes in the West Africa region (f.ex. Kru and Igbo people) have their own distinctive style of akua’ba.”

“Traditionally, these dolls are carried on the back of young women either hoping to conceive a child, or to ensure the attractiveness of the child being carried. When not in active use, the akua’ba would be ritually washed and cared for in the traditional homestead. The treatment of the Akua’ba has been described as an example of traditional beliefs that corresponds to many traditional beliefs in West African sympathetic magic.”