A large Bamna maternity

A large Bamna maternity of the Massigui/Doila region, seated on a four leg stool, holding two children, seated on it´s knees, the hanging, tapering breasts with pointed nipples, the rectangular head with metal eyes in deep sockets, the headdress in form of a single crested coiffure, large u- shaped ears, pierced through for attachments at the rim; shiny, blackened patina, remnants of oxidised sheebutter in the sockets and close to the nose, intensive touch patina at the face, the breasts and the foreheads of the two children, which remains of the sculptures function: the Bamana-belief of the women by touching these large, important figures creating fertility.

The maternities of the Bamana from the Massigui–Dioïla region occupy a distinctive position within the sculptural corpus of southern Mande societies. They articulate the ideological weight of motherhood through a restrained formal language whose clarity recalls the pedagogical functions of these figures in local initiation and moral instruction. Their appearance is shaped by regional workshop traditions that favour compact volumes and a frontal presentation, often heightened by a slightly columnar proportioning of body and limbs.

The seated mother, usually placed on a low stool, is rendered with an economy of gesture. The infant is held in a conventionalised manner across the lap or against the torso, establishing an iconographic bond that emphasises continuity between maternal nurture and social reproduction. The faces tend toward an oval or gently trapezoidal mask-form, with high, straight foreheads and narrow, elongated noses. Eyes are often deeply set and only minimally modelled, conveying an introspective quality characteristic of the region’s ritual sculpture. Surface treatment alternates between smooth, carefully burnished planes and rougher passages that retain tool marks, allowing the figure to oscillate between emblematic idealisation and tangible craft.

Within Bamana thought, these maternities intersect with the moral universe of Jo and Gwan associations. Their didactic function lies less in representing a historical mother than in giving visual form to principles of care, order and generational continuity. The maternal body becomes a condensed field of social virtues, its stillness contrasting with the dynamic performances of initiation in which such sculptures may appear.

Regional distinctions in Massigui and Dioïla become visible in the slightly heavier torso construction when compared with Sikasso or Bougouni examples, and in the occasional presence of scarification motifs along the cheeks or abdomen. These marks serve as visual signatures of lineage identity and local aesthetics rather than portraits of specific individuals.

The intellectual history of their reception in the twentieth century has largely been shaped by French ethnographers, who associated them with ideals of fecundity. More recent scholarship emphasises their conceptual rather than their biological dimension: the figures articulate a moral anthropology of nurture, stability and transmission within Bamana social philosophy.

References
Jean-Paul Colleyn, Bamana. The Art of Existence in Mali, 2001.
Sarah C. Brett-Smith, The Making of Bamana Sculpture, 2021.
Youssouf Cissé, Sociétés initiatiques du Mali, 1970.

Height: 87 cm
Weight: 10,4 kg