Prampram shrine figures, Prampram region, Greater Accra Region, Ghana Wood with blackened surface The Prampram region, situated along the eastern Ga-Adangme coast of Ghana, has preserved one of the most distinctive yet least familiar sculptural traditions of West Africa. Shrine figures such as the present pair were created for family and community shrines, where they embodied ancestral presence and spiritual protection. Remaining in ritual use for many decades, they were repeatedly anointed with sacrificial substances and pigments, each layer recording another chapter in the ceremonial life of the object. Over more than many years of fieldwork in the Prampram region, Wolfgang Jaenicke assembled an exceptional collection of these increasingly rare sculptures. The present pair represents the first black-painted Prampram figures to enter the collection. Beneath the rich black surface, traces of earlier red and white pigments remain visible, revealing a long history of ritual renewal. The male and female figures are carved with remarkable restraint. Their elongated oval heads are left completely without facial features, directing attention instead to the harmonious proportions of the sculptures. Long cylindrical necks support slender torsos, while the exceptionally elongated arms and legs create a calm, almost architectural verticality. The larger male figure is identified by the prominent phallus; the female, slightly smaller in scale, mirrors the same elegant simplicity. Standing on broad circular bases, both figures possess a quiet presence that is enhanced by the deep, lustrous ritual patina and the subtle wear accumulated through generations of ceremonial use. Rather than striving for naturalistic representation, the sculptor reduced the human form to its essential elements. The resulting balance of proportion, rhythm and surface gives these figures a timeless sculptural quality that distinguishes the Prampram tradition from the more familiar carving styles of southern Ghana. Rarely encountered today, they stand as eloquent witnesses to a remarkable artistic heritage and to a ritual tradition that has almost entirely vanished. Selected Literature Blier, Suzanne Preston. African Vodun: Art, Psychology and Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Cole, Herbert M. and Ross, Doran H. The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California Press, 1977. Jaenicke, Wolfgang. Field notes and documentation from the Prampram Region, Ghana. Sieber, Roy and Walker, Roslyn Adele. African Art in the Cycle of Life. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. Some of the information is generated by artificial intelligence and is based on published sources from the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Invt. No.: MAZ19448 Height: 72 cm / 98 cm Weight: 1,7 kg / 3,3 kg (incl. stand)