An Akuaba, fertility puppet, Ghana/Togo, decorated with rows of colourful beads. In West African material and spiritual culture, carved figures often carry meanings far beyond their physical form, and among them both Aklama figures and Akuaba dolls are rooted in lived traditions where art, belief, and life’s transitions meet. Ethnographically they belong to overlapping cultural worlds in Ghana and surrounding regions, but they serve distinct roles in how communities relate to spirits, fertility, protection, and the continuity of life. Aklama figures are found mainly among the Adan (Adangbe) and Ewe peoples in southeastern Ghana and Togo. These objects are carved from light wood in a great variety of shapes, sometimes abstract, sometimes more suggestive of people or animals, and are usually associated with spirit mediation, protection, and personal ritual practice. They are understood as helpers to their owners, intermediaries between humans and the unseen world, engaged for everyday wellbeing, safety in travel or trade, and household prosperity. Aklama figures are not generic icons; each figure is treated as a spiritual agent embedded within local cosmologies. Their forms may carry symbolic traits of the spirits they represent, and they are used within personal altars or ritual settings rather than as museum pieces. Their meaning arises from ongoing relationships between the figure, its owner, and the community’s religious worldview, where visible objects embody invisible forces. Akuaba dolls come from a different but related field of tradition among the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana, especially the Fanti and Asante (Ashanti). These are ritual fertility dolls carved from wood with a characteristic large, disc‑like head, a slender body, and simplified human features. The name “Akuaba” literally means “Akua’s child,” based on a local story about a woman named Akua who carried such a figure in her efforts to conceive; after following a spiritual advisor’s instructions to treat the doll as a child, she eventually gave birth. Since then, women hoping to conceive or to ensure a healthy, beautiful child would have an Akuaba doll carved for them, carry and care for it as if it were their own infant, wash and adorn it, and sometimes place it on home altars after childbirth. The large flat head and ringed neck are considered representations of beauty ideals and health, while the overall form is deeply connected to ideas about fertility, birth, and the physical and social wellbeing of children in Akan society. Children themselves might later play with the figure or it might be kept in the household as a reminder of spiritual support for the family. In Akan worldview children are believed to exist spiritually before entering the material world, so the dolls can be seen as surrogates or symbolic companions in the transition from spirit to life on earth. Both Aklama figures and Akuaba dolls illustrate how carved wood objects in West Africa are not merely artistic artifacts but active participants in cultural life. They embody the intersections of belief, ritual action, social values, and the deeply felt human concerns of wellbeing, both of the individual and the community. These objects show that in many African traditions art and lived experience are inseparable, and that the meanings of figures such as Aklama and Akuaba emerge not only through their forms but through the practices, stories, and relationships that surround them. Literature: 1. Bernard G. S. Bull, Wednesday’s Child: Akuaba, the Ashanti Fertility Doll — a focused monograph on Akuaba dolls that examines their origin story among the Ashanti and their role as fertility figures in Akan society. 2. Ray Y. Gildea Jr., Religion in the Ashanti Province of Ghana — although older (1963), this article provides ethnographic context for religious objects including fertility dolls, and is often cited in museum literature discussing Akuaba. 3. Doran H. Ross, “Akua’s Child and Other Relatives: New Mythologies for Old Dolls” — a chapter in Isn’t S/He a Doll: Play and Ritual in African Sculpture (edited by Elisabeth L. Cameron). This explores the myth of Akua and how dolls like Akuaba fit into Akan ritual and symbolic practice. 4. Norma H. Wolff, “African Artisans and the Global Market: the Case of the Ghanaian ‘Fertility Dolls’” — published in African Economic History, this article looks at the economic and cultural life of Akuaba dolls, including how their meaning has shifted under global trade influences. 5. Peri Klemm, “Akua’ba Female Figure (Akan peoples)” — a museum‑oriented essay (Smarthistory) that discusses the artistic features, mythology, and cultural function of the figure within Akan cosmology. 6. Museum Catalogues and Collections • The British Museum online catalogue provides descriptions of Akuaba figures and associated cultural notes, often citing Akan cosmological beliefs and ritual uses. CAB34055