FERTILITY DOLLS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30411, 9 April 1964, Page 2

FERTILITY DOLLS

Use By African Women Large clay “fertility” dolls are used to teach young women “the facts of life” in some African tribes. Other dolls are secretly buried by women to help them “get their man" and ensure that they have lots of children. Very few original specimens of “fertility dolls” exist in museums. Mr Karl Hechter-Schultz, a South African engineer, who has spent many years collecting dolls and studying their significance has found that among the Southern Bantu the women’s ability to bear children is frequently more significant than her status as a wife. Hence her desire to have many children, and the subconscious fear that she may be barren. This is where the magical powers of a doll or charm are invoked. “Among the Xhosa, Fingo and Basuto, a doll is given to the bride-to-be when marriage is imminent. The doll is named—and the babv named after it,” says Mr HechterSchultz. In some tribes the wav a girls plays with a doll may be taken by her elders as a token of whether she will have a large family. Sometimes the fertility doll is worn from a necklace, or bound next to the body under the clothes. Basuto and Xhosa brides are given dolls on their wedding day. When the young Ovamboi girl gets engaged, she gives' her fiance a doll, which hei carries like a child.—Reuter I