Doll and necklace structures completely covered in coloured beads, bamboo applications Republic of South Africa - Zulu 20th C. (2nd half) several faults and defects Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 23,5 cm Notes: Provenance: Collection of Engineer Elísio Romariz dos Santos Silva, the doll possibly constitutes item nº 236, mentioned in the notebook of the collector «Angola - Arte Negra, Relação e descrição das peças», identified in it as «Doll»: " Purchased in Johannesburg. Gift from my son José for Christmas/1984 [...]". "Among the Nguni peoples, which include the Galecka, Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu, prepubescent girls play with dolls that they make themselves out of clay, wood and sticks. Among both the Nguni and Stho, children's dolls rarely have beads because they are too expensive. Occasionally, a girl may be given a beaded doll by an indulgent grandmother. As she plays with her "child", her parents watch how she handles it, saying that her roleplaying foreshadows her abilities as a wife and mother. (Hechter-Schultz 1966:517-18).
Small dolls worn around the neck, designed to ensure marriage, appear among the Nguni […] Ndebele girls either wear the doll openly "in true Nguni fashion" or hide it under their clothing. [...] If she wears the doll publicly, the community assumes that she [the girl who wears it] is seeking to enhance her future fertility. If worn secretly, the girl is looking for a husband (Lange, p. 88). When a young woman is preparing to marry, she is given a different doll that she names and cares for. Her first child is then named for the doll (Hechter-Schultz, p. 519).
When a couple is unable to conceive a child, their families carefully examine them. If no physical problems are readily apparent, the two then go to a diviner for treatment. Often the diviner discerns that the woman did not go through initiation or that it was not done properly. In this case, the wife is instructed to return to her father's house and undergo the rites again, this time carrying a doll as a surrogate child." - cf. CAMERON, Elisabeth L. - "Isn't S/He a Doll? Play and Ritual in African Sculpture". Los Angeles: Regents of the University of California, 1996, p. 110, where dolls with some similar characteristics are represented - pp. 59 e 110, nºs 74 e 146.