Owo Mother-and-child figure

This statue represents much more than symbol of fertility; it communicates ritual purity and spirituality. Yoruba diviners, when ordering their cups for their rites from sculptors, favor statues depicting a woman with one child or more. Yoruba ideas about important ritual container, associating them with women as bearers of children – the "containers of humankind".  M. Drewal elaborated upon this idea calling ritual containers "a primary symbol for female power" (M. Drewal1989:320). Though more implicit, such symbolism is present among other west and central Africa people: "The child rendered in works of art with its mother is the revelation of the most profound female secret and power, a graphic proof of the continuity of the race (H. Cole, Icons 1989:90).