African Senufo Statuette 1

This African statuette, a maternity figure from the Senufo people is 21 inches tall. It celebrates motherhood, like many African sculptures, with breastfeeding. The centrality of mothers to the survival of a people, and the formation of young minds is taken somewhat for granted by many of us in Western cultures. Not so in Africa. Mothers there are revered as the givers of life, and are the focus of much African art. Breastfeeding is frequently used almost as a metaphor for the mother's "giving" nature.