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Exhibition Guide

Great Mother Headdress (D’mba)

  • Audio

    Looking at the "Great Mother"

    Read Transcript

  • Audio

    Dancing the D'mba

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  • Audio

    A Conversation About the Tacks

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Art Object Info

Unidentified Baga Artist

Medium:
Wood, copper alloy tacks, and iron tacks
Size:
Depth: 28 3/8"
Width: 13 3/8"
Height: 48 5/8"
Date:
Before 1938

D’mba represents a woman at the height of her power. She is confident and beautiful, elderly, and a mother. Her bold gaze, intricate hairstyle, and flattened breasts speak to these qualities. Neither spirit nor deity, she is a symbol of community identity, a sculptural ideal created to honor women, inspire girls, and reflect the belief that Baga culture was forged and sustained by mothers.

Here, D’mba appears as she would have during the community celebrations in which she danced. However, the raffia fiber skirt and cotton shawl are not original. BMA conservators fabricated these garments only recently.

Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1957.97

Great Mother Headdress (D’mba)

Unidentified Baga Artist
Date:
Before 1938
Medium:
Wood, copper alloy tacks, and iron tacks
Size:
Depth: 28 3/8"
Width: 13 3/8"
Height: 48 5/8"

D’mba represents a woman at the height of her power. She is confident and beautiful, elderly, and a mother. Her bold gaze, intricate hairstyle, and flattened breasts speak to these qualities. Neither spirit nor deity, she is a symbol of community identity, a sculptural ideal created to honor women, inspire girls, and reflect the belief that Baga culture was forged and sustained by mothers.

Here, D’mba appears as she would have during the community celebrations in which she danced. However, the raffia fiber skirt and cotton shawl are not original. BMA conservators fabricated these garments only recently.

Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1957.97