model;
bed;
charm(?)
- Museum number
- Af1930,0609.4
- Description
-
Model bed (with phallus), charm (?); made of reed; lengths of reed stacked on top of each other and lashed together in four corners with twisted cotton thread to make square; lengths of reed laid across bottom to complete box; length of reed with two small reeds jutting out from bottom tied onto one side.
- Production date
- 1929 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 19 centimetres
-
Width: 20 centimetres
-
Depth: 11 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Register Note "Hung from roof of newly-married couple's hut".
See Ethdoc 236 - Hausa marriage or fertility charm
Specimen consists of a model of a native bed (Hausa Koraga) and of a phallus (made from a corn stalk). Obtained from Tureta, a town 40 miles south of Sokoto inhabited by Hausa-speaking Burmawa ... a hut is erected for the prospective bride and bridegroom ... before the roof is finished youths who have grown up with the bridegroom make the charm and attach it to the interior apex. The hut may remain empty for months until the final arrangements for the marriage are complete. When the ceremony does take place the bride is conducted to her new home by the "best-man" and spends a night there 'on her own' ... It is said that the "best-man" draws her attention to the charm when they reach the hut ... and the bride exhibits a becoming confusion...'
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1930
- Acquisition notes
- Af1930,0609.1 to 11 were given by W E Nicholson; all had been collected by him in Sokoto in northern Nigeria.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1930,0609.4