Pair of Figures

Healers throughout eastern Africa create a wide variety of protective objects like these figures as part of ritual practices that connect human and spiritual worlds. Their forms are as diverse as the cultural groups who use them. Medicine objects dressed in metal bracelets, beaded jewelry, knotted or braided cloth, and other decorations attract and embody desirable spiritual forces. Historically, materials that came from the east and were traded inland from the Indian Ocean—such as shells, wire, currency, or the beads that decorate these figures—hold special energy and elevated significance.