Zigua Fetish Figure Tanzania

This hand-carved wooden figure represents a stylized human form with a pronounced head, simplified facial features, and a corpulent torso. The arms are crossed tightly across the chest, a posture indicative of ritual restraint or spiritual focus. The figure is adorned with cord bindings around the neck and waist, elements often used to secure sacred or medicinal substances, suggesting its function as a fetish or power object. The surface bears patina and wear consistent with ritual use.

Among the Zigua people of northeastern Tanzania, such figures serve as vessels for spiritual forces and are often used in healing, protection, or divination rituals. They may embody ancestral spirits or other supernatural entities believed to influence daily life. Ritual specialists or family elders typically activate and maintain these figures through offerings and invocation.

152014