Akuaba Fertility DollSymbol of Life, Beauty, and Blessing Few objects in the African artistic tradition carry as intimate and personal a significance as the Akuaba fertility doll of the Ashanti people of Ghana. Traditionally carried by women wishing to conceive a healthy child held against the body and treated with the same care afforded to a newborn the Akuaba embodies the Ashanti ideal of beauty and the profound cultural importance of fertility, lineage, and new life.