The Baouls (Baoules, Bawules), like other African ethnic groups, often represent motherhood in art in the form of women with large breasts breastfeeding, whether in carved wood, lost wax bronze, ivory, stone or terracotta. The Bauls are a Melano-African ethnic group of the Akan ethnic-linguistic group; they are farmers of animist religion living in Ivory Coast (2.5 million, 8% of the population).

The theme of motherhood is universal and recurrent in art throughout black Africa. African maternity statues do not usually express the emotional bonds between mother and child, as they symbolise the fertility of women and the earth, belong to the domain of the sacred and are often displayed on an altar. The mothers are in a hieratic position, very well sculpted, while the child, often a small adult, is barely sketched, especially the body, and there are almost never any glances between mother and child.

In many African ethnicities, the left side of the body is associated with the sacred: in most black African maternity wards, the child is positioned to the left of the mother or suckling from the left breast.

In many African societies, the birth of twins is the ultimate symbol of fertility, and is the object of worship and great veneration. Among the Yoruba, who have one of the highest rates of twins in the world (45/1000 compared to 11/1000 in Europe), they are considered a sign of wealth and prosperity, and if a twin dies, it is given a statue, Ibedji, which is cared for, as if alive, by the mother for the rest of her life.