Tribal’s skirt and head wrap are made of soft silk in a non metallic copper. Her belt wrap and bodice wrap is of traditional African Mud cloth, in what else? Purple! Her cowry belt is hand made and trimmed with purple and copper beads. She has matching cowry shells at her ears and neck. She holds a horse tail whip in her hand, the black/brown horse tails of which were gifted to the doll from the Mother of Exu’s American Magical Umbanda House.

The based doll for Tribal is one of the more unique Robert Tonner dolls. Built on the larger sized frame of the Emme dolls, in honor of large size model Emme, and crafted for the Mamma Morton character doll of the “Chicago!” line, this base doll is a little taller than the other base dolls and a little fuller in form. Tribal was very clear she wanted a doll with hips! Tribal’s eyes and lips were repainted according to Oya’s specifications.

Her base was covered with dirt from my back yard to allow her to walk on the packed earth of the tribal market ground. Like her Oya sisters, she wears nine copper bracelets. In her hands she holds a wooden basket filled with beads, shells, and stones – tools of trade and barter in the market place.