Fertility dolls

These dolls are traditionally made by (in secret) by grandmothers for their granddaughters for the occasion of their marriage. The young lady is expected to keep the doll until the birth of her third child. Then she gives the doll to one of her daughter. In the case where only boys are born in the marriage, because the Ndebeles are a matriarchal society the doll is destroyed in order to break the spell.