More significant than the physical description is the subject itself. Independent Yaka maternity figures appear to be relatively uncommon. The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art notes that mother-and-child figures are rare among the Yaka, although female and maternity imagery occurs prominently on masks used in boys' initiation ceremonies.

This relationship becomes clearer in the context of nkanda, the Yaka institution through which boys passed into adult male status. Initiation addressed sexuality, social responsibility, reproduction and the continuation of the community. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that nkanda imagery could explicitly refer to gender distinctions, fertility and the reproductive future of initiates.

Research by the Royal Museum for Central Africa also documents a Yaka maternity figure from the Kwango containing ritual substances and discusses its possible relationship to the treatment of female infertility and the khita fertility complex. The museum appropriately leaves its precise function unresolved, illustrating the care required when interpreting undocumented examples.

The present sculpture should therefore not automatically be assigned to one specific ritual. It can more securely be understood within a Yaka conceptual world in which fertility, motherhood, lineage continuity and generational renewal carried profound social significance.

Its expressive facial construction is consistent with artistic traditions of the Kwango region. At the same time, Yaka and neighbouring Suku sculpture can be extremely close stylistically, a relationship also emphasized by the Smithsonian.

The face is sensitively restrained, with narrow almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, slightly parted lips and balanced facial planes. The most striking feature is the large rounded coiffure, extensively decorated with fine geometric incisions. This cushion-like hairstyle is particularly relevant to the attribution: the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art identifies such coiffures as a characteristic feature of the classic Lwena sculptural style of the Angola-Zambia region.

The designation Chokwe-Lwena, or Chokwe-Luena, therefore seems appropriate for this work. Artistic boundaries between these neighbouring populations were fluid. The Metropolitan Museum itself catalogues certain female sculptures cautiously as “Chokwe or Lwena (?)”, while museum research also documents the circulation of stylistic features between Chokwe and Lwena artists.

The child gives the sculpture its principal iconographic focus. Chokwe society traditionally traces descent through the maternal line, giving female ancestors and ideals of womanhood an important position within its visual culture. The Metropolitan Museum emphasizes this matrilineal dimension in its discussions of Chokwe female imagery and commemorative sculpture. A Chokwe prestige stool in the Met collection incorporating a mother-and-child caryatid further demonstrates the place of maternity imagery within Chokwe artistic traditions.