Separated from the African continent by two-hundred-and-fifty-mile straits with powerful currents, Madagascar has a mixed population of Africans, Asians, and Arabs. Some Bantu speakers maintained family grave compounds where they erected large, wooden grave posts commonly called aloala, translated as "shadow of death." These works are sometimes carved with geometric motifs that suggest Islamic influences; others show human figures whose proportions are more realistic than those of most African sculptures. This weathered female figure from the top of the Sakalava post has one arm bent behind her back and a raised face topped by a knobbed coiffure.

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