Kneeling warrior with shield and half figure

Sierra Leone, Kissi

sold EUR 1,500

Provenance

Walter Stanley Schwab, Murten, Switzerland (“WS 234”) (1978)

Size

H: 21,5 cm

H: 8.5 inch

Description

steatit (soapstone), base

For generations, farmers in Sierra Leone and adjacent areas of Liberia and Guinea have unearthed small stone figures. Broadly attributed to the forefathers of the present-day Kissi people and the vanished Sapi peoples, the carvings range from heads and half figures to full figures and groups.

The Mende people and their neighbours believe the stone figures represent the previous landowners and make offerings to them to bring abundant harvest. They call the figures “nomoli”.

The Kissi and their neighbours link them to ancestors and place them on commemorative shrines. They call these figures “pomdo” (pl. “pomtan”) - “the dead” or “images of the dead”.

In any case all are examples of ritual recycling, as the stone figures have been repurposed for new needs.