Carved from steatite, soapstone or granite, Nomoli figures are frequently found by the Mende and Kissi people of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“They are found in caves and earthen mounds and are often discovered by farmers. The Mende place them in shrines by their rice fields to increase the fertility of the crops. If the crops do not fare well, the little figures are whipped so that next year the crops will do better. This may have nothing to do with their original functions. Those who carved them were a people known to the Portuguese traders of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the Sapi.” – William Dewey
Nomoli figures belong to a number of distinct yet interrelated cultural traditions of the region, predating the Mande invasion. They seem to represent, honored ancestors and nobility.
