African Arts Gallery

Among the tribes living in Sierra Leone, Mende and Kissi, mostly rice farmers, worship stone statues from the Sapi kingdom. The latter extended, until the 16th century, from Guinea to Liberia.The Temné organized themselves into chiefdoms led by a supreme leader. The society ragbenle or mneke, responsible for fertility, intervened at the death of the chief. The association bundu, for its part, prepared the girls for their adult lives. The Temne and bullom have made a lot of 'Afro-Portuguese' ivories European orders. The 'nomoli' Begged, placed on altars, benefited from libations in order to increase the harvests. These stone sculptures, mostly in steatite or saponite, called pombo (deceased) played, on the other hand, among the Kissi of Guinea, an intermediary role with the ancestors. The representations vary from the most basic form to elaborate sculptures. This is a female character with jewels and an elaborate braided hairstyle indicating her rank as a notable. One of his hands rests in a protective gesture on a child's figure, able to symbolize the ancestor protecting his clan. Satin surface.