The stone figures of the Upper Guinea coast—predominantly unearthed in present-day Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia—represent an enigmatic artistic history. Carved primarily from soapstone (steatite), these sculptures are attributed to coastal inhabitants whom early Portuguese merchants referred to as the Sapi. The ancestors of such modern groups as the Temne, Bullom, and Baga, the Sapi peoples flourished from as early as the eighth century CE through the mid-sixteenth century. Their stone sculptures were unearthed centuries after their creation, largely through chance agricultural or mining activities, and thus were often disconnected from their original archaeological contexts. Known by contemporary local communities as nomolisia (sing.: nomoli; “found spirits” in Mende) and pomtan (sing.: pomdo; “the deceased” in Kissi), they are characterized by oversized heads, bold facial features, and detailed adornments. While their original function within Sapi society remains a subject of scholarly debate, compelling evidence suggests they served as ancestral memorials or representations of elites.
Production of these figures significantly diminished by the mid-sixteenth century. Scholars have posited that this shift was the result of Mande-speaking Mane invaders migrating to the coast and assimilating with and displacing the Sapi. Subsequently, groups like the Mende and Kissi peoples encountered these stone figures and integrated them into their own distinct ritual systems as powerful spiritual intermediaries associated with agricultural fertility, protection, and divination. Examining their stylistic diversity, contested chronology, and evolving ritual roles is crucial to understanding the complex cultural history of the Upper Guinea coast and the enduring significance of these creations.
Artistic characteristics and stylistic diversity
The soapstone sculptures of the Upper Guinea coast display a remarkable range of styles, techniques, and scales, reflecting the work of multiple artists or workshops over time and across different regions rather than a single monolithic style. A defining characteristic of these works is the exaggerated proportion of the head to the body, a common emphasis in West African art that underscores the head’s significance as the seat of identity and spiritual potency. Facial features are typically bold, with prominent, often bulging eyes, broad noses, and full lips. Many figures feature teeth that have been filed to a point, a practice documented among sixteenth-century Temne and Bullom peoples; this was not merely an artistic convention but a cultural practice signifying beauty, social status, and ethnic identity that functioned as a rite of passage and symbolized control over natural forces. Elaborate coiffures, scarification (cicatrization) patterns, and depictions of regalia further denote the high status and identity of the individuals portrayed. A carved head from the sixteenth century displays all these traits: life-size cranium, bold features, filed teeth, and an elaborate cap or coiffure signifying a high-ranking individual. With its pedestal-like neck and focus on the head, such a piece would likely have been considered a mahei yafei (“chief’s spirit”) by populations contemporary to its creation.
Sapi artisans also carved seated figures. An exceptional example features elaborate regalia, including patterned textiles, a collar around the neck, a detailed beard and coiffure, and possible cicatrization patterns along the back and stomach . The presence of what appears to be a cane or cordage at the right shoulder further suggests the time and care invested in detailing these accoutrements.
Ancestral memorials and elite representations
These stone figures likely originally functioned within Sapi society as ancestral memorials or representations of high-status individuals. This interpretation is supported by iconographic analysis—notably, the consistent depiction of status markers such as coiffures, jewelry, weapons, and other symbols of authority—and European textual references. For example, the early seventeenth-century writings of Manuel Álvares, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who worked in West Africa, describe the Sapi people making “images as portraits of their parents, children, wives, brothers, and so on,” sometimes “sculpted on small stones or rocks.” While the precise geographical context of Álvares’s observation is debated, it aligns with ethnographic parallels found in later Temne practices. For example, the Temne am-boro ma-sar (“house of stones”) ritual, in which selected stones serve as representations of ancestors, may reflect continuity with earlier Sapi traditions.
Scholars such as William Siegmann have proposed that mahei yafei heads (including 1978.412.375) represent chiefs who were ritually bound at their installation. This practice has modern parallels among the Temne people, whose new chiefs are symbolically restrained as part of their investiture. In stone heads, this binding may be indicated by the depiction of tightly wrapped headgear or bands carved around the cranium, suggesting ritual restraint or containment of spiritual power. However, alternative interpretations exist, including the possibility that some figures represent nature spirits or are associated with secret societies, highlighting the complexity and potential multifunctionality of these objects.
While no direct archaeological evidence exists to support the theory, figures placed in a seated position may be connected to Sapi burials arranged in that manner. William A. Hart and Christopher Fyfe have noted that similar funerary practices, where the deceased were seated for burial, are documented among neighboring groups, suggesting that the sculpted postures may symbolically echo such traditions.
Chronological debates and archaeological gaps
Establishing a precise chronology for these stone figures remains challenging, primarily because most examples have been discovered by chance rather than through controlled archaeological excavations, leaving them without datable materials or clear stratigraphic context. Nevertheless, several lines of evidence help to narrow down the period of their production. Stylistic parallels between stone figures and ivories produced between 1490 and 1530 by Sapi artisans for Portuguese merchants are key to dating the stone carving tradition to the period of early European contact. For instance, figures on ivory carvings ; ; often feature exaggerated craniofacial proportions and hieratic, frontal poses similar to stone creations. Furthermore, toolmarks on some figures, possibly from iron chisels, suggest that their production coincided with the increased availability of metal from the fifteenth century onward. Early European accounts—including those of Alvise Cadamosto, a Venetian explorer who travelled along the West African coast in the mid-fifteenth century—also reference stone idols among local populations, providing historical support for the existence of such figures during this era.
While Sapi artisans were likely carving stone figures as late as the mid-sixteenth century, some analyses suggest a much longer history for the tradition. For example, the radiocarbon date for a stylistically similar wooden figure points to possible origins from 1100 to 1300. Similarly, charcoal deposits from the Kamabai Rock Shelter in Sierra Leone have been dated as early as the seventh and eighth centuries. The archaeologists John Atherton and Milan Kalous discovered the charcoal alongside distinctive forms of pottery thought to be related to early stone carving traditions in the region. Regardless of the origins of the tradition, the absence of references to active stone carving in seventeenth-century European records supports the idea that it had declined or ceased by the mid-sixteenth century. This was likely the result of a series of disruptive invasions by inland Mane communities seeking access to lucrative maritime trade, a view supported by art historian William A. Hart and historians Christopher Fyfe and Walter Rodney. Oral traditions among later groups, such as the Mende and Temne people, often describe these stone figures as having been “found” rather than created by their own ancestors, further suggesting an earlier, now-forgotten origin for this tradition.
Reinterpretation and ritual recycling by later cultures
Following the Mane invasions and the decline of Sapi communities, the stone figures acquired new meanings and uses. Rediscovered in the twentieth century during farming or mining, they were not discarded; rather, they were integrated into the spiritual frameworks of the new inhabitants, a process the anthropologist Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers terms “ritual recycling.” Among the Mende people, the figures became known as nomolisia and were widely adopted as agricultural talismans and placed in rice fields to ensure fertility and a bountiful harvest. Oral traditions recount “feeding” these figures with offerings and even ritually punishing them for poor yields, demonstrating a dynamic and evolving relationship. The smooth sheen and wear observed on some figures (possibly including 1979.206.19 and 1979.206.136) may have resulted from repeated handling and anointing with libations such as palm oil.
Among the neighboring Kissi people, these figures are referred to as pomtan. Through divination, the Kissi identified them as specific ancestors and kept them in family shrines as intermediaries between the living and the dead. Some examples feature later additions such as metal rings and may have been used in oath-taking ceremonies—a practice documented among the Kissi, for whom such objects served as witnesses to binding agreements. The presence of drill holes or metal additions on some Kissi examples (as opposed to the surface erosion from libations often seen on Mende figures) points to various ritual uses in their secondary lives. Crucially, the terms nomoli and pomdo reflect the language and cultural lens of the peoples who found and reinterpreted the figures rather than necessarily corresponding to original Sapi classifications or artistic schools.
These early stone figures speak to the complexity, technical skill, hierarchical societies, and spiritual beliefs of the Sapi world. Long after their creation, they remain cultural palimpsests, with meanings reshaped by Mende and Kissi communities. Their survival challenges contemporary communities and scholars to unravel the complexities of their history and interpretation. They offer new perspectives on Africa’s layered pasts, where ancient legacies and modern reinterpretations coexist, and they highlight the dynamism of cultural memory and the capacity of sacred objects to accumulate new meanings.