These nomoli figures are found in a region along the Atlantic Ocean, stretching through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. They have been found, buried, by Kissi, Kono, Mende and Temne farmers working their fields and are attributed to the early peoples of this region. It is difficult to pinpoint the producers of these figures to one particular group due to the turbulent history that existed in this area.
The present day Mende farmers call the figures nomoli or mali yafeisia, and they are bleieved to have been placed in shrines in rice fields to ensure a fruitful harvest, it is further believed that the figures would receive offering of rice if the rice crops were growing as they hoped, but that if the crops failed to prosper as they expected, small whips were used to beat the figure.
among the neighboring Kissi people, these figures were more revered as ancestor figures and were kept in family shrines. The Kissi refered to them as pombo or pomton figures.
The carving of these figures ended generations ago, and are expected to be over a century old, and though were not carved by the Kissi, Kono, Mende or Temne, they were kept when found as they represented a mythical and heroic past to them.
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