Kissi Pomdo: Stone Ancestors Whose Identity Has to Be Divined From a Dream
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Several ancestor-figure traditions documented in this book are carved to order, made for a specific person and known from the moment the first cut is made. The Kissi, 140,000 people who inhabit a bordering region of Guinea and Sierra Leone, inherited theirs instead: soapstone figures called pomdo, meaning “the deceased,” are found already finished in fields and riverbeds around the Sewa and Mano rivers, some of them extremely old, their original maker and subject both unknown. That reversal, an object discovered rather than commissioned, whose ancestor has to be identified after the fact through dream interpretation, is the throughline worth carrying through this piece. It turns the pomdo into less a portrait than a puzzle, one a diviner is called on to solve before the stone can take its place on a family altar.
Who Are the Kissi?
The Kissi number 140,000 and inhabit a bordering region of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Essentially farmers, their daily life is organized around the cultivation of rice, along with manioc and cotton, and villages of roughly 150 people sit in forest clearings across the landscape.
Pomdo: Stone Figures Found in Fields and Rivers
The Kissi revere soapstone, or steatite, anthropomorphic carvings found in fields and rivers in the area centered around the Sewa and Mano rivers. The Kissi word for these figures, pomdo (or pombo), means “the deceased,” and some of the carvings are extremely old, their carving predating any living memory of who made them. These statues were understood as the abodes of the spirits of ancestors, believed to hold genuine supernatural power and consulted before a new undertaking was planned; they were also used in rice cultivation.
Identifying an Ancestor Through a Dream
Because a pomdo is found rather than commissioned, its identity is not automatically known. In order to find out which ancestor a given statue represented, a man’s dreams were analyzed with the help of a diviner, turning dream interpretation into the essential first step before a stone could be properly honored. At festivities, the identified statue was wrapped in cotton upon which sacrificial blood had been poured, and the owner, acting as the statue’s guardian, placed it on the family altar, where it was thought to serve as the family’s protector against sickness.
A Living Tradition of Stone Carving
Remarkably, the descendants of the Kissi people still keep up the tradition of stone carving today, meaning the pomdo tradition is not simply an archaeological curiosity but a living practice that continues to connect new work to the same soapstone vocabulary used for the oldest, unattributed figures still being found in the fields and rivers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “pomdo” mean?
Pomdo, or pombo, is the Kissi word for their soapstone ancestor figures, and it translates to “the deceased.”
Where are Kissi pomdo figures found?
They are found in fields and riverbeds in the area centered around the Sewa and Mano rivers in the bordering region of Guinea and Sierra Leone, some of them extremely old.
How do the Kissi identify which ancestor a pomdo represents?
A diviner analyzes a man’s dreams to determine which ancestor a given stone figure represents, since the statues are found rather than commissioned for a known individual.
Do the Kissi still carve stone figures today?
Yes. The descendants of the Kissi people continue the tradition of stone carving, keeping the pomdo practice alive rather than treating it as a purely historical art form.
See also: African Masks by Region and Tribe · Every Traditional African Mask You Should Know · African Funeral Traditions: How Different Cultures Honour the Dead
