Pomdo stone

The Kissi they grow the land and mainly rice. Kissi are steatite funeral statuettes that appear in a fetal position. The name of the stones in tongue kissif it is pomdo, in singular and pomta plural, which means death or image of the dead, because they represent the dead ancestor. The bare statuettes do not bear the name of the ancestor while the dressed statuettes have their own name, that of the ancestor they represent and in this case they are called Pom-Kandya. They are placed in the family altars, where they receive the offerings and honors of all descendants during ceremonies. They are offered the last seeds and the firstfruits of the harvests.

During the ceremonies the depositary or guardian of the statuette, usually the fortune teller, carries it over his head and a kind of angarillas and holds it with both hands. Family members and relatives can ask questions to the statuette and if the answer is yes it will lean to the right and if it is negative to the left. They detect who has committed evil.

They are considered divinities of rice by the population. They appear in the fields, where they were introduced in order to obtain good harvests and have not been able to date accurately. They have appeared for four hundred years and seem to date from nine hundred to two thousand years.

The Kissi They call them pomdo and the mende nomoliOr moonstones.

This piece, of greyish dark skate, is one of the few that appear intact, as most have received plough or hoe blows. Acquired in Abidjan in the 1960s.