Nyonyosi stone figures

In Africa there are a lot of areas where it is possible to discover archeological finds, as everyone knows. Terra-cottas, petroglyphs and stone sculptures are among the most frequent items.

Among the whole panorama of the african old stones, the Nyonyosi figures from north Burkina Faso are perhaps the most unkown to the "large" public of african art lovers.

The area of Burkina Faso of the Nyonyosi stone figures

Discovered between 1961 and 1980 with extensive field researches by the ethnologist Anne Marie Schweeger-Hefel, curator of the Africa division of the Vienna Museum of Ethnology, the stone statues were were later brought to light and made ​​known with a book, published in 1981 by Schweeger-Hefel, Steinskulpturen der Nyonyosi aus Ober-Volta, Fred Jahn Munchen, 1981.

The range of the figures goes from few centimetres to about half a meter and their shapes include anthropomorfic features, more or less stylized, or phallic forms with human features just sketched. 

The estimated age date back to about 600 years ago until more recent production.  Here some examples from the book:

Then some objects went out to the international art market and some of them arrived in Italy too, as shows this book of 1996 published by Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici.

About twenty statues are in the collection this book shows and these are perhaps the most relevant:

But before this the most important Nyonyosi stone, that was also in cover of Schweeger-Hefel book, has been displayed in 1993 in a main exhibition (Götter, Geister, Ahnen in Villa Stuck, Munchen) 

The catalogue of the exhibition

and then the same iconic object has been added to the historical London exhibition by Tom Phillips Africa, the Art of a Continent in 1996 

The controversy following the exhibition caused the restitution of the item to its village, as it has been told by Klaus-Jochen Krüger, who also made field researches in the area, in a article published in 2005 in the Archiv für Völkerkunde (55, 2005, 49-62) Kultobjekt - Kunstobject - Die jüngere Geschichte des Steines von Oure. 

In the following photo Krüger looks to the Oure stone replaced on its shrine:

Here are the links to download the whole paper in German and translated (with Google translate…) in English. 

In my collection I have three little Nyonyosi stones, the friend Krüger gave me: