Horrible looking stone African? figure

I bought this stone figure (a man carried by a man?) with some other stuff from Bamun (Cameroon) and Yoruba (Nigeria). It think it looks to horrendous to have been made for tourists? It is stone, with eyes of cawry shell. Height 18 cm.
Any ideas about tribe and/or age? Original or tourist stuff?
Any ideas

 

Stylisticly a wide jump, but i found one Bamileke stone statue that shows an ugly face just a little bit similar:
http://collectie.wereldculturen.nl/Default.aspx?ccid=526905&lang=
And someone told me it might be some kind of chieftan since outside of there compound they are sometimes carried around for fear of the litterally scorching the ground (in some kind of sun god way). No idea of there is any truth in that story, either.
Hope anyone can shed some light on this ugly but intriging statue.

 

I guess both beauty and ugliness are in the eye of the beholder. To me this figurine looks spiritually significant, which has a beauty of it's own.
Sorry I don't recognize the style, could be African, could be somewhere else. One man carrying another, a symbol of cooperation?

Very wide jump, John. Can't see the similarity

 

Curious and delightful. Stone? Shell? Not combos I know so I am most intrigued and will watch with interest.

 

Interesting, I have no knowledge but with those eyes I might be looking at Papua New Guinea. @Taupou might know.

 

Those shells make it look like it has teeth for eyes. If I had it in my room, I would probably have nightmares. (And I'm a huge horror fan as it is.)

 

Totally right of course, the story could make it interesting. Let's hope, though it seems to be a hard one , someone solves this riddle.

 

Is that a monkey riding on his shoulders? Im with Anyjewelry,I think its beautiful.

 

I started out thinking it was two monkeys but I'm thinking it's a man and child. But what do I know (the answer is ...nothing about this)

 

This isn't something I've seen before, but I do believe it is more likely African than Papua New Guinea.

I would question though, if it's really made from stone. Are you sure it isn't clay? Those slashes for the fingers, for example, would be very difficult to do in stone and to get that effect. Plus one often sees cowrie shells combined with wood or clay, but not with stone.

 

I didn't even notice John mentioned stone. To me it looked like either clay or some natural resin mix.

 

Could be clay, i guess I'll go check if i can recognize the difference. It's very heavy anyway! No hollow ware.

 

Closest image I could find that had some similarity
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/f...ate-19th-century-african-statue/id-f_7751373/

 

Well, material hard to determine. Might be clay, since there doesn't seem to be a different material to glue in the shells. The surface is very smooth, but that could also be patina from offering, maybe? On the base there is a more recent chip, which does look a little bit more porous like fresh, unglazed pottery does.

 

Mmm, not much information their either. The material of this item looks a lot more like clay then mine, as well. Mine is very dark, as you can see, even the chip.

 

looks like some kind of lava stone...so i'm thinking Islands...not african.

 

Bamun (clay) pipe head, from Afrika, kunst aus dem schwarzen erdteil, Gerbrands, 1967. The head of the upper person seems to be broken of. Any resemblence? Or another one of my 'quite a leap's?

 

it's similar...in a not so well made fashion.....

 

Nearly all of the African cowrie-eyed items I found online were from Congo, if that is any help.

 

18cm high, so those are very small cowrie shells. The decision seems to be that it is clay or some sort of resin, and yet for something that could be sculpted it is very basic and lumpen. Is there any chance it is wood? Those extraordinary fingers, yet no toes on the guy being carried ... is he wearing shoes? Are those shirt sleeves? More photos would be good. Also, the cowries must be secured somehow, presumably with plain old glue. I think Uganda area, but that's the wine talking