Nelmasi, born around 1922, was a Numu-carver who lived in Sienra/Sieniana, a village about 10 km south Banfora. He blonged to the Gué or Gouin, a small sub-group of the Senufo, who live in Burkina Faso. A Numu is, like the Fono or the Koulé, a profession group. They are known to work with dry wood from the "Triini" tree only and they carve with hot blades. Nelmasi did carved statues and other objects of daily life on demand only, he never held stock. This couple was collected by Karl-Heinz Krieg in 1968 in Sienra.

After carving, these statues got treated with flames and then sanded. The surface looks, and smells burned. There are no traces or facettes of carving. Especially the mouths do show burned edges, caused by hot blades.

Herta Haselberger did a documentation in 1969, when she visted Nelmasi in Sienra.

Nelmasi, also known as Yelmassi Soulama, died 1988 in Sienra.

Drawing on page 226 of Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Band 94, Heft 2, Verlag Albert Limbach, Braunschweig, 1969. Herta Haselberger.