Combining advantageous lineage, shrewd marriage choices and the power afforded her from the secret Sande society, Yoko became a leader of considerable influence.
At puberty she was initiated into the Sande Society, where she was instructed in singing, dancing, medicine, and childbearing, along with other roles associated with being a wife and mother.
Madam Yoko married her second husband Gbenje, he was a son of another Kpe Mende pioneer warrior and Chief of Taiamav.
Gbneje grew sick and died, and Yoko underwent purification ceremonies for preparation to be remarried.
After getting her husband released, Gbanya used Yoko in diplomatic missions with the British, which helped her to gain and develop her reputation as a political figure.
She was able to gain control of all Kpa Mende (fourteen separate chiefdoms) by making alliances and using judicious force.
Male chiefs would also create alliances by taking daughters from a hundred or more leading families and marry them.
[7] In 1898, the British declared their Protectorate and a law was put in place ordering all chiefs to collect “5-shilling tax on every house in the land”.