Poro

The Poro, or Purrah or Purroh, is a men's secret society in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast, introduced by the Mane people (the Mande Elites leading large-scale migrations from the Mali Empire into the southern coastal areas).

Under its civil aspects, the society serves as a kind of native governing body, making laws, deciding on war and peace, etc.

"Liberian religious culture is characterised by a predisposition towards secrecy (encapsulated in the concept of ifa mo - "do not speak it") and an ingrained belief in the intervention of mysterious forces in human affairs".

"[4] "Beliefs include the conviction that there are deep and hidden things about an individual that only diviners, priests, and other qualified persons can unravel.

[4] "The ceremonies of the Purrah are presided over by the Poro devil, a man in fetish dress, who addresses the meeting through a long tube of wood, known as a bull-roarer (voice distorter which delivers a bloodcurdling stream of sounds, and is made from a tube with holes cut into it over which discs of membrane from the egg sacks of a particular spider are spread over)."

[3] In 1897 the British local government was compelled to pass a special ordinance forbidding the imposition of the taboo on all indigenous products.

[3] In 2009, rock-throwing Poro members protested the selection of Elizabeth Simbiwa Sogbo-Tortu as the first female chief of the Nimiyama Chiefdom in eastern Sierra Leone.

[5] During his rule, Charles Taylor is reported to have coopted the Poro Society, which helped him project an aura of mystery and invincibility.