Sande society
Sande, also known as zadεgi, bundu, bundo and bondo, is a women's initiation society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
[1] It is said by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.
In addition, Sande champions women's social and political interests and promotes their solidarity vis-a-vis the Poro, a complementary institution for men.
[3] As early as 1668, a Dutch geographer named Olfert Dapper published a description of the "Sandy" society as it existed in the Cape Mount region of Liberia, based on a first-hand account that seems to date from 1628.
Today this social institution is found among the Bassa, Gola, Kissi, Kpelle, Loma, Mano and Vai of Liberia; the Kono, Limba, Mende, Sherbro, Temne and Yalunka of Sierra Leone; and in the northern and eastern extension of these ethnic groups in Guinea.
Indeed, the quintessential symbol of Sande among many of the ethnic groups where this woman's association is present – the wooden helmet mask – is entirely absent among the Kpelle, Kono, Loma and Mano.
Adolescent girls are initiated as a group during the post-harvest dry season in a specially cleared area of forest surrounding the town or village.
In the past, the girls are said to have remained in the forest, called the bondo or bush period, for upwards of one year, during which time they made rice farms for the Sande leadership.
The primary purpose of the female genital mutilation (FGM) procedure is to remove the sexual desire and promiscuity of women, thereby making them “clean” and suitable for marriage.
[15] As Carol MacCormack suggests, it is through the bush school where “they begin to anticipate the role of wife who must work cooperatively with her co-wives and her husband's female kin.
They emerge from the forest dressed in their finest clothes, with new names signifying their newly achieved adult status and their persona (i.e. rank) in the association's ritual hierarchy.
In some areas, cicatrization in the form of teeth support the view (held by the uninitiated) that the girls were devoured by a forest spirit that has now returned them to society; although death and rebirth imagery is not a universal feature of Sande initiation.
[17] According to Jedrej (1986), the Sande initiation ritual centers on several sets of spatial and temporal oppositions, such as those between village (public) and forest (secret) space, on the one hand, and ancestral time (sacred) and the present-day (profane) on the other.
The initiate's moral transformation from child to adult occurs in three stages (novice > virgin > bride) marked by public scarification, skin removal, and/or body piercings in the town or village.
Several types of masks, some in wood but many made of leather, fur, and cloth, are used in conjunction with the counterpart male initiation society, the Poro.
"[21] Throughout this region, the complementarity of men's and women's gender roles – evident in such diverse activities as farming, cloth production, and musical performances – reach full expression.
The women's Sande and men's Poro associations alternate political and ritual control of "the land" (a concept embracing the natural and supernatural worlds) for periods of three and four years respectively.
[13] National data continued import of Sande societies in Liberia, as FGM is still practiced by 13 of the 16 tribes, by both Muslim and Christian communities, and by well over half of the women in the North-Central and North-Western regions.
Families who choose to opt out of the Sande or Poro societies in areas where it’s practiced are treated as social outcasts and moral sinners, and are not able to take part in any village decision-making.
[29] After the Liberian Civil War ended in 2003, the government placed a renewed central focus on supporting cultural traditions, such as Sande and Poro societies, and courting their leaders during election campaigns.
Sande and Poro leaders head the National Council of Chiefs and Elders (NCCE), the representative body of traditional authorities in Liberia, and play an advisory role to internal affairs throughout the country, as well as to the state government itself.
[17] The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Henrique Tokpah, like many Liberian politicians, promised to continue to work with all traditional chiefs and zoes in Liberia and to protect their customs.
"[31] As a result of Sande society’s integral role in local national level politics, legislation that has tried to limit FGM practices in Liberia has been largely ineffective.
[33] Due to the political influence zoes hold on nearly two-thirds of the Liberian population, no law actually threatening the power of Sande can be approved at a national level.
[34] However, this cannot be directly attributed to Sande societies losing any of their cultural influence and membership, and might be more suggestive of underreporting due to increased anti-FGM messaging in the media and by the government.
No definitive statistics about the number of women involved in Sande or its temporality exist due to the secretive nature of the society and the widely held fears of retribution for speaking out about its practices, such as FGM.
[17] In 2021, for example, a case made national headlines because Sande members kidnapped five girls and forcefully initiated them due to allegations of public disturbances and the usage of obscene language on sacred land.
[37][38] FGM is considered a volatile and taboo topic of conversation in Liberia, and even international aid organizations refuse to speak publicly about their work.
