Kingdoms & polities · attested from the 17th century
Sande (Bundu)
The women's initiation society, counterpart to Poro, holding authority over women's law, medicine and ritual.
Biography
Sande initiated girls into adulthood in a bush school lasting months, teaching household economy, midwifery, medicine, song and the law of women. Its senior officers — the zoes — adjudicated matters concerning women and could act against men who violated them.
It is the only masking tradition in the world in which women themselves wear the masks: the black, high-crowned Sowei helmet mask stands for an ideal of composure and beauty, and its wearer speaks with the society's authority, not her own.
Historical significance
Evidence of an institutionalised women's jurisdiction, with property, courts and sanctions, in societies routinely described in colonial sources as having none.
Timeline
- 17th c.Earliest European notices of women's societies on the coast
- c. 1800Operating in parallel with Poro across the forest belt
- 20th c.Sowei masking documented and collected
Related entries
References
- Boone, Sylvia Ardyn (1986). Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art.
- d'Azevedo, Warren (1994). 'Gola Womanhood and the Limits of Masculine Omnipotence.'
Suggested reading
- Boone (1986).