A Companion to Global Gender History. Группа авторов
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while always present are the masks of Poro ancestors (Little, 1965: 359). Ojo Arewa and Everett Hale, following G.W. Harley, wrote that:
In general terms the spirits and their accompanying masks fall into three categories. First and most important is the great oracle, the “god spirit”, or, as it is sometimes called, “the devil”, Gbeni. The second category of spirits and masks are those that function as public officials. The final group is the lowest in terms of power and function; in this group the spirits and their associated masks serve as messengers, entertainers, dancers, and clowns.”
(1975: 84)
As with the Sande ndoli jowei, Gbeni will visit three times over the period of initiation in to the Poro. The first time is when new initiates are taken into the Poro, the second a week later where rice is collected, and a final time when the initiates are “pulled out” of the bush. The last time the spirit danced, it resisted giving up the boys, but by hitting the spirit’s belly, he finally gives birth to each new gendered adult male. Much dancing and joy ensues where all join in.
The spirits of the Sande and Poro, represented by the masks, signal the metaphysical power of the societies, which supports their social and political power. A clear statement of this power is expressed in and through the masks associated with the spirits and their respective societies. The masks, however, are not simply representations of the spirits of the Sande and Poro, spirits linked to the very powerful “bush” from which they come; they are also imbued, like all creation, with the power of Ngewo. This power infused the wearer so that they embodied the spirits, making that power available to the Sande and Poro societies and their adherents and initiates (Phillips, 1978: 268). Without the Sande or Poro societies and their capacity to control and use the power of the bush, one was vulnerable to all forms of unseen power – both human and spirit. Entrance into the Sande and Poro required first circumcision, and then once the way was opened (Ferme, 2011: 179), the youth were ready to learn the important social, economic, political, ontological, and metaphysical truths of the Sande and Poro.
Concluding Comments
In the world of the Mende of Sierra Leone, power moves through all creation, and that power is available to humans, but accessing it requires initiation into the Sande or Poro. To enter into either society required the first test of endurance, which then opened the way for proper gender knowledge acquisition. Without circumcision, the bush school was closed and without the bush school the power and protection of the spirits of the bush and the societies were cut off from them. Circumcision allowed one to access the proper gendered knowledge, which then allowed one to succeed in Mende society. Circumcision created and then separated these kinds into female and male creating, maintaining, and affirming Mende gender ideology.
The stakes are high when it comes to systems of belief and practice. In the modern world, governments, all of them, are shaped in and by the dominant system(s) of belief and practice either working alongside, ignoring, and/or suppressing them. Systems of belief and practices shape the parameters of existence and all within it. They shape our past and of course shape the conceptualization of the future. Ritual and myth are media by which we define ourselves and the world, and in so doing bear upon all aspects of our existence. Female and male circumcision practiced by the Mende is given credence and rationality via ritual and myth. Proper gender adults are made in accordance with Mende gender ideology wherein a ritual cut, the removal of the clitoris and the foreskin, was/is necessitated in order to remove the bisexual bit. Although the Mende themselves have not stated this, I suggest that the clitoris might be taken to be masculine, the foreskin taken to be feminine, in order to produce a properly gendered adult, who with the proper gendered knowledge – social, ontological, and metaphysical – will succeed in life. Pulled into the bush, children are circumcised and in this rite opened to their proper gender in order to be schooled. Once their gendered education is complete, they are pulled out of the bush and are ready to take up their roles with their families and in their communities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING
1 Ahmadu, Fuambai (2000) “Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision,” in Bettina Shell‐Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, eds. Female “Circumcision” in Africa: Culture, Controversy and Change. Boulder, London: Lynne Reinner, 283–312.
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4 Arewa, W.O. and Hale, E.E. (1975) “Poro Communications (West Africa). A Spiritual Channel Where Men are the Means of Transmission,” Anthropos 70 (1–2): 78–96.
5 Bell, Catherine (1992) Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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