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“Bondo”, which is sometimes used interchangeably with “Sande”, is a society exclusively for females in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the borders of the Ivory Coast. Most women belonging to the ethnic groups of Temne, Mende, Vai, Kissi, Lele, Susu, Gola, Bassa, Kpelle, Bom, Belle, Gbandi, Loma, Dei, Kim, Kono and others are initiated into a Bondo/Sande society. Bondo/Sande is an organisation as well as a body of knowledge. A woman is initiated into the society and belongs to a chapter in her specific region.
The expression “Where there are women, there is Bondo/Sande” denotes the devotion of women to the society. Initiation into the Bondo/Sande is voluntary in comtemporary times and may be necessary to become a successful female politician; but in earlier periods in West Afrika, it would have been unthinkable for a woman not to be initiated into the society.
Initiation into the Bondo/Sande is psychologically and spiritually transformative. Females “die” into Sande/Bondo which means that they give up the behaviours of children and assums roles and responsibilities of adult women in the community. The belief is that children are born in the physical realm and remain children until they complete the initiation ritual; therefore, girls ritually die as children and are reborn as adults.
At the appropriate time in the initiation process, initiates are taken to the river and washed as a newborn baby, symbolic of new birth. The girls then are also given new names, symbolic of an individuals transformation into a higher being. As higher beings, young women are created to be finer better people. The overarching ontological theme of initiation rites is metamorphic. One of the symbols on the mask used in the initiation ceremony is a butterfly which symbolises emergence from a lower being to an evolved higher being.
The transformation process begins in a section of the forest consecrated as the sacred forest. The campus is surrounded by a fence to ensure privacy. New initiates enter and remain in the sacred forest for a period that can range from a few months to 1 year and the location is always near a river. Water, trees, stones, the sacred forest and other elements of nature are interconnected with the ritual of initiation.
