Cultural power, ritual symbolism and human rights violations in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This paper explores the links between the socio-cultural power structures of the Poro and Bondo secret societies and their interactions with internationalist human rights discourse in postconflict Sierra Leone. It argues that these secret societies offer gendered and cultural spaces that serve as social and political mobilizing symbols. These societies further provide forums as well as a stage for counter-discourses about gender-based violence and human rights violations, particularly with regards to the campaign against female circumcision. The paper concludes that despite internal tensions and squabbles, the Bondo secret societiy has gained most of its present-day solidarity by broadly disseminating to both members and non-members the highly charged narrative that the society’s exposure leads to its destruction. The Bondo society has been able to maintain cohesion and defend its interests by appropriating and invoking traditional knowledge and ritual codes.

Keywords:

• postconflict
• secret society
• female circumcision
• tradition
• modernity

Public Interest Statement

This study examines how members of the male and female secret societies—the Poro and the Bondo that are significant in gendered personhood and socialization are increasingly misappropriating their culturally privileged positions and falsely victimizing and violating the human rights of non-members in the name of defending tradition whereas in reality they are defending and preserving their personal socio-economic and political interests within local power structures in Sierra Leone that are being threatened by the global anti-female circumcision discourse. To keep its shape in the face of criticisms that are partly associated with ritual female circumcision which is a quintessential badge of gendered personhood, Bondo members are forwarding the society as being under threat from outsiders including human rights groups. They have accordingly responded by invoking the force of tradition–traditional knowledge and ritual codes.

Notes

1. These comprise internal refugee camps where people temporarily settled during the war after their homes were invaded by the war lords in the decade long (1990–2002) Sierra Leone civil war. A number of people still live in these IDP centres despite the end of the civil war.

2. The Bondo is hierarchically structured.

3. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2013/09/17/sierra-leone-president-dr-ernest-bai-koroma-keynote-speech-during-town-hall-meeting-on-africa-at-the-world-bank-harnessing-the-capacity-of-the-african-diaspora-in-buildin

4. CTN studios are located at the University of Sierra Leone—Fourah-Bay College. The radio station was donated by the UN as part of post-war reconstruction funding for a new faculty of media studies and communication at the flagship Fourah Bay College.

5. It is generally believed by many Bondo adherents that calls for eradication of FGC were brought about by foreigners symbolised by the term “white man”. The “white man” in this context refers to Europeans especially those they see working for international organisation like the UN (field notes).

6. The mixed race man was not amused to be called a white man and the convenors did not care to correct the Sowei who was referring to him as a white man.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The author received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta

Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta holds a Dphil in Sociology and Anthropology from the Central European University (CEU) Budapest, Hungary. Apart from teaching stints at the Universities of Yaounde1, Cameroon and University College Dublin, he is an independent scholar and a consultant for several NGOs in both his native Cameroon and abroad-thereby cross-pollinating between the fields of anthropology and development. He is co-founder and expert anthropologist for the Noble Social Group NGO, in Limbe, Cameroon. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Cameroon, Chad, South Africa and Sierra Leone. He is author of dozens and counting peered reviewed articles and two books on female circumcision. His research interests include gender, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, environmental policy, ethnography, medical sociology/anthropology, social science and medicine, colonialism and postcolonialism.

Tabi Chama-James Tabenyang

Tabi Chama-James Tabenyang holds an Master’s degree in Anthropology (2011) at the Walter Sisulu University, South Africa. He is presently constructing a PhD thesis at the University of Bayreuth, Germany on oil as a source of local entrepreneurship in Chad as part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) funded project “Oil and significations in Chad and Niger”.