Mende

By Jude C. Aguwa

Mende (Men-day), Mendes, Huro, Wuro

The term Mende refers to both the people and the language. The Vai use the term Huro or Wuro. Mende-speaking people occupy southern and east­ern Sierra Leone, and there is a small group in Liberia. Their territory falls within the rain forest belt that spans West Afri­ca. The terrain consists of fertile hills to the north; in the south and coastal areas there are plains and swamps. The narrow strip of coastland forms the western and southwestern boundary between the Mende and the Sherbro-Bullom, the Krim, and the Vai The easternmost part of Sierra Leone and the northeast are populated by the Kissi and the Kron peo­ples, respectively. The Jong, Sewa, and Moa rivers flowing from the more hilly northern region of Sierra Leone intersect Mende territory in the west, center, and east.

The Mende account for about one-third of the population of Sierra Leone. In the 1931 census, among the protectorate population of 1,672,058, the Mende numbered 572,678. In the 1992 national population estimate of 4,456,370, the Mende numbered 1.5 million. In the 2004 census the national population estimate was 4,976,871, so the Mende population might be estimated at over 1.6 million.

Mende is a member of the Mande language subgroup of the Niger-Congo family of languages. Mande is the language of the Mandigos of the kingdom of Mali. The Mande group is one of two dominant groups of languages in the area; the other one is the West Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. Within Mende, three major dia­lect groups are distinguished: Kpa-Mende in the west, Sewa­Mende in the center, and Ko-Mende in the east.

Linguistic and cultural traits suggest that the Mende are de­scendants of the thirteenth- century Mali Empire. Before the eighteenth century Mende territory did not extend to its present coastal areas, and territorial increase resulted from wars. Through wars and raids and subjugation and enslave­ment of other peoples, the Mende assimilated other groups, such as the Sherbro and the Vai. Mende cultural expansion and domination, referred to as "mendenization," continued through the colonial era, although more peacefully as Mende settlements spread in the trading areas. This geographic mo­bility explains aspects of Mende cultural diversity, particular­ly dialectic differences.

Occupational activities as hunting, fishing, and agriculture favored the original settlements of small groups that eventu­ally became villages and towns. A chiefdom consists of sec­tions, with each section made up of a group of villages and towns. The ever-present possibility of attack favored placing houses close together behind a stockade. Traditional houses, usually with one story, were round or rectangular and were strongly built of wattle and mud daub with a palm thatch roof. A rectangular house usually has a veranda and two or three rooms. With the availability of cement and corrugated sheeting since the 1900s, most new houses in towns and some in remote villages have cement block walls and "pan" roof covering.

The Mende are an agricultural people who engage in gardening around their homes and rice farming in the outer lands. Rice is the staple crop, and community life is organized around its production, storage, and distribution. Supplementary food crops include cassava, yams, sesame, and millet. Palm nuts are harvested for vegetable oil, and raf­fia palms are tapped for wine. Garden crops include chili pep­pers, eggplant, and tomatoes. Families raise some poultry and keep domestic animals for meat. Fishing is done mainly in the three large rivers that intersect the Mende territory.

In the local markets families sell excess food products and buy those they lack. Traders buy salt, cocoa, coffee, ginger, groundnuts, and kola nuts. Other market products are palm oil, palm kernels, palm wine, and raffia. Commercial activities have increased as towns and urban markets have grown, and a variety of new products, including imported materials, have become available. Some trading towns originated with the development of railroads and motor roads. The hawking of food and a variety of small items at the parks and stations has become a popular com­mercial practice to supplement family income.

Craft products include various forms of earthenware, clothes, mats, twine, and brooms. Blacksmiths produce hoes, machetes, and other iron implements. Implements associated with fishing are nets, hooks, and dugout ca­noes. Sculpted objects include masks used for initiation ceremonies, ritual objects such as icons of spiritual entities, and "medicine" objects. There are various musical instru­ments, including drums, wooden xylophones, other stringed instruments, and decorated gourd rattlers. Stringed beads and shell rattlers are worn by dancers.

Traditionally, the commodities traded were essen­tially agricultural products: rice, coffee, and palm oil. Other important items of trade were implements and objects used for farming and fishing. These products were exported to northern neighbors, who supplied beef and beef products and salt to the Mende. Before the introduction of a cash econo­my, trade was local and was carried out by the simple ex­change of products. Trading activities later expanded to involve most of the neighboring areas and farther regions and to include salt, gold, and diamonds.

Rice farming is central in the economy, and men, women, and children contribute labor to the family farm. Clearing the land of vegetation in preparation for farm­ing is typically "men's work." In a large household the senior wife organizes the junior women for rice planting and cook­ing food for the work group. It is women's job to thresh, clean, and parboil rice. Young men also engage in rice plant­ing and build fences to protect the farm from rats. Children help with weeding. Men climb palms to cut the fruit and tap wine, and women collect the fruit and press the oil. Women fish the inland rivers and spin thread, and men engage in weaving and blacksmithing. In 1990s, many men left the vil­lage to work in mines. Both men and women could engage in cleri­cal, professional, and trading activities, but most domestic chores were still done by women.

The paramount chief is the principal custo­dian of all the land in the chiefdom. He is assisted in adminis­tering it by elders who are the descendants of the settlers who first cultivated the land. A first land cultivator gained the right of occupation, which was inherited by his descendants after his death. The paramount chief, the chiefs, and the sub­chiefs exercise land ownership authority; the rest of the peo­ple in the community are landholders with only temporary rights of personal occupation and use of land. When his need for it ceases, the land used by a landholder reverts to the community.

The basic kinship institution is the household mawe. A man and his wives and children con­stitute a small household. A large household may have two or more adults with consanguinous kinship, their wives and children, and relatives such as mothers and sisters. A house­hold is patrilineal as well as patrilocal, and wives become members of the household through marriage. Male siblings and their wives and children settle in compounds (kuwui). Leadership of a compound is inherited by the oldest male in the lineage. Several compounds and the households of slaves constitute a village, and an aggregation of villages makes up a town. Towns and villages make up a section of a chiefdom.

Mende kinship involves a bifurcat­ed merging pattern with Iroquois patrilineal cousin terminology. Parents have the same kin terms as some uncles and aunts, and other relatives are terminologically distinguished from parents. Collateral uncles and aunts are well distin­guished, whereas parallel cousins are classed together.

Marriage is usually exogamous and patrilocal. Young men who have reached maturity and can provide bride-wealth and women past adolescence are eligible for marriage. Marriage is a sign of social progress, and celibacy is considered an anomaly. Marriage can be contracted at a very early age, but its consummation requires initiation into the poro society for a man and the sande society for a woman. Polygyny is a popular practice that enhances a man's social prestige. It enables the man to take care of his sexual needs when one wife is breast-feeding a baby and sexual intercourse with her is forbidden. Economically, polygyny provides labor for rice farming and other "women's work," such as domestic chores, running cottage industries, and participating in trad­ing. The senior wife, who enjoys respect from the junior wives and is her husband's confidant, is responsible for organizing the other wives for work. Thus, marriage is an agricultural asset as well as a capital investment. Divorce traditionally was not common, but exceptional circumstances could lead the husband to dissolve the marriage and demand a refund of the bride-wealth. These circumstances included desertion, compulsive infidelity, insulting the husband's parents, and practicing witchcraft or sorcery. Persistent abuse by a hus­band could lead to divorce when the relatives of the woman demanded her return to their family. After a divorce children usually remain with their father if they are past the age of breast-feeding.

The mawe, consisting of a husband, his wives, their children, and the husband's parents, constitutes a basic domestic, social, and farming unit. The numerical composition of the household can vary to include more older men and grandchildren, and the smaller conjugal unit of a man and his wife and children is not considered typical. The domestic unit provides food and shelter for the members, and serves as the primary institution of education, bringing up children and teaching them the values and techniques of Mende culture.

In traditional Mende society land is the prin­cipal item of inheritance, and since land holding is house­hold-based, the patrilineal form of inheritance is prevalent. After a man's death the immediate heirs to his land are his brothers in order of age. His sons come next and then his daughters. In the absence of brothers, sons, and daughters, a matrilinial nephew becomes the heir. After the nephew's death the land reverts to the descendants of the original own­ers. Since the introduction of a Western legal system, this practice has been challenged, and sometimes sons claim their father's land from their paternal uncles.

Mothers are the principal agents in child rearing, beginning with breast-feeding. If the mother be­comes very sick, any other relative with milk can take over. Usually tied to the back with lappa, a large piece of cloth, children are carried by the mother as she works. Older sib­lings act as baby-sitters. Through imitation children learn the names and proper addresses and titles of their relatives.  There is a popular practice of sending children of about the age of six to distant relatives, who are more strict than par­ents in teaching them about household chores, general re­sponsibilities, and good behavior. At about age thirteen girls and boys are ready to be initiated into the sande and poro societies. The initiation process is the traditional place where young people learn cultural mores and prepare for adult life as wives and husbands. In spite of Western education, initia­tion is still carried out, sometimes in modified forms.

At the apex of Mende social institu­tions is the ruling class, which consists of the paramount chief, a descendant of the founder of the territory. The para­mount chief enjoys the highest social recognition, and the section chiefs are subordinate to him. Village and town heads are respected for their age and leadership in their lineages. Secret, ritual, and medical societies such as humui, Njayei, poro and sande play vital roles in the maintenance and trans­mission of societal norms and values. Initiation and marriage confer special status and recognition. The family or house­hold is the basic social and productive unit and plays the pri­mary group role. The individual also relates to the kindred, lineage, village, and town in graded order of rights and obli­gations. Men who have wealth through successful rice culti­vation and are married to several women have a distinguished recognition as "big men" and represent a dis­tinct social stratum.

A section, consisting of a town and villages, is the basic political unit. Political leadership resides with the section chief or subchief, who usually is the oldest person and the most suitable in the male line, the descendant of a victorious warrior and founder of the settlement. Women also can be chiefs. A paramount chief rules over sev­eral sections. Political claims are also based on being a de­scendant of the founder of the territory or chiefdom. The paramount chief governs with the assistance of a council con­sisting of a speaker, subchiefs, title holders, and village heads. The chief and the council exercise political and judicial pow­ers. They make decisions on matters of public interest, adju­dicate land disputes, and punish lawbreakers. The social duty of the poro society traditionally included the maintenance of law and order in the chiefdom. Since the late nineteenth cen­tury Mende political culture has been influenced by Western systems, as in the institution of the "bench," whose members serve as jurors.

Accusations of witchcraft are a major source of conflict and social tension in traditional Mende so­ciety. Other accusations may derive from medical malprac­tice or sorcery, sexual offences, dispute over inheritance, and other situations likely to endanger communal values. To maintain communal values or assure conformity and to guar­antee that tendencies toward dangerous forms of individual­ism and aggressive behavior are brought under control, Mende culture has customs, rules, standards, morals, and sanctions. The family and the secret societies are schools where young people learn these cultural values. Mechanism of social control is exemplified in heads of groups entrusted with authority to deal with domestic disputes, the native court under the chief, and religious specialists who prescribe and supervise rituals for redressing individual or group viola­tions.

For much of their history from the sixteenth until the early eighteenth century the Mende were aggressors against their neighbors: the Bullom-Sherbro, Vai, and Gola. Mende fighters participated in the wars and revolts of the co­lonial period, which ended in 1961 with the independence of Sierra Leone. The civil war in Liberia in early 1990 brought many Liberian Mende into Sierra Leone as refugees, and many of their settlements were in Mende territory. In the Si­erra Leone civil war, after the overthrow of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah's government by Major Jonny Paul Koroma in May 1997, Mende involvement was pronounced. The civil war, besides having colonial roots, also resulted from diverse group interests, especially in controlling the diamond busi­ness. Kamajors, the reputed traditional hunters, who are mostly Mende, made up the major part of the Revolutionary United Front's army that fought against government forces. With the intervention of Nigerian-led international troops and British and United Nations forces, fighting subsided in 2001. Pockets of antigovernment forces still exist in the for­ests and continue to threaten the fragile cease-fire.

Ngewo, the supreme being in Mende re­ligion, is the creator of the universe and everything in it. After creating the world, Ngewo went up to heaven and rare­ly intervenes directly in human affairs, although nothing good or evil can happen without his permission. Ancestral spirits are venerated, and prayers to Ngewo are channeled through them. Other categories of natural, occupational, and evil spirits (Ngafanga) exist. Through sacrifices and other rit­uals, often conducted by specialists, people propitiate the spirits and ask for their protection and blessings. Mende tra­ditional religion has declined since the advent of Western Christianity. A current religious feature is an eclectic tenden­cy to mix elements of traditional religion with those of Chris­tianity.

In a variety of functions and situa­tions individuals and groups relate to halei (power), which is connected with Ngewo. Most religious functions are heredi­tary, but the spirit that superintends any function must estab­lish through signs that the individual has a calling. Priests of the various nature and occupational deities offer sacrifices to them and through them to Ngewo. Diviners are traditional diagnosticians of illness and misfortune and see beyond the present and interpret omens. The healing doctor also exer­cises priestly functions in ritual healing. He prepares protec­tive charms against the harmful activities of angry or malevolent spirits and their agents. Other ritual societies conduct special rituals for the healing of particular types of wounds and to cleanse the land of defilements. Among the religious specialists are the leaders of secret societies, who ex­ercise some religious roles during the initiation of their mem­bers.

Birth ceremonies, which take several forms, announce the arrival of new members of the community. They often require sacrifices to the deity through whose be­nevolence the child is born. The poro and sande initiation ceremonies are educational and are arranged in stages for the ordered maturing of young people. Marriage ceremonies in­volve community participation and are essential for conjugal prosperity and stability. Rituals of farm work procure bless­ings of fertility and prosperity for the crops and purify the farm of any defilements resulting from the violation of taboos. There are ceremonies for the installation of chiefs and for ju­dicial procedures in the courts. Other ceremonies pertain to initiation of the members of "medicine societies" and the effi­cacy of their work. The rite of "crossing the water" is part of the final rite of passage, performed as a funerary rite to en­sure ancestral status for the deceased. Ancestors are remem­bered with ceremonies involving prayers and sacrifices; the "red rice" ceremony is used to appease their anger.

Artistic activities are learned and exercised in social and religious contexts. Certain artistic works, such as carv­ing, require a special calling of an individual. Storytelling and oratory are popular. Mende myths are learned by initiates of the poro and sande societies, who also perform music and dances. The masks used in initiation, particularly the sande society mask, are outstanding works of sculpture. Sierra Leonian dance troupes in the 1990s had a strong Mende ar­tistic flavor.

The halei (medicine man) and several "medi­cine societies" deal with illness, which can have physical or spiritual causes. The spiritual causes include individual moral deficiencies and the malevolent activities of spirits and their agents. The diviner discovers the cause of an illness or mis­fortune. The medicine man or healing doctor prepares medi­cines and administers them. Medicines are prepared from herbs and other natural substances. Protective medicine can consist of charms and inoculation with "power substances." When medicine is prepared and consecrated, it is believed to be impregnated with efficacy. Since the advent of scientific medicine and Christianity in Mende society, the use of tradi­tional medicine has been on the decline, especially in towns and cities.

Death is often imputed to witchcraft or activities of spirits and their agents. However, death in old age is accepted as natural, and inquiries into other causes are not necessary. Natural death is not considered a calamity, but the death of a young person is considered a "bad death." Based on the status of the deceased and the gender, different funerary rites apply. The rites of passage ensure that a dead person who has the moral qualifications "crosses the river" and becomes an ancestor. Ancestors continue to live as spir­its and their earthly relatives keep their memory alive in ritu­als.

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