Mask of the Sande Society

Masks like this are commissioned for the Sande, a powerful society composed of women of the Mende people of Sierra Leone. In this patriarchal culture, young women enter adulthood through Sande initiation, which is held at a women’s compound. It teaches song, dance, botany, and cooking, while also exploring sexuality and motherhood, in an environment that offers greater freedom than village life allows. But it begins with a surgical procedure that many cultures find deeply controversial: a clitoridectomy. Initiation concludes with feasting, communal celebration, and dancing by the Ndoli Jowei. An expert dancer, the Ndoli Jowei wears raffia garments and a sacred mask like this one, which embodies a river spirit, and dances silently while her Sande sisters sing around her.