The 21st Century African youth Movement is envisaging showcasing several significant masking traditions of the Mende people in the South and Eastern Provinces of Sierra Leone. These will be the Gorboi, Kongoli, Nafaiyeh, Jaweh Yafei and the women’s masking tradition, the Sowei.
Twelve years of rebel war ravaged most of Sierra Leone. During the last decade, this beautiful country was the scene for the most gruesome atrocities in recent history. Both the war and prevailing poverty contributed immensely to the looting, stealing and selling of Mende artifacts out of the country. The rebel war was concentrated in the South and Eastern part of Sierra Leone, the land of the Mende people. “Masking Spirits Across the Waters: The Richness of Mende Expressive Culture of Sierra Leone and its Impact on America” will be a comprehensive attempt to bring together and catalogue the artifacts and culture of the Mende people in a way that can be both scholarly and entertaining.
To make this exhibition a wonderful educational experience and a cultural phenomenon “Masking Spirits Across the Waters: The Richness of Mende expressive Culture of Sierra Leone and its Impact on America” will entail a symposium and a series of lectures by qualified scholars and non-scholars. We envisage a great and enriching cultural extravaganza. Please give us all the help to make this possible.
About the Mende Language:
Mende is one of two indigenous Sierra Leonean languages with a written script. Vai is another one. Mende is a language predominantly spoken in the South and Eastern provinces of Sierra Leone.
The writing system, referred to as Ki KA Ku – the first three symbols, was designed in the early 1920s by Kisimi Kamara and others living in Vaama, a small town in the South of Sierra Leone.
Each symbol of the Mende script represents one syllable, and the symbols are read from right to left. Its design was probably influenced by the two other languages Kamara spoke: Arabic and Vai. Vai is a language spoken primarily in Liberia. Its writing system dates back to the 1830s.