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1979 Freetown, Liberia, Initiation ceremony, slavery, Sao Tome, cocoa, ju-ju |
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While working for Maryland Logging Company in Maryland County, Liberia in 1979, I visited Freetown, a small village on the Cavalla River that separates Liberia from Ivory Coast. By coincidence of timing, I was invited to see part of a girls' initiation ceremony -see the photo. In the region of this same village, men had been captured and taken to work on cocoa plantations on the Island of Sao Tome in the early 20th century. A Harvard University expedition that passed through the region around 1925 noted an unusual absence of men. Had all of them been carried off to Sao Tomé? One house in Freetown had a 16' to 18' drum hung diagonally on its side. Was the drum to notify other villages of the slavers' presence in the area? Scattered around the village were mini-corrals about 4' x 4' x 3' filled with animal bones. It was the only village I'd ever been in that had this kind of thing. Were these corrals used as Ju-ju magic to protect the villagers and its inhabitants from the slavers? |
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