

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 8 February 2015









































You can watch the BBC Hardtalk debate here:



  1. Santhkie Sorie: Please explain to me, if you can, what you mean by these statements giving examples where possible. In anticipation of your quick response. Thank you.

    “…But when I saw that you were using language unbecoming of a man dealing with a female issue, it upset me. I am sure, my academic, that it is not lost to you that some of the hair raising, gruesome words which you have tapped to describe Bondo, you will not dare use in the north, south and east of Sierra Leone.

    You claim to speak eight languages, implying that you have lived in all corners of Sierra Leone. Did you ever use F.G.M. to describe Bondo in these places or you were only able to find your daring self once you were being jetted across the Atlantic?”

    Below is a 2012 research paper on FGM in Sierra Leone. Let me know in case you need the article itself. Any more comments from you on this?


    Female Genital Mutilation in Sierra Leone: who are the decision makers?



    The objectives of this study were to identify decision makers for FGM and determine whether medicalization takes place in Sierra Leone. Structured interviews were conducted with 310 randomly selected girls between 10 and 20 years in Bombali and Port Loko Districts in Northern Sierra Leone. The average age of the girls in this sample was 14 years, 61% had undergone FGM
    at an average age of 7.7 years (range 1-18). Generally, decisions to perform FGM were made by women, but father was mentioned as the one who decided by 28% of the respondents. The traditional excisors (Soweis) performed 80% of all operations, health professionals 13%, and traditional birth attendants 6%. Men may play a more important role in the decision making
    process in relation to FGM than previously known. Authorities and health professionals’ associations need to consider how to prevent further medicalization of the practice. (Afr J Reprod Health 2012; 16[4]: 119-131).

    Table 2: Names of aspects of Bondo Society in the Main Sierra Leonean Languages.

    Ethnic Name of Bondo Name of Head of Name of new initiate Name of noninitiate
    Group Society Society/Bush

    Fulah Baytee Barajelli Betijor Jiwor

    Limba Bondo Baregba Gbonka Gboroka

    Loko Bondona Digba Bondona/Bondofayra Gborrga

    Mende Sande Sokonday/Sowei/Majo Sandewi Kpowei

    Susu Guhngiri Joangojeri Taysingeh Amoogaangeh

    Temne Bondo Digba Aboanka Gburka”

  2. Mustache, you can call me all the names you want. It won’t make the littlest difference to my position that whatever pertains to Sierra Leone – in the name of culture – should be the business of Sierra Leoneans, and Sierra Leoneans alone.

    I am not a neocolonialist, that is, I do not subscribe to anything that is characterised by the odour of imperialism, however subtle the procedure is. I simply get very hot under the collar when anybody, like your CNN, tries to control me from afar.

    If this whole thing , which you describe as F.G.M., and which I call Bondo, had entirely originated from you – using refined language – I would have seen it as your right to express yourself whichever way you felt comfortable as a Sierra Leonean. But when I saw that you were using language unbecoming of a man dealing with a female issue, it upset me. I am sure, my academic , that it is not lost to you that some of the hair raising , gruesome words which you have tapped to describe Bondo , you will not dare use in the north, south and east of Sierra Leone.


    Allow me to remind you Mustache that different methods are always being used by outsiders to sow trouble on the continent. If they don’t use religion, they use something else , like our source of argument at the moment . Bondo was there during the period of Indirect Rule [ I faced a question on this when I took my O’Levels ]. Why was it not described as F.G.M. then, my academic, by the CNN of the world ?

    Using the expression sister or brother is quite simply within the realm of endearment. Allah/God knows that I hold no grudge against you.; we are just moving at tangents this time, who knows what the future holds ?

    There is something I must reiterate : my position is not for or against Bondo. Take a look at everything I have written so far. I simply believe that whatever is part of our society should be altered, amended or banned by us and no one else, after deliberation. That’s why Sir Milton and others fought for our independence , although we have made a mess of it economically.

    This will be my final comment.

  3. Santhkie Sorie: Have you been able to “place” me now? My origin(s) and ethnicity? etc. Anyway, Bondo is an underworld practice from a marine spirit with strings of beads around its waist. The more reason why it is always done close to a stream, river or grove- historically considered sacred in pagan cultures that have ethnographic accounts. For further reading on this, see Helen F. Leslie Jacobsen, “The Sacred Grove in Scandinavian/Germanic Pre-Christian Religion,” University of Bergen. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

    According to Dubinskas, a finely carved sowei mask is nyande (“good,” “pretty,” “beautiful” and aesthetically “pleasing”) when it includes the following elements, each of which has a symbolic meaning:

    Full forehead = Wisdom, intelligence

    Somnolent, downcast eyes = Modesty

    Shining black color = Mystery

    Neck rings = Health and prosperity (as well as the mask’s mythic rise out of the water)

    Birds = Messengers between spirits and humans

    Cowries = Wealth

    White cloth = Ritual purity

    Fish, snakes, tortoises = The riverine home of sowei

    Antelope horns and lasimoi (scripture) = “Good medicine” (hale nyande)

    Three-legged cooking pot = represents sowei as a repository of women’s knowledge, and as a symbol of domesticity.

    Based on ritual purity mentioned above, Fuambai Ahmadu woefully failed it. For she had had sexual experience before initiation. Did you know this, Santhkie Sorie? Absolutely not. Shame on you!

    Lastly, we have been hoodwinked too long to believing that the pagan Bondo Devil Mask is good. On the contrary, it is terribly bad. And must be stopped. Amen.

  4. Santhkie Sorie: Zeinab, who is a foreigner from Egypt, has now become your “sister” on FGM. And I your own Salone brother an enemy for simply opposing the practice that leads to a lifelong excruciating pain, bloodshed and even death. You are a typical lightweight Sierra Leonean without any sense of reasoning. Shame on your naiveté. May God have mercy on you. Amen.

    I can conclusively say that supporting FGM practice of any kind today is devilish and a big disgrace to anyone, irrespective of title or status in society.

    As a Christian, let me leave you with the following Shakespearean warning on Merchant of Venice Act 4, Scene 1 (Modern Text).

    “PORTIA: So get ready to cut off the flesh. Don’t shed any blood, or cut less or more than exactly a pound of flesh. If you take more or less than exactly a pound, even if it’s just the tiniest fraction of an ounce—if the scale changes by even so much as a hair, you die, and all your property will be confiscated.

    GRATIANO: A Daniel, Jew! I’ve got you now, pagan.”

  5. Santhkie Sorie: I am an academic from the South and North of Sierra Leone. I speak at least 8 local languages, and have traveled in all the 12 Districts of the country as a Consultant.

    Question: What crime has the clitoris committed that it must be tampered with and chopped off from a woman?

    Please respond to this question and remain focused to the subject of FGM. Thank you.

  6. No, my sister Zainab , mustache is not a Jew. If he were, he and his cohorts would know about circumcision. I think the man needs to sit down, take a deep breath and ask himself who he really is. I doubt his nationality as a Sierra Leonean.

    If indeed Mustache is a Sierra Leonean, I would like to know his origins, especially which part of the country he was born and which local language he can speak. He does not have to reveal much for me to place him.

    Somebody like him, if he is honest about his nationality, is someone whose shadow should never be allowed to darkened the corridors of power in Sierra Leone. He is a massively dangerous character, whose sole purpose would be to dance to the tune of foreigners.

    I am so glad that the indomitable Fuambai has unnerved him and others who think like him, who are not sure who they are anymore.

    My challenge to him still holds : travel to the north, south and east of Sierra Leone, and use the same language to rest your case.

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