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| Interior Minister Morris Dukuly |
Travel around rural Liberia today and you will find that parents have devalued education and are now extolling the virtues and efficacies (values, worth, effectiveness) of the traditional methods of the Sande/Poro Societies (bush schools) over formal education for their daughters. They prefer to send their girls to the Sande bush instead of putting them in the modern school system. Were to visit the schools, you would find that most of the teenagers who should be in those class-rooms sitting at home or in training in the bush schools.
The two most powerful indigenous cultural institutions in Liberia are the Poro and Sande societies. The Poro is for men and the Sande for women. Both are educational institutions and at the same time secret societies with very strong laws governing the preservation of their sacred aspects. (Cultural Policy in Liberia, Kenneth Y. Best, 1974)
In his Cultural Policy book, Mr. Best said the instructional content in the Poro school also included farming, hunting, fishing, hut construction, military tactics, artistic training (such as handicrafts, drumming, dancing and singing), tribal history, law and religion. For all its emphasis on education, however, the real power of the Poro resides in the spiritual force it personalizes and professes to possess. He argued that the Poro Society was basically supernatural in character. The Sande Society is the guardian of feminine chastity. The girls learn to be mothers and home-makers, and they also learn personal hygiene, fishing and feminine crafts such as basketry.
This is how a rural-based mother puts her thoughts on this matter: “We do not have the power to stop this practice but there should be some limitation or restriction. Back in those days, these practices would only take place when schools were closed. However, these days, they are being practiced even when schools are in session; wherein most of the female students will be pulled out of school and taken to the bush to be initiated and subjected to female genital mutilation. This is undermining the formal educational advancement of teenage girls in our town.”
Meanwhile, in its reminder to traditional leaders – be they men or women – the Ministry of International said that any violation of Count #3 or any attempt by traditional leaders to infringe on the human and civil rights of any citizens or foreign residents will be punished in accordance with provisions of the traditional and civil laws of Liberia.
The two most powerful indigenous cultural institutions in Liberia are the Poro and Sande societies. The Poro is for men and the Sande for women. Both are educational institutions and at the same time secret societies with very strong laws governing the preservation of their sacred aspects. (Cultural Policy in Liberia, Kenneth Y. Best, 1974)
In his Cultural Policy book, Mr. Best said the instructional content in the Poro school also included farming, hunting, fishing, hut construction, military tactics, artistic training (such as handicrafts, drumming, dancing and singing), tribal history, law and religion. For all its emphasis on education, however, the real power of the Poro resides in the spiritual force it personalizes and professes to possess. He argued that the Poro Society was basically supernatural in character. The Sande Society is the guardian of feminine chastity. The girls learn to be mothers and home-makers, and they also learn personal hygiene, fishing and feminine crafts such as basketry.
This is how a rural-based mother puts her thoughts on this matter: “We do not have the power to stop this practice but there should be some limitation or restriction. Back in those days, these practices would only take place when schools were closed. However, these days, they are being practiced even when schools are in session; wherein most of the female students will be pulled out of school and taken to the bush to be initiated and subjected to female genital mutilation. This is undermining the formal educational advancement of teenage girls in our town.”
Meanwhile, in its reminder to traditional leaders – be they men or women – the Ministry of International said that any violation of Count #3 or any attempt by traditional leaders to infringe on the human and civil rights of any citizens or foreign residents will be punished in accordance with provisions of the traditional and civil laws of Liberia.
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