Secret Society Issues Death Threats for Isata Jah

By Samuel Kargbo

According to reports reaching this medium from the village of Gbinti in the Lokomasama Chiefdom, Port Loko District in Northern Sierra Leone, a young lady, Isata Jah, narrowly escaped death at the hands of the dreaded female secret society in Sierra Leone, the ‘Sowei Secret Society’.

According to our source, she was abducted from her home in the village in connivance with her aunt, and later taken to the Sowei Secret Society shrine in the forest, where she was going to be forcefully initiated into the society.

It was further disclosed that the Sowei Secret Society ritual is much more rigorous and dangerous than the Bondo Society, as they are involved in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and are also responsible for initiating all initiates of the Bondo Secret Society.

Our source however shied away from giving us a vivid description of the ritual, as it is believed that any exposure of their rites or rituals to non-initiates will incur the wrath of the gods or ‘devils’, which are said to have mystical powers beyond human understanding.

Our source only explained the activities of the second initiation that is carried out on girls of the Bondo Secret Society, describing it as a very dangerous rite, which is detrimental to their physical and mental health and even leads to death, as these young girls often bleed non-stop.

Furthermore, according to our source, part of the society’s main ritual is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a practice that is age-old and declared by traditionalists as part of their culture, but which civilized parts of the globe frown upon and have even criminalized. However, in Sierra Leone, though the government has informally agreed to stop the practice, it is still being practiced because those in authority still hold the belief that it is a necessary and accepted rite for young girls and women, and supporting such practices brings votes.

During an in-depth investigation by this writer, it was discovered that it is an accepted practice by most families in villages across Sierra Leone; more especially, practiced openly by mothers and aunts of young girls, who see it as a cultural heritage and an act of appeasing the gods of fertility to send their girls for initiation; a practice they say, prepares these girls, sometimes as young as five years old, for adulthood and eventual marriage.

Though there have been reports of deaths from this practice, which has been roundly condemned by activists over the years in Sierra Leone, yet the government of Sierra Leone seems incapable or reluctant of stopping it, or totally banning this obnoxious practice, because, as stated earlier, those in government are tacitly in support of it, because they too consider it a traditional or cultural rite which must be adhered to at all cost in order to satisfy the deities or gods of fertility.

Their excuse for not being proactive in publicly denouncing this dangerous practice is still a subject under debate in Sierra Leone. But the reality as this writer found out, is because, authorities in high places consider the Sowei Secret Society, Bondo Secret Society and FGM as parts of a whole piece and is important and sacred, because it has been practiced by their ancestors and handed down through generations.

At the end of the ritual, the successful initiate becomes a ‘Sowei’ (a leader that plays a pivotal role in the Female Genital Mutilation initiation of newcomers). It was also revealed that many young girls, whose mothers were part of this Sowei Secret Society, fled from the village in fear of being initiated, as the exercise is extremely risky and had cost the lives of so many young, vibrant and promising girls.

In Isata’s case, she had forcefully been initiated at the age of twelve into the secret society and this experience has never left her. It was revealed that her late grandmother,Ya Marie Jah, was a senior member of the Sowei Secret Society, and a senior Chieftaincy member. According to their tradition, upon the death of a member of such caliber, her granddaughter replaces her.

According to our source, Isata Jah’s cousin, Isatu Sheriff, was taken to replace her grandmother in the society, as tradition demands, leaving behind Isata, and will have to go through the rigorous rituals, which often leads to death by bleeding or other complications. Unfortunately, during the ceremony, her cousin bled to death, and family members were not allowed to remove her remains from the shrine, on the belief that she was the property of the Gods.

Upon her death, the elders of the village again demanded from the family that the only daughter in the family  of the late grandmother must be given up for initiation as tradition demands, who happened to be Isata Jah, the only daughter in the family.

As Isata was in Freetown by then, she was called by her aunt in the village to report immediately to the village for an urgent family meeting. She left Freetown the next day and arrived in the village of Gbinti in the Lokomasa Chiefdom, late in the evening. On her arrival, a meeting was urgently convened, during which Isata was told that with the demise of her cousin, she is next in line to replace her late grandmother in the secret society, as a leader, and that plans were underway for the ceremony to commence.

Infuriated by this decision, and bearing in mind about her late cousin, who died during the initiation ceremony, and how she herself had suffered at a tender age, Isata reportedly refused out-rightly the suggestion of her aunts and the elders in the village, on the grounds that it was demonic and against her religious beliefs, as well as barbaric and uncivilized, much to the disdain of some female family members and elders, who had wanted Isata to take that position and save the family’s name and respect in the village, according to tradition.

She argued that she had given her life to God and will not be a member of such a demonic secret society. However, sources close to the family explained that as it was late in the day, Isata was unable to return to Freetown, and had planned to return the next day by the first available means of transportation. And so she went to bed in the house she was lodged.

It was revealed that during that night, members of the Sowei Secret Society stormed the said house and abducted her, taking her straight to the Sowei Secret Society shrine in the forest.

According to a very reliable source, as Isata resisted, she was seriously beaten all the way to the shrine, where she was tied to a tree, awaiting the commencement of the rituals.

According to our source, in the early hours of the morning at the shrine, they heard a strange noise nearby, fearing it might be that of a wild beast, and the members took to their heels, and Isata was reportedly rescued by a hunter, who untied Isata and showed her an escape route. She then fled into the surrounding bush, turning up at the house of one of her bosom friend, where she passed the day and later left the village, when news of her presence in the house went viral.

The elders and members of the secret society stormed the house of all her known friends and relatives in the village in search of her, issuing death threats against her on the grounds that she has seen the innermost part of the shrine and should be forced to take the role or face the consequences.

Sympathetic family members who were against the decision of initiating Isata say that since she was taken away from the house, she has not returned, and that they only came to know of her disappearance when the Sowei Secret Society members came looking for her.

They furthered that since Isata was abducted that night, her whereabouts are still unknown and that members of the Sowei Secret Society have not stopped raiding their house in their daily search for Isata; threatening to kill Isata when found; and if not found, they would kill those they suspect of hiding her.

Family members also say they cannot and are afraid to report the matter to the police, as top female politicians, as well as prominent top female government officials are members of the dreaded Sowei Secret Society in Sierra Leone, and most of them occupy important positions, and discussions on such matters is taboo. Even their male counterparts do not meddle in female secret society matters, as is the same with male secret societies.

As we go to press, the whereabouts of Isata are still unknown, and a nationwide hunt has reportedly been mounted for Isata by the society members, in collaboration with other members of affiliate secret society bodies.