Esther Adama Bangura, a woman in her late 20s, who is also a mother of two girls and a resident of New Site in Magburaka, Tonkolili District, is on the run for fear of being initiated into the Sowei Society.
Soweis in Sierra Leone are traditional women leaders who are in the top cadre of the Bondo Secret Society. They are the ones responsible for initiating young girls into the Bondo Society. The Bondo Society is where a female’s genitals are removed, which is better known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The young woman on the run, Esther Adama Bangura, was initiated into the Society when she was a child. Her mother was one of the elders of the Sowie Council in a village called Masunbiri in the Tonkolili District of North-eastern Sierra Leone.
Tradition dictates that a Sowei elder should have a daughter or a female family member to replace her upon her demise, and Esther Adama Bangura was the one identified as replacement by her late mother, Rugiatu Sankoh (Baromie) when she was alive.
Sometime around March 2023, Esther was informed by some other elderly women who were against the Soweis that the Soweis planned on conscripting her into the Sowei bush for initiation.
Esther told Nightwatch newspaper that upon receiving the information, she decided to stop visiting Masunbiri and later thought it wise to even leave Magburaka for her safety.
Nightwatch newspaper together with some human rights advocates went to Masunbiri to dig deep into the allegations made by Esther Adama Bangura. At the conclusion of the investigation, everything Esther told Nightwatch was discovered to be true with the Sowei elders telling the delegation that they had conscripted Esther’s 13 year old daughter, Isha Thullah, and that they will also initiate her into the Society.
They promised that whenever and wherever they set their eyes on Esther in and around Tonkolili District they will conscript her into the Sowei Society to fulfil her late mother’s pledge, although they had gotten hold of her daughter.
They said Esther had long been initiated into the Bondo Society and they wanted to initiate her into the Sowei Society for her to start initiating young girls into the Bondo Society, as her late mother used to do.
Meanwhile, Esther is calling on the media, government, human rights organisations and anti-Female Genital Mutilation (anti FGM) campaigners to come to her aid and save her from the hands of the Soweis as she is a fervent Muslim and her religion frowns at such practices.
She also told Nightwatch that the head of the Sowei Council in Masunbiri is a key stakeholder of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP); members of the SLPP are known for inflicting harm on people with impunity.
Esther concluded that she will end up leaving Sierra Leone to seek refuge in neighbouring Guinea.