By Ralph Sesay
Our correspondent from Bo, Southern Sierra Leone, has intimated that Mohamed Jabbie, a 29 year old male resident of Bo and a native of Lower Sama Village, Lugbu Chiefdom, Southern Sierra Leone, is in trouble in the hands of the Poro Society.
His father was the head of the society. But his father had appointed Mohamed Jabbie as his immediate successor to head the traditional society after his demise in August last year.
Our correspondent further intimated us that Mohamed Jabbie, a school leaver and resident in Bo, Southern Sierra Leone, was summoned to his native village in August last year by the elders of the native poro society. By then his father was seriously sick and at the point of death.
His father, our correspondent went on, died two days after his arrival. According to the customs and traditions of the poro society, Mohamed Jabbie, the eldest of the Jabbie family, was to take over from his father before he could be buried on that day in the ancestral forest, where his ancestors were buried some decades ago.
The elders, according to our correspondent, immediately summoned Mohamed Jabbie to prepare him for the initiation and the subsequent burial of his father later on that day.
An elder of the Poro society, who spoke to our correspondent on grounds of anonymity, noted that the ceremony will involves different ritual processes, involving blood and other ritual related activities in the middle of the sacred bush.
Mohamed Jabbie, our correspondent went on, was later taken to the bush forcefully and, in front of his father’s corpse, the processes of replacing his father as the next head of the poro society began with different processes and activities.
Our correspondent concluded that the physical and mystical exercises and processes involved in the ceremony rendered Mohamed helpless along the way. The stakeholders had no option but to stop the process and waited for the next day to commence the final process. The ceremony also involves the killing of a virgin girl, whose blood was to be used to seal the ceremony.
Mohamed Jabbie, according to our correspondent, narrowly escaped that night. He went through a nearby bush where he was later rescued by a middle aged woman. He left Sierra Leone through neighboring countries.
There are open threats, according to our correspondent, that Mohamed should come back to complete the initiation ceremony. Failing to do so the elders have vowed to invoke the gods to strike him anywhere in the world. Angry youths are desperately searching for Mohamed as he is badly needed to complete the initiation rites.
The issue of succession rites, both in terms of chieftaincy and other traditional ceremonies, is very common in Sierra Leone. In fact, young boys and girls, who are part of a new generation that does not believe in this crude and barbaric practice due to their level of education and civilization, have always been caught up in such problems and escaping for their lives has always been the last resort.