Wunde

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A traditional association among the Kpa Mende (or western Mende) dialect group which appears in the past to have acted as that group's military arm. Unlike Poro, where power is widely diffused between more or less independent local groups, Wunde appears to have a more unitary organisation and its initiations are confined to a few selected sites. It structure is hierarchical but different accounts have been given of the separate ranks and their order of precedence. The kamakoweisia perform a dance at night around a fire wearing a distinctive high headress: an ornamented cap tapering in a long tube with a crown of woodcock feathers at the top.

  • J.de Hart, 'The Wunde dance', Sierra Leone Studies, 1920, III.
  • W.Addison 'The Wunde Society', Man, 1936, XXXVI, 273.
  • M.Gorvie, Old and New in Sierra Leone (London 1945), Ch.7.