Paramount Chief of Bumpeh Chiefdom in the Moyamba District and Chairman National Council of Paramount Chiefs, Charles B. Caulker has said that as traditional rulers, the ”bondo” society is very good for them.
He made this statement on Wednesday, 18th January 2012 at the Kenema City Council hall during a one-day consultative meeting for members of the National Council of Paramount Chiefs on the topic, ‘Charting the next 50 years forward’ organized by the Steering Committee for the Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation.
He says the way the West pictures the ”bondo” society now is not going down well with them as traditional rulers, noting “we do not like it at all”. He says Westerners are portraying the society as something that is bad, without assessing the richness of its values to the ordinary Sierra Leonean. “We are strongly against such portrayals,” he stated.
The Paramount Chief also challenged the use of the phrase ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ to refer to ‘bondo’ and noted strongly that “this is a complete misrepresentation of the society, which has its original objective of transforming young women into womanhood and teaching them values that are relevant to the socio-economic development of their communities.
The traditional ruler explained that before now it is a taboo for a male to sexually tamper with a girl that has not gone through the ”bondo” society ritual, and that in those days the girl will not be taken out of the bondo society until she is due for marriage which is at the ages of 17, 18, 19 and above at that traditional level.
At that time, the Chief pointed out, if a man dares to tamper with the girl without going through the bondo rituals, it is like someone haven committed murder in the society. He said rape was then hard to come by and teenage pregnancy none existent.
According to him, it is because all of these traditional and cultural restrictions have been made valueless that the young girls of today’s society are no longer under control.
He therefore proclaimed, “We the traditional rulers want all and sundry to know that ”bondo” society has a very cardinal role to play in the transformation of this country as an informal educational sector which that must be respected.”
He underscored that as traditional rulers they will stand against anything that is not good for their people, but will also stand very firm against anything that tends to undermine those things that hold their peoples together and make them happy. He however assured that they will not encourage under age girls to be taken to the society as was the practice before.
“Our people are behind us in this. Let the want of our people be respected and protected,” he called.
By Saffa Moriba
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