An Opera of the West African Bondo

Ele Woods

In "An Opera of the West African Bondo", Frederick Lamp describes in detail the initiation right of the Temme people of Sierra Leone. Through Lamp's extensive descriptions of the event the reader understands the high importance of this right in the Temme society. For women, not having an initiation certainly means dying alone with no offspring. The right is presented in a two day, four act play where the whole community participates and watches. 

Earlier this year in another class we were discussing early greek theater traditions. I was reminded of one called the Dionysia Festival when I read this article. The festival goes on for five days and the whole community comes to watch the plays. Of course it does not have the same purpose of initiation but the element of worship is there as the festival is in celebration of the God Dionysus. The only other way they differ is that not everyone participates in the festival of the dionysus, they only watch. This is compared to the Bondo initiation where the whole society is involved. 

While learning about both of these traditions I was struck by how interesting it is that our culture has lost or never has had anything similar to this. One could try cotillion but yet there isn't the same extreme importance put on cotillion as there is put on the "death of the Bondo".  Also, our culture does not have an activity where the whole city comes to watch and participate in it. I assume, although perhaps incorrectly that this is the society's only form of theater, yet our society has a myriad of plays and performances. Interesting that in their society this could be considered the most important moment in someone's life where as in our society theater is often shunned. I assume that this is because of the lack of spirituality in our culture and a theater tradition that is devoid of any real importance (such as initiation). Also our culture, opera, theater, and dance are created to be enjoyed by an audience. In the Temme society one does not have an option, everyone must be involved. In addition, jobs as main performers are created for the ceremony. For these reasons I think western society would not be able to understand this opera as art or theater despite the fact that perhaps it has more of a right to be called theater than western theater does (given a western society's lack of appreciation). Instead I think westerners would be more confident deeming it only a religious ceremony.