Falui
Falui is one of the standard named masked spirits of the Mende men's Poro society. Siegmann and Perani record him as a warrior spirit who sold one of his arms to increase the power of his medicine, and his masquerade wears a feather-topped or cowrie-studded conical cloth headdress with a baggy country-cloth costume fringed in raffia; some headdresses carry leather amulets or wooden tablets inscribed with Qur'anic passages, reflecting the entanglement of Mende masquerade with Muslim protective practice. Unlike the fearsome and secluded gbini, Falui has a largely public, entertaining function, dancing at festivities and demonstrating mystic feats; celebrated performers, such as the twentieth-century dancer Kpetema Seiya of eastern Sierra Leone, built personal fame in the role.
Domains
- war medicine
- masquerade performance
Powers
- to strengthen his protective medicine at the cost of his own body, having given up an arm to empower it
- to entertain and awe spectators with acrobatic dancing and displays of mystic invulnerability
Relations
- subordinate to: Poro Forest SpiritFalui ranks among the lesser, more entertainment-oriented Poro masqueraders, beneath the gbini/goboi complex that constitutes the society's most powerful and sacred masked spirit.William Siegmann & Judith Perani, 'Men's Masquerades of Sierra Leone and Liberia', African Arts 9(3), 1976, pp. 42-47, 92 (secondary)
Sources
- Falui is a one-armed warrior spirit of the Mende Poro society, a masked figure in a cowrie-covered conical headdress who traded an arm to strengthen his medicine and performs feats of mystic power and entertainment.: William Siegmann & Judith Perani, 'Men's Masquerades of Sierra Leone and Liberia', African Arts 9(3), 1976, pp. 42-47, 92 (secondary); Paul Basu (dir.), Sierra Leone Heritage: Reanimating Cultural Heritage digital resource (sierraleoneheritage.org), 2013, 'Falui' glossary entry (secondary)