Sande Water Spirit
Mende · deity · Mende traditional religion; continuing Sande society · Recorded classification
Spirit-class tutelary entered as a deity. The Sande masquerade is famously the only African masking tradition performed by women. 'sowei' names both the mask and the senior society official. Principal scholarship: Boone (1986).
Domains
- water rivers
- feminine beauty initiation
Powers
- to embody and confer the ideal of Mende womanhood and beauty
- Manifest as the female water-spirit guardian of Sande
Sources
- Sowo (embodied in the sowei/ndoli jowei helmet mask) is the female water-spirit and guardian tutelary of the Mende Sande society; emerging from beneath the water and danced by a senior Sande woman, she personifies the Mende ideal of feminine beauty and the values of womanhood instilled at initiation.: Sylvia Ardyn Boone, Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art (1986) (secondary); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Sande' (secondary)