Nerejao

Nerejao is an ancestress of the Senufo people of northern Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso, revered as the true head of the Poro society, the men's initiation institution through which histories, genealogies, and religious knowledge are transmitted. Senior Poro elders are understood to instruct initiates under her authority, and the society's arduous cycle of training and masquerade performance is carried out in the sacred grove as service both to her lineage and to the Ancient Mother, the protective female aspect of the Senufo supreme deity. Her veneration illustrates the strongly matrilineal cast of Senufo religious authority, in which even the male-dominated Poro traces its legitimacy to a founding woman.

Domains

• initiation
• ancestors

Powers

• to preside over Poro initiation and sanction the instruction of initiates

Relations

• subordinate to: Ancient MotherThe Poro society that Nerejao heads as ancestress performs its labor as 'work for the Ancient Mother' (Maleeo/Katyeleeo), the female aspect of the supreme deity who protects Poro initiates.Glaze, Anita J., Art and Death in a Senufo Village, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. (secondary); Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth, 'Senufo Arts and Poro Initiation in Northern Côte d'Ivoire', Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. (secondary)

Sources

• Nerejao is a Senufo ancestress revered as the true spiritual head of the Poro initiation society, under whose authority senior members instruct initiates.: Glaze, Anita J., Art and Death in a Senufo Village, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. (secondary); Gagliardi, Susan Elizabeth, 'Senufo Arts and Poro Initiation in Northern Côte d'Ivoire', Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. (secondary)