Simo (society)

A mask of the goddess Nimba, a goddess of fertility celebrated in Simo society, collection of Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Simo society is a secret society in West Africa (esp. Ghana, Mali, Sierra Leone) also described as a "masked cult".[1] It hails, according to a UNESCO report, from among either the Temne people or the Baga people at the time of the Mali Empire.[2] The Susu people's political organization "assigned an important role to the Simo initiation society", and it "dominated" the organization of the Baga and the Landuma people.[3]

Initiation and other rites included masks, and of particular importance were fertility rites.[4] The Simo were also one of many secret "cultic groups" (whose priests "possessed immense knowledge of herbs and roots") that practiced medicine to cure specific ailments.[5]

  1. ^ Isichei, Elizabeth Allo (1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge UP. p. 223. ISBN 9780521455992. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  2. ^ Ki-Zerbo, Joseph (1998). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. U of California P. p. 124. ISBN 9780520066991. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  3. ^ General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth century. UNESCO. 1981. pp. 307, 315. ISBN 9789231017100. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  4. ^ Segy, Ladislas (1976). Masks of Black Africa. Courier Dover. p. 60. ISBN 9780486231815. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  5. ^ Laet, Sigfried J. de (1994). History of Humanity: From the seventh to the sixteenth century. UNESCO. p. 505. ISBN 9789231028137. Retrieved 28 July 2012.