The Mende of Sierra Leone

Record summary

Ethnographic work on Mende society during the period documents initiation, healing, spirit possession, divination and relationships between living people and the dead. It offers a useful West African comparison for determining whether an alleged apparition is narrated as an ancestor, a possessing power, a dream or a social diagnosis. The literature is not a set of experimentally verified ghost cases, and the most relevant title and passage should be confirmed through library catalogues. Researchers should also distinguish Mende categories from generalized “African witchcraft” descriptions. This is AI-recalled only.