All about the ancient tribes
Mende was born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, and grew up in that tribe. When she was growing up with her family in a normal rural community, where cattle and farming provided the income, as they had done for hundreds of years, she had an ideal upbringing.
Traditions of the Mende include belief in a supreme creator deity, ancestor spirits, and nature deities, as well as a supreme creator god. In times of disease or foreboding experience, diviners are called upon, and the Mende have faith in the capacity of witches to cure them. Many Mende, on the other hand, are now Muslims or Christians.
The Mende syllabary was created in 1921 by Kisimi Kamara (c. 1890–1962), a Sierra Leonean who lived from 1890 to 1962. After observing how the British were able to take over his country, Kisimi came to the conclusion that their authority was derived in part from their literacy. He made the decision to grant such capacity to his own people.
This supreme deity is referred to as Ngewo-Ngewo by the Mende, the Sherbro hobatoke, the Lokko gebo, and the Kissi meleka by the Sherbro. The Temne believe that God, whom they refer to as kru, is inextricably linked to the sky. The Vai refer to him as kan-imba or kaymba, which literally translates as ″endless space″ and communicates the idea that God may be found everywhere.
The Poro and the Sande are the two primary civilizations that make up the Mende culture. In that they both aim to teach individuals about the expectations of the community, their basic roles are similar, but they differ in that they are distinguished by the gender of the members of the groups. The Poro is designed for males, while the Sande is designed for ladies.
These languages are divided into two distinct groupings. The first is the Mande language group, which has a structure that is similar to that of Mandinka and comprises the languages Mende, Susu, Yalunka, Koranko, Kono, and Vai. Temme, Limba, Bullom (also known as Sherbro), and Krim are members of the semi-bantu group, which is the second of the four subgroups.
There are a plethora of consonant and stress mutations available. The Mende language, in contrast to the majority of Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo language family, does not split nouns into different noun classes. Nouns can be classified as either definite or indefinite.
Generally speaking, three groups of Mende may be separated based on their spoken dialects: the Kpa Mende, who live west of the Jong or Teye river; the Sewa Mende, who live between the Jong and the Waanje rivers; and the Ko Mende, who are east of the Waanje river. ( There are certain cultural distinctions between the two groups of people.
Krio have long controlled Sierra Leone’s court as well as the city council of Freetown, which is chosen by the people. They were one of the first ethnic groups in the world to be educated according to Western traditions, and they have typically been assigned to posts in the government service, dating back to the colonial era.
The majority of Mende art is related with initiation and healing, and it comprises wooden masks, twin figures, and medicinal artifacts, among other things. Beautiful motifs are carved into utilitarian artifacts such as heddle pulleys, which otherwise would be considered plain.