Small decorated wood slit gongs used by initiated boys at the end of their bush period. Bafodea Town, Sierra Leone

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Local Numbers: 1231/1978-1980
General: Title source: Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

See more items in: Simon Ottenberg photographs of Limba and Afikpo Peoples; Simon Ottenberg photographs of Limba and Afikpo Peoples / Series 1: Limba Peoples, Sierra Leone and Guinea / 1.1: Field Research, Year One / Bafodea Town, Sierra Leone / Bafodea Town, Sierra Leone

Archival Repository: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art

Collection Rights: Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Photographs by Pa Huff, Hamaidu Mansaray, and Labelle Prussin are restricted. In these cases, the photographer's permission is required for access and publication of images.

Scope and Contents: This photograph was taken by Dr. Simon Ottenberg while conducting field research in northern Sierra Leone within Bafodea Town, the capital of Wara Wara Bafodea Chiefdom, while on an Art Historical and Anthropological Field Research from October of 1978 through July of 1980.; Original title reads, "At Bafodea Town. Boys in Bafodea Town returning from their initiation. They are quiet and submissive, walk slowly. They wear their bush dress and each carry a wood gong with incisions on it, made by themselves of their guide in the bush. They have been circumcized and the wound healed. They are greeted by relatives and friends, all anxious, for if a boy dies in this bush this is the first they are supposed to learn of it. (None did that I know of.) The boys have been away for some weeks. They wear either traditional cloth hat or newer-style wool hats. Wood gongs on top of the porch of the Speaker of Bafodea Chiefdom's home. The boys put them there when they went on to his porch to greet him. Note the incised decorations which the boys usually put on themselves. Note how various they are, but generally geometric rather than realistic." [Ottenberg field research notes, Limba Slides and Photographs, October 1978-July 1980].

Collection Restrictions: Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.

Other Archival Materials: Simon Ottenberg Papers are located at the National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

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