Kuranko Bondo Initiate in Sokurella

Taken in March 1970 in the tiny Kuranko village of Sokurella, tucked under Mt. Bintumani of the Loma Mountains. In Sokurella there were 3 Bondo initiates who pranced about the village when we (fellow Peace Corps volunteer Lloyd Ziegler and I) stayed in the village. There was a magnificent celebration there during one of our nights in which people came from other villages to sing and dance. We were lucky to have been in the village to observe this gala event. Sokurella was a village of perhaps 100 people (maybe more) about a 10-20 mile walk from the end of the road and Kurobonla. It was here that the Kuranko of Sierra Leone lived (they also lived in Guinea). The people were friendly, inclusive, and allowed for us to not only stay in their village (we pitched a tent in the center of the village) but to eat with them.