…As Husband Wanted for Wounding
By Desmond John
Kadijatou Jalloh is currently on the run after an attempt was made to initiate her into the Bondo secret society after the death of her mother. On 10th December 2023, a group of Bondo societal women stormed the family home of Madam Kadijatou Jalloh in Gbinti, Dibia chiefdom, Port Loko district, Northern Sierra Leone in a bid to take her for initiation. The situation led to a fight involving the husband Saidu Jalloh, leaving one of the Bondo women badly injured.
This is the second attempt after an earlier attempt was made on her and force to be initiated into the Bondo secret society or cutting (Female Genital Mutilation). The attempt made to initiate this young woman into the Bondo secret society (Female Genital Mutilation) remains some of worse form of treatment meted out on young girls and women in Sierra Leone.
Madam Kadijatou had left the city Freetown on the request of her Aunty for some family arrangement not knowing that a plan for her initiation has already been layed.
This is not the first time such an attempt have been made on Kadijatou Jalloh leaving her with no alternative but to flee her family home and the country for good.
Kadijatou Jalloh is a young lady whose mother was is a member and head of the Bondo Secret society in the Gbinti Village in Port Loko, Northern Sierra Leone. She has left the city Freetown to visit her relative only to be confronted with this dilemma of forceful initiation.
As tradition demands, daughters are always required to be initiated into the secret society and take the place of their mother in the secret society.
On 10th December 2023, according to report two societal women went to the family home of Kadijatou Jalloh in a bid to take her for the rituals and initiation.
The young woman according to information inform her husband who according to eye witness went to the village with a group of friends.
Report stated that Kadijatou Jalloh nearly lost her life during the attack, but was able to flee from her captors with the help of her husband.
Kadijatou Jalloh is said to have left the community after she was forced to join the Bondo Secret society for initiation.
Since leaving the community with her husband and escaping from the hands of the societal women, Kadijatou has not been seen, while her pursuers continue to look for her and vowed that she must eat the devil whenever she is found. What that means by eating the devil is still unknown.
Before this time, Kadijatou and her Aunty had always had heated arguments about the Bondo secret society. Information also gathered reveals that the Husband Saidu Jalloh is currently been pursued for disrupting the rituals and also accused to have hit one of the societal women in the head who nearly died as a result.
With the help of few friends, Kadijatou and her husband were able to escape from the village and from the societal women. Eye witness account say it was a serious fight and one of her pursuers was badly wounded in the event.
A case of malicious wounding has now been reported, with the husband Saidu Jalloh standing accused.
The Port Loko District in Northern Sierra Leone is notorious for Bondo initiation and most times it is done forcefully on young girls and women. The practice is widely accepted within Sierra Leone but most young girls are now refusing to join leading to a number of them running away from their communities.
Kadijatou Jalloh and her husband according to report, has left the community and nobody knows their whereabouts.
