o - Aceh Books website

776 TEMNE
forms of property are both patrilineal. Thus the individual, male or female,
identifies first with his or her father's patrikin, although a strong secondary
relationship is maintained with the mother's father's patrikin. A marriage is
sealed by the transfer of wealth from the groom's patrikin group to that of the
bride's father; a smaller dowry or counter-payment moves the other way.
Polygyny among the Temne is relatively frequent. Perhaps 30-45 percent of
all rural men married at a given time have two or more wives.
An individual's second name indicates his extended kin group or abuna; there
are 25 to 30 such patricians among the Temne. Formerly members of each abuna
observed certain dietary prohibitions, but this custom is largely ignored today.
In the late pre-teen or early teen years virtually all Temne girls are initiated into
the Bundu or Sane society. Bundu training stresses homemaking skills and ideals
of female behavior. Similarly, in southern chiefdoms, where Islam is less strong,
most young boys are initiates into the Poro society.
The Poro society is said to have been introduced to the Temne by the Sherbro;
the society is also found among the Mende and a number of groups in Liberia
and Guinea. Among the Temne it played both political and economic roles. The
basic initiation, lasting months or years traditionally, provided ordinary members
with "education for life" in terms of Temne values. A small number underwent
training initiation later in life to become Poro officers; these provided supernational
services for hire.
Conflict between Muslim Temne and Poro Temne is longstanding and on
occasion bitter. Historically local Poro lodges closed roads, charged tolls to
traders or hid local bad debtors in the Poro bush to avoid repaying Muslim
traders. Today Temne Muslims have a lengthy list of charges against Poro men
including that Poro men do not believe in God but "worship" stones and spirits,
that they smoke, drink and eat foods prohibited to Muslims, that they tamper
with the dead and use parts of corpses in medicines and that Poro officers use
bad magic/medicine indiscriminately and thus harm the innocent. Poro men are
characterized as rude and overbearing towards Muslims, who resent being labeled
anburaka, uninitiated, since it suggests that they are children—and this is derogatory.
Conversely Poro men dislike being labeled kafiri, nonbelievers, which
they regard as derogatory. The list of charges includes the refusal of Muslims
to drink palm wine and eat "bush pig," a traditional delicacy, to sacrifice to
ancestral spirits or to the Poro spirit or to let non-Muslim men marry Muslim
women. Usually it is stressed that Islam is a non-Temne faith and that Poro is
an integral part of the Temne way of life which must be maintained.
With initiation into Poro, a boy receives a Poro name which he henceforth
uses as a first name; Muslim youth who are initiates and those who are converted
to Islam as adults forsake the use of their Poro name for a "Muslim name" such
as Muhammad or Ali.
In both rural and urban areas, Temne form clubs for recreational, mutual aid
and other purposes. Temne are active in the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood,
which, among other activities, finances and operates both primary and secondary