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VAI 847
version to Islam began. Islam provided a belief structure which was respected
and which could be accommodated to traditional Vai religious concepts.
Today, Islam is the dominant religion of the Vai countryside. Most Vai are
Sunni, with some Ahmadi in the cities, particularly Monrovia. Every town has
a mosque, and all men are expected to attend at least the morning and evening
prayers and to observe the religious holidays. Both Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya
brotherhoods are active, and the process of Islamization continues within the
Vai country. The purification of practices is encouraged, and traditional customs,
such as masked dancing figures at public festivals, are discouraged. The purification
process is not so successful in the urban areas, however. The many Vai
men and women who have left the Vai country to find employment in the moneyed
economy find that secular distractions have an undermining effect on religious
fervor. Physical, social and economic distance is growing between those Vai
who have remained in their traditional homes and many of those now living in
the urban centers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Johnson, S. Jangabaa. Traditional History, Customary Laws, Mores, Folkways and Legends
of the Vai Tribe. Monrovia: n.p., 1954.
Murdock, George P. Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1959.
Unpublished Manuscript
Holsoe, Svend E. "The Cassava-Leaf Peoples: An Ethnohistorical Study of the Vai with
Particular Emphasis on the Tewo Chiefdom." Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University,
1967.
Svend E. Holsoe
Population figures updated by Richard V. Weekes