Secret Societies
Secret societies transmitted specialized knowledge and maintained social order. Initiation into their mysteries brought responsibility and wisdom.
Secret societies transmitted specialized knowledge and maintained social order. Initiation into their mysteries brought responsibility and wisdom.
What is known in the society stays in the society. With knowledge comes responsibility.
African Secret Societies
Written about in
- What African wisdom says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Then the contradiction. Societies such as Poro and Sande held knowledge deliberately closed — what is known in the society stays in the society — which is the opposite of the palaver tree's open floor. The tradition does not reconcile these; it runs both and decides case by case who is inside.