Hojo

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Mende term for a paste of white clay and fat that was smeared as a protective medicine over the faces and bodies of girls about to go into the Sande bush to be initiated into the Sande society. T.J.Alldridge, whose transliteration of indigenous terms is not always reliable, refers to it as 'wojeh'. It was typically made up in a carved wooden palette or shallow dish. Examples of such 'palettes' are to be found in a number of museum collections.

  • G.Innes, A Mende-English Dictionary (Cambridge 1969)