VAI
Histor icallinguisticstu dieshaveestablished that
in ancien t timestheVai-speakingpeoplelived in
th e no rthernregionof Mande.Duringthoseear -
lier times, the Vai an d Konopeople probably
de sc endedfr oma commonan cestor.Someconjec-
tureth at,at somepoint,theVaiandKonosplit.
Th e reasonsforth at sp lit,however,areno t cl ear.
Somesuggestit occurredas a result of a searchfor
saltonthepartof someme mbersof thegroup:
Th osewhowent in search of salt would have
be cometheVaipeople, whereasthose who stayed
mighthaveconstituted th e Konopeople. Another
hypothesis is thattheVaisp li t fromthe Kono
be causeof migration, trade, an d co nquest.In an y
case, theVaipeoplecurrentlyresideonthecoasts
of Sierra LeoneandLiberia.
MomoruDoaluBukere is honoredas theinven-
to r of theVaiscript.Th e original scriptwascom -
posed of pict og rams,whi chincluded spi rits,
hu mans,partsof humanbodies,animals,plants,
andwater.Dotswereusedto co nveyplurality.This
systemof writingis si milarto theKemetic (ancient
Egyptian)writingsystem.In hisarticle“The Vai
Script,” Klingenhebenprovidessev eralexamples
of the original script. One ex ampleof a pu re
ideogram is a withered tree with drooping
branchestorepresent“death,” “todie,” or“to
kill.” Messagesmightbe lef t forvill agersby draw-
ingpicturesonthebarkof trees.Forexample,to
alertabsentvillagersof enemiesin theimmediate
te rritory, a pictureof a ma n si ttingdown was
drawntoindicatea single man,butfora large
numberof men,severaldotswere placedbeside
thisfi gure. Thescr iptevolvedto includealphabets,
andasla te as1975, Goody,Cole,andScribner
reportedth at recordsregarding re ligiousaffairs
we re writtenin thelocalVaiscriptandlanguage.
AlthoughIslamis theofficial religion, many
traditional beliefscontinuenonethelessto befol -
lo wed.The nameoftheCreatorGod in Vai is
Kanim ’ba or Kam ’ba, which means “celestial
space,” or Kan’ba, which means “big space.”
Kanim’bais th e creatorofallthingsandis the
controllerofEarth andeverythingin it.Godis
manifestedthroughspir its andnature.
The Vai perform traditionalceremoniesforthe
Dead,whichincludethepracticeof leavingcloth-
in g andfood near the grave of th e deceased.
Ancestorsplaya criticalrolein Africanlifein gen-
eral;th erefore,manyVaibelievethatthespi rits
of ancestors canen terintoanimateor inanimate
beings.Magicis practicedbymanyVaipeople.
Magic canbe usedforgoodor evilpu rposes , and
it canhavean impactontheindividual,thefamily,
or thesocietyas a whole.
The Vaipeoplemaintainan d transmittheirreli-
gioustraditionstotheyoungermembersofthe
groupthroughstringentinitiationprocesses.
Thetr aditionalschoolforVaiboysis Poloor
Pó ró society.In th e Vailanguage,theboys’insti-
tution is called bélí, and one who has been
in ductedintoit is knownas abélíkàì, “initiated
man.”Sessionsareheldin a specialsectionof the
forestcalledbélífìlà. Thesocietyis highlystruc-
tured: A dà zà,for example,is theleaderwho685