Gola people

The Gola or Gula are a West African ethnic group who share a common cultural heritage, language and history and who live primarily in western/northwestern Liberia and Eastern Sierra Leone. The Gola language is an isolate within the Niger–Congo language family. , it is spoken by about 278,000 people. The name Gola is a possible source for the name of the Gullah, a people of African origin living on the islands and coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, in the southeastern United States. Zolu Duma (aka King Peter) ruled the Gola and Vai areas in the early 19th century. He participated in negotiations with American settlers of Liberia in 1821. Charles Taylor, who ruled Liberia between 1997 and 2003, is of mixed Gola and Americo-Liberian ancestry. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was Liberia's president from 2006 to 2018, whose father was Gola, and mother was mixed with Kru and German ancestry. There has always been Sande as long as Gola people have existed. The Sande society came before the Bohn or “Poro”. According to oral history (Kabandé), the Gola tribe used to be a matriarchy. The women used to rule the societies with their Sande and water guardian spirits. The women were the Kings (Kandanya) and had the Mandate of Heaven given to them from DAYA (God). The Zogbenya (Plural of Zogbe) are a specific type of Jina (Djinn/nature spirit) that are friends with the Gola ancestors. They manifest through the black masks that are danced and used for Sande sessions, dances, and rituals today. The Zogbenya are the trainers for the Gola women. They are the Gola woman's ‘Husband from the other side’. The Zogbenya see all Gola people as their children. Many Zogbe masks are found in mountains, creeks, rivers, and streams and are gifts from the other side. Some of the masks are made and disappear when Sande is not in session. The Mazo is the High Priestess of the Sande Society and of the Gola people. She is known as “the lady in white” as she usually dresses in white cloth. The Zogbenya made a covenant with the Gola ancestors to always train their girls into women.