Sierra Leone's secret societies

A traditional healer holds a bottle filled with spiritual wine to show gratitude to the gods during a Poro ritual. (Photo: AFP)

Yealie Kabba, a Bondo society member in Waterloo, wears a red hat with a mirror called a kashak and holds a red bottle filled with spiritual wine, used for purification.(Photo: AFP)

Alie Koroma of the Poro secret society in Matru stands guard at a forest site where initiation ceremonies are taking place. (Photo: AFP)

A growing international campaign seeks to stamp out female genital mutilation (FGM) -- this sign is in Katabok village, northeastern Uganda. (Photo: AFP)

Young girls in white face paint take part in a procession to start their initiation into the Bondo secret society, alongside a figure called the Black Devil. (Photo: AFP)