Image Not Available
for Vandi Sona
Vandi Sona
Sierra Leonean, 1885 - 1951
Vandi Sona was born at Lago, about a mile from Potoru in Barri Chiefdom, Pujehun District. He was the son of Dueka, a warrior who fought in the war between the warrior-chief Ndawa and the Kailahun chiefdoms. Dueka married Bete from Kpapi in the Krim area. After the Ndawa war Vandi Sona was sent to rebuild the town of Gawula in Wunde chiefdom as his father’s representative. According to Ansumana, no one taught his father to carve, and this is how he came to be a carver:
“He was a gambler playing cards. They used to hear from Krim people that they are great carvers of sowei masks. One man sent Vandi Sona to go and buy a mask in Krim country where Vandi's relatives came from. The man gave him the money but he [Vandi] "ate it" and the man wanted the money or the mask. It was hard to get money, and this man was behind him every day and Vandi was afraid he would "be taken before high authorities and sold into slavery. During the time he was ready to hide away he took two tools with him, an axe (sondi) and a hoe (kali). He went and gave them to a blacksmith to remake into tools for carving. He made an adze (kpe) out of the hoe and a scraper (kumbui) and a small gouge (sondi) out of the axe. Then his father went to the bush and cut the wood and made his measurement ... After his father carved this God gave him sense to get a leaf to dye it. Then he told his mother to get the man and gave him the mask without telling him that he had carved it. The man was very happy. The style was the same as the Krim which came to his [Vandi’s] mind since he had spent some time there. He told his mother that he carved the mask so his mother asked him to carve one for her... it was from his imagination, not copied from another style.”
Vandi Sona was a goldsmith and ivory carver as well. He would travel from place to place to do his work, and frequently worked in Kenema. The Paramount Chief of Bongowa chiefdom at the time, Momoh Vagahun, was the same age and ’rank* as Vandi and ’they were great friends’, according to Ansumana. Vandi carved an ivory chief’s horn for him as well as a number of sowei masks. Vandi Sona died in 1951.
Person TypeIndividual
born Bessemer, AL 1939; died New York, NY 2018