Rituals

Ebola victim being carried to burial site

In Sierra Leone it is a spiritual procedure of burying the body. This process includes hand washing the body, and mourners laying their hands on the body (Bringing Safer). This process though was causing an increase in Ebola rates in West Africa, causing the government to come in the change the way the deceased were being buried (A Safe Burial). Another ritual performed by those in Sierra Leone is FGM (female genital mutilation). “FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia and is seen by many families as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving a girl's purity, with uncut girls ostracized in many communities” (Sierra Leone’s On Track). This practice is performed around West Africa, but has recently been declining in amount of procedures. There are many rituals performed in Sierra Leone and the surrounding countries, but the two mentioned above have been in the popular eye in recent times.