Reflections from the field: A girl's initiation ceremony in northern Sierra Leone

Three years after the official declaration of peace in Sierra Leone, people have finally relaxed and now try to reconfigure their lives in a very visibly war-torn surrounding. in this setting, the girl's initiation, dimusu biriye, becomes not only a ceremony of the making of women, or a social event, but an important post-war event reconfiguring social relations. Also, this event challenges the anthropologist on a more personal level regarding issues of womanhood, bodily integrity, and the position as outsider.