The Dipo-Yo (9 images)

The Dipo puberty rites are traditionally the means through which adolescent Krobo girls learned what their society expects of them as women. Over a period of a year or more, girls learned about everything from household chores to relationships and parenthood, under the tutelage of older women. More than simply an initiation into womanhood, it was a way of reinforcing cultural values and identity, and inculcating social mores pertaining to premarital sex and promiscuity.

Dipo is...
more »

The Dipo puberty rites are traditionally the means through which adolescent Krobo girls learned what their society expects of them as women. Over a period of a year or more, girls learned about everything from household chores to relationships and parenthood, under the tutelage of older women. More than simply an initiation into womanhood, it was a way of reinforcing cultural values and identity, and inculcating social mores pertaining to premarital sex and promiscuity.

Dipo is under increasing pressure from modernisation - churches declare it a pagan ritual to be shunned by the faithful; girls go to school to receive a Euro-centric education; they spend less time at home, where even the nature of family is changing. Dipo has largely been 'outsourced' to fetish priestesses who perform the rites for a fee in fast-track mass ceremonies. In spite of this, women who conceive without having undergone Dipo are banished even today.
« less