Madam Yoko

Madam Yoko or Mammy Yoko (ca. 1849–1906 ) was a leader of the Mende people in Sierra Leone. Combining advantageous lineage, shrewd marriage choices and the power afforded her from the secret Sande society, Yoko became a leader of considerable influence. She expanded the Mende Kingdom and at the time of her death, she was the ruler of the vast Kpa Mende Confederacy.

Biography Madam Yoko, as a child called Soma, was born in 1849 in Gbo Chiefdomi. Yoko was Gbenje’s “junior wife” but, because of Yoko’s responsibility and her being able, Gbenje moved her up to senior wife. Gbneje grew sick and died, and Yoko underwent purification ceremonies for preparation to be remarried. This was quite different from male chiefs; where Yoko was able to train the women and give them away in marriage, male chiefs were only able to receive a wife from a family. Yoko was also different from male chiefs in that she had the ability to make alliances with men by using the gift of sexuality directly, while male chiefs had to use women to make an alliance with another man. Male chiefs would also create alliances by taking daughters from a hundred or more leading families and marry them. This was a tactic Yoko could have used if she were a man. Madam Yoko also made alliances with the British through her Sande Bush. She invited British officials to her town and had her Sande dancers dance for them. She also gave wives to native officers of the Frontier Police.

In 1898, the British declared their Protectorate and a law was put in place ordering all chiefs to collect “5-shilling tax on every house in the land”. Yoko ordered her subchiefs to pay the new taxes. However, the people rebelled and blamed her for “spoiling the country” because of her support for the British. Instead of turning on the British to gain control of her people and popularity, she hid out in police barracks while her people tried to attack. As a result of her loyalty to the British she was awarded a silver medal by Queen Victoria. Madam Yoko ruled as Paramount Chief until 1906 when she committed suicide. Yoko did not have any children, so her brother Lamboi succeeded her.