KOFI JOLLAY PLAY - "Inside Sierra Leone’s Mysterious Secret Societies | 2024 ????✨"

**Kofi Jollay “play,” in a nutshell**

Kofi Jollay is one of Freetown’s best-loved *Ordehlay* (urban masquerade) societies. Founded in 1977 in the city’s Foulah Town quarter, it stages spectacular street outings—locally called “plays”—in which masked “devils” whirl through the neighbourhood to the crash of drums and gongs. A typical play opens with midday libations to protective spirits at the clubhouse, then erupts into a costumed procession that winds along Kissy Road toward the national stadium. When the parade halts, the lead masquerader performs acrobatic spins and pantomime combat inside a roped arena while singers egg on spectators to dash cash; after two or three nights of dancing, a dawn collapse of the mask signals the spirit’s departure and the festival’s end.

Beyond the showmanship, Kofi Jollay functions as a grassroots welfare network: member dues cover funerals, medical bills and school fees, and the society still offers marginalised youth a creative outlet first carved out in the protest-charged 1960s. Fierce but friendly rivalries with other clubs drive ever more elaborate masks, pop-culture references and drumming precision. Major plays cluster around independence-eve in late April, the September “Jaya” season and early December carol weeks, with smaller outings for weddings or anniversaries. If you go, arrive mid-afternoon to catch the build-up, keep a respectful distance from the costumed “devil,” and tip musicians modestly when filming—both courtesy and belief demand it.