soosoos

Updated: May 12, 2025

Vaccination is not at all practised among the negro population, by native vaccinators; it is, however, practised among certain branches of the negro population by European surgeons; the negro population of Sierra Leone consists of Nova Scotian, and Maroon settlers, liberated Africans, and several of the aboriginal African tribes, namely, Timmanees, Mandingoes, Soosoos, Boollams, Sherbros, &c. &c. &c.

James Holman - A Voyage Round the World, Volume I : Including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, America, etc., etc., from 1827 to 1832

It is not, however, peculiar to the Congo; it is the "Semo" of the Susus or Soosoos of the Windward Coast, and the "Purrah" of the Sherbro-Balloms or Bulloms, rendered Anglice by "free-masonry." The novitiate there lasts for seven or eight years, and whilst the boys live in the woods food is placed for them by their relations: the initiation, indeed, appears to be especially severe.

Sir Richard Francis Burton - Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2