Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia, and the northern half of the nation is surrounded by Guinea. Covering a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. Freetown is the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into 16 districts.
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.
Samory Toure, also known as Samori Toure, Samory Touré, or Almamy Samore Lafiya Toure, was a Mandinka Muslim cleric, military strategist, and founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic empire that was stretched across present-day north and eastern Guinea, north-eastern Sierra Leone, southern Mali, northern Côte d'Ivoire and part of southern Burkina Faso.
Kabala is the capital and largest town of Koinadugu District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Kabala is one of the main towns in Northern Sierra Leone and is set in a rural landscape, surrounded by mountains.
Yengema is a town in Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, lying approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Koidu Town, and about 142 miles (229 km) east of Freetown. The major industries in and around Yengema are diamond mining and agriculture. The town is home to Yengema Airport, the main airfield serving Kono District. A 2012 estimate of Yengema population was 13,358 people.
Manga Sewa was a Yalunka King of the Solimana who blew up a magazine and much of Falaba, the capital of Solimana, killing himself, his family and other leaders, rather than let it fall to Samori Toure's army.
Solimana was a small West African state of the nineteenth century with a capital at the fortress town of Falaba. Situated on rich trading routes in what is now Sierra Leone, Solimana was visited in 1822 by Alexander Gordon Laing and in 1869 by William Winwood Reade, making it nominally British.
The Northern Province is one of the five provincial divisions of Sierra Leone. It is located in the Northern geographic region of Sierra Leone. It comprises the following four Districts: Bombali, Falaba, Koinadugu and Tonkolili. The Northern Province covers an area of 35,936 km2 (13,875 sq mi) with a population of 2,502,865, based on the 2015 Sierra Leone national census. Its administrative and economic center is Makeni. The North borders the North West Province to the West, the Republic of Guinea to the north-east, the Eastern Province and Southern Province to the south-east.
The Mandingo Wars were a series of conflicts from 1883 to 1898 between France and the Wassoulou Empire of the Mandingo people led by Samori Ture. Comparatively, the French faced serious resistance by the Mandinka, as they were able to make use of firearms and tactics that impeded French expansion in the area. The French were ultimately triumphant and established dominance over Mali, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
Koinadugu District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is the largest District in Sierra Leone in geographical area, and one of the least densely populated. Its capital and largest city is Kabala, which is also one of the main cities in Northern Sierra Leone. The District of Koinadugu has a population of 404,097, based on the 2015 Sierra Leone national census; and has a total area of 12,121 km2 (4,680 sq mi). Koinadugu District is subdivided into eleven chiefdoms.
The Thrasher incident, as it became known in the US media, nearly became the start of America's involvement in World War I. On March 28, 1915, the British steamship RMS Falaba was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-28. In the incident, 104 people were killed, including one American passenger, Leon Chester Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer from Massachusetts.
The Yalunka, or Dialonké, are a Mandé-speaking people and the original inhabitants of Futa Jallon, a mountainous region in Guinea, West Africa. The Yalunka people live primarily in Guinea, particularly in Faranah, while smaller communities are found in Kouroussa. Additional Yalunka are also located in northeastern Sierra Leone, southeastern Senegal, and southwestern Mali.
Ibrahim Jaffa Condeh is a Sierra Leonean journalist and news anchor. He is the senior journalist for the Freetown based Concord Times newspaper. Although Condeh is primarily based in Freetown, he often report on location for breaking news stories throughout Sierra Leone. He is a graduate of Fourah Bay College with a master's degree in journalism (FBC). Condeh is a Muslim and a member of the Mandingo ethnic group.
Mandingo people of Sierra Leone is a major ethnic group in Sierra Leone and a branch of the Mandinka people of West Africa. Most Sierra Leonean Mandingo are the direct descendants of Mandinka settlers from Guinea, who settled in the north and eastern part of Sierra Leone, beginning in the late 1870s to the 1890s under the rule of prominent Mandinka Muslim cleric Samori Ture. Also later a significantly large population of Mandinka from Guinea migrated and settled in Eastern Sierra Leone and Northern Sierra Leone in the early to mid 20th century. The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone have a very close friendly and allied relationship with their neighbors the Mandingo people of Guinea and Liberia, as they share pretty much identical dialect of the Mandingo language, tradition, culture and food.
Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leone Government is constitutionally forbidden from establishing a state religion, though Muslim and Christian prayers are usually held in the country at the beginning of major political occasions, including presidential inauguration.
Tokeh Also known as Tokeh Town is a coastal resort town along the peninsula in the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. Tokeh lies approximately twenty miles east of Freetown and near the neighborhood town of York. The major economic activity in Tokeh is fishing and tourism.
Sierra Leone is home to about sixteen ethnic groups, each with its own language. In Sierra Leone, membership of an ethnic group often overlaps with a shared religious identity.
The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia, primarily the descendants of marabout, liberated Yoruba people who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century.
Falaba District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest town is Bendugu. Other towns in Falaba District include Falaba, Sikunia, Krubola, Musaia Ganya and Mansadu. Falaba District is divided into thirteen chiefdoms. Falaba District is one of the largest districts in Sierra Leone in land area, However, it is one of the least most populous districts in the country. Falaba District is known for its mostly conservative Muslim population. Falaba District has a population of 205,353, based on 2018 estimate.
Bendugu is the capital and largest town of Falaba District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Bendugu is a very rural town and is also the seat of Mongo Chiefdom. Bendugu is located in close proximity to the international border with the Republic of Guinea. Bendugu is about 85 miles to Kabala, and is 300 miles east of Freetown. The main economic activity in the town is farming.
Sierra Leone