You can thank Bai Bureh for Sierra Leone’s independence as the fight for freedom largely started with his 1898 uprising against British rule. Such was the reputation of the man who was sent to a training school for warriors in Northern Sierra Leone while he was still young. The strong soldier came back to rule Kasseh, a village near Port Loko in Northern Sierra Leone where he was born. The military strategist and Muslim devout soon began fighting neighboring villages and rulers who were not in support of his plan to establish “correct” Islamic and indigenous practices throughout Northern Sierra Leone. And then the large-scale guerilla revolt otherwise known as the 1898 hut tax war that lasted for ten months began.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 19, 2020 12:56 UTC