{{Infobox settlement , official_name = Falaba , other_name = , native_name = , nickname = , settlement_type = , motto = , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shield = , shield_size = , image_blank_emblem = , blank_emblem_type = , blank_emblem_size = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = , mapsize1 = , map_caption1 = , image_dot_map = , dot_mapsize = , dot_map_caption = , dot_x = , dot_y = , pushpin_map = Sierra Leone , pushpin_label_position =bottom , pushpin_map_caption =Location in Sierra Leone , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name =

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Sierra Leone, Province , subdivision_name1 = Northern Province , subdivision_type2 =

District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, subdivision_name2 =

Falaba District 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, Sierra Leone, Bendugu. Other towns in Falaba District include Falaba, Sikunia, ...

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in the Northern Province of

. The population of Falaba is largely from the Yalunka people, Yalunka, Kuranko and couple of Mandingo ethnic groups. Falaba is virtually all

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and it is known for its deeply religious Muslim population . Farming is the major economic activity in Falaba.

History

As the capital of Solimana, Falaba was a fortress town on the rich

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

-trading routes to the western coast of Africa. It was visited in 1822 by

Alexander Gordon Laing Major Alexander Gordon Laing (27 December 179426 September 1826) was a Scottish explorer and the first European to reach Timbuktu, arriving there via the north-to-south route in August 1826. He was killed shortly after he departed Timbuktu, some ...

, and in 1869 by

William Winwood Reade William Winwood Reade (26 December 1838 – 24 April 1875) was a British historian, explorer, novelist and philosopher. His two best-known books, the universal history ''The Martyrdom of Man'' (1872) and the novel ''The Outcast'' (1875), were i ...

; and was thus deemed nominally British. In 1884,

Mandinka Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinkha, Mandinko, or Mandingo may refer to: Media * ''Mandingo'' (novel), a bestselling novel published in 1957 * ''Mandingo'' (film), a 1975 film based on the eponymous 1957 novel * ''Mandingo (play)'', a play by Jack Kir ...

conqueror

Samori Samory Toure ( – June 2, 1900), also known as Samori Toure, Samory Touré, or Almamy Samore Lafiya Toure, was a Muslim cleric, a military strategist, and the founder and leader of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic empire that was in present-day ...

joined the king of Kaliere in attacking Solimana, then under the rule of

Manga Sewa Manga Sewa (died 1884) was a Yalunka paramount chief in British Sierra Leone 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. Ear ...

. After Samori's general N'fa Ali destroyed a number of surrounding villages, the Mandingo forces began a five-month siege of Falaba itself. With the city's residents starved nearly to death, Manga Sewa could not bear the starvation of his people and for the mere fact that he was being compromised by their neighbouring villages he vow never to surrender himself to Samouri's army, so he decided to go into the gun powder house to commit suicide by lighting it up, his wife said she would not sleep with any other man beside her husband (Manga Sewa), his Yaeliba (a person who sing and praises Kings and great people) also decided to join him in the gun powder thus saying he would not praise any other King, so they both entered the Falaba gunpowder magazine and lit a torch, simultaneously killing himself and breaching Falaba's walls. Falaba was then briefly assimilated into Samori's

Wassoulou Empire The Wassoulou Empire, sometimes referred to as the Mandinka Empire, was a short-lived (1878–1898) empire of West Africa built from the conquests of Malinke ruler Samori Ture and destroyed by the French colonial army. In 1864, Toucouleur ...

; following Samori's own fall several years later, it was reclaimed by the British. The Anglo-French treaty of 1895 left the town without an affluent hinterland, and the colonial administrative post was moved from Falaba to Kabala. As a result, Falaba declined after 1895. Falaba was situated approximately thirty miles north-east of Kabala.

Destruction

Reports indicate that fighting in Falaba during the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictato ...

of the 1990s caused most people to flee the town. In a press report of May 27, 1998, one witness said "the towns of Falaba, Sinkunia, Musaia-Mongo Bendugu, Krubonia, Bafodia and Yiffin had all been partly or totally destroyed" ¹. The roads and bridges into Fabala were also almost totally destroyed, and the town very severely damaged, according to a post-war damage survey. An air survey in 2001 reported Falaba as a "village" ².

R.M.S. ''Falaba''

The British R.M.S. ''Falaba'', a West African steamship, was hit and sunk by a

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

in 1915. It was the first passenger ship sunk during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Leon Thrasher, an American citizen, died on the ''Falaba'', and his body was found after the ''

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...

'' sank ( Thrasher incident).

References

External links

Description of Samori's siege of Falaba

Footnotes

* Note 1:
* #fn_2_back, Note 2:
Populated places in Sierra Leone Northern Province, Sierra Leone