The British pride themselves as great conquerors who have shown their military superiority across the globe by colonizing most parts of Africa and Asia. While this is true, they encountered a formidable enemy who almost fought them to a standstill in the person of Bai Bureh who was a Sierra Leonean ruler, military strategist, and a Muslim cleric. Bai Bureh was born in 1840 in Kasseh, a village close to Port Loko in Northern Sierra Leone. His father was a Muslim cleric and an important war-chief. Bureh followed his father’s strict Islamic practice while also holding African traditional values strongly. As a young man, he was sent by his father to the village of Gbendembu for martial training to become a warrior. Like father,like son,he proved himself to be a very good warrior and earned the nickname “Kebalai” which means ‘one who doesn’t tire of war’.
When Bureh returned to his village at the end of his training, he was made the ruler of Kasseh.
During the 1860s and 1870s, he had grown to be the foremost warrior in the entire Northern Sierra Leone. He successfully defeated other villagers and tribal leaders who opposed his plan to establish correct Islamic and indigenous practices in the region. In 1882, Bureh fought against the Susu people who had come from French Guinea to invade a town in northern Sierra Leone known as Kambia.