BOMBOLAI, BOKARI
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Bokari Bombolai (18?-circa 1898) was Bai Kompa (ruler) of Koya, the Temne chiefdom to the east of Freetown, from 1890-98. He also added the name of William Rowe (governor of Sierra Leone from 1877-80 and from 1885-88) to his own.
His date of birth is unknown, but in 1857, in his younger days, he served a prison sentence for kidnapping. By the 1870s, when he came into prominence in Koya politics, he must already have been a mature man. He was probably partially of Fula ancestry, or else had married someone closely connected with the Fula Bundu family who ruled Foredugu, a Koya town.
This speculation is based on the fact that the Bundu were among his strongest allies in his struggle to rule Koya. The influence of the Fula Bundu was significant not only religiously (they were Muslim) and commercially concerning other Fula clans, but was also important because of their links with the Temne in the Rokel river region. In the late 1870s, Bokari Bombolai assisted Governor William Rowe on his tour of the hinterland, and added the governor’s name to his own because he admired him.
The Koya kingship had been vacant since 1872, and the two aspirants to the succession were William Lawson, son of T.C. Lawson, an influential government interpreter, and Bokari Bombolai, who was supported by the Bundu and their allies. Koya, situated between Freetown and the northern interior, was the meeting place of several ethnic groups, including the original inhabitants, the Koya, now few in number, the Temne, the Fula, the Mende, the Kossoh, and a number of Liberated African settlers. The British in Freetown had long wished to annexe Koya, which was for them a frontier province into which warfare from the interior occasionally spilled over, creating instability on the borders of the Colony. At this juncture, the rivalry between the two claimants was exacerbated by fighting between the Temne and Loko which broke out in the east, while further fighting in the north between the Temne Marampa and Yoni clans also occurred.
At one moment, Bokari Bombolai was arrested again by the British, and imprisoned for a while. Eventually, however, in 1888, the British, after years of attempting to end the fighting in the north, sent in a force of Frontier Police and ended the struggle. At about the same time, T.G. Lawson retired from government service, thereby weakening the claim of his son to the rulership of Koya.
Following these events, and in order to promote political and economic stability, the British recognised Bombolai as ruler of Koya in 1890. He was crowned Bai Kompa at a ceremony attended by Governor Sir James Hay (term of office 1888-91), and J.C.E. Parkes, successor to T.G. Lawson as government interpreter. Thereafter, conditions in Koya remained stable, to the satisfaction of the British.
When the hut tax was levied in Ronietta, further inland, Bokari Bombolai was one of the chiefs accused of resisting the tax. Captain H.G. Warren, the assistant inspector at Kwelu, headquarters of Ronietta, was sent to arrest him for inciting resistance and intimidating loyal chiefs. Bokari Bombolai thereupon moved to Romangi, one of his villages, where Warren, after trying to remove him forcibly, had doubts about the legality of his action, since he was unsure whether Romangi was in the Colony or the Protectorate. He therefore let Bokari Bombolai go.
Bokari Bombolai thereupon complained to Governor Sir Frederic Cardew (term of office 1894-1900) about Warren’s conduct towards him, but was told to comply with orders, collect the tax, and report to Captain Samuel Moore at Kwelu.
When he failed to report to Moore, Bokari Bombolai was accused by a Loko chief, Charles Smart of Mahera, of organising resistance and of being in league with Bai Bureh of Kasseh. Early in March 1898, Moore, with a force of 40 Frontier Police, and helped by Smart, set out in search of Bokari Bombolai. The force burnt villages and killed several of his subjects, but failed to capture him, returning to Kwelu disappointed. Eventually Bokari Bombolai sent a tax payment of £30 from his hideout. He was, nevertheless, deposed, and was replaced as ruler of Koya by Fula Mansa Gbanka. He died shortly after the 1898 uprising was suppressed.
GUSTAV K. DEVENEAUX and CYRIL P. FORAY
