MORIBA KINDO BANGURA

Moriba Kindo Bangura (17?-1825) was the forceful Temne leader who overthrew the Soso hegemony over Port Loko (an important trading center), which lasted from 1700 to 1817. He then became the first Temne Alikali or ruler of that town in more than a century. He also played a decisive part in creating the system of rotating chiefship of Port Loko which continued throughout the 19th century.

Port Loko, strategically placed for commerce on the Rokel River, attracted traders from the interior of the Sudan, as well as Europeans whose main interest was the slave trade. Its commercial importance also drew Mandinka immigrants from the hinterland who spread the influence of Islam through trade, teaching, and the sword.

The Soso, part of the Mandinka ethnic and cultural complex, established political suzerainty over Port Loko in 1700, but by the early 19th century, they appeared to have become oppressive, provoking strong opposition from some Temne and other immigrant groups. About 1806, Alimamy Brima Konkori Sankoh, a new soso ruler, came to the throne. A devout Muslim and strongly traditionalist, he quickly antagonised several sections of Port Loko society.

Sankoh’s open hostility to the Colony aggravated the situation. The Crown Colony, established in 1807 with its seat of government at Freetown, was concerned with the active pursuit of “legitimate commerce” as opposed to the centuries-old slave trade. It was also concerned with the spread of Christianity. Both these values were strongly at variance with those of Port Loko, and Temne society, as well as with Brima Konkori Sankoh’s affirmation of tradition, Soso hegemony, and Islam. His exit from power would have been welcomed by the colonial administration. Nor was his position helped by his unpopularity with local Temne and other inhabitants of Port Loko.

Sometime in 1816, a conspiracy seems to have been formed involving the Bai Foki of Port Loko, Moriba Kindo Bangura, and Fatima Brima Kamara. (Fatima Brima was a Temne leader of part-Mandinka descent who led the movement to end Soso hegemony in Port Loko, and who was the main supporter of Bangura.) The Bai Foki was the traditional Temne ruler of Port Loko whose influence had decreased through Soso power. He belonged to the Kanu clan. Moriba Kindo Bangura, according to tradition, was related to the Sankoh Soso clan but appears to have claimed Temne ancestry. Because he was an outstanding warrior his claim was not challenged. The conspirators aimed to overthrow Sankoh and Soso hegemony, after which Moriba Kindo Bangura was to succeed as ruler. After his death, Fatima Brima Kamara was to follow him, and if he too died, someone from the Kamara clan would succeed him.

Tradition had it that, after the agreement had been sealed, Moriba Kindo Bangura visited the Soso homeland in Maligia on the Melacourie River later in 1816, and collected as much information as possible about the Sankoh. Possibly to contract Soso pretensions as supreme leader of Islam, he obtained religious recognition there, being granted the title of Alikali (a-quadi), for which it said he paid a price of seven slaves. In return for these, he was given a turban to symbolise his new status.

Returning to Port Loko, Moriba Kindo received tacit but wholehearted support from the Bai Foki, who is said to have blessed him. He was also given a drum as a symbol of authority. This, incidentally, the Sankoh also possessed and used for the same purpose. On the appointed day in 1817, when the Temne and other malcontents supporting the conspirators had made full military preparations, the drum was sounded. Alerted by the noise, the unsuspecting Brima Konkori Sankoh sent his agents to arrest the person who had dared to challenge his authority. The Soso were ambushed and ultimately trapped and crushed in the part of Port Loko called Sain Bugu in which they had concentrated. Brima Konkori Sankoh and many of his chiefs were beheaded, and, according to tradition, only Temne women married to Soso, and their children, were spared.

Fortunately for the Colony, a disputed succession in 1825 called for intervention. In that year Moriba Kindo Bangura died; but instead of the succession passing to Fatima Brima, as stipulated in the solemn pact of 1816, a schemer, Kunia Banna (alias Jack Coby), who was born in Magbele, south of Port Loko, but lived both at Port Loko and Freetown, persuaded the traditional elective council to confirm him as Alikali. Fatima Brima Kamara quite legitimately felt cheated and was prepared to use force to gain the succession.

The resulting crisis and impending war disrupted the flow of trade into the Colony, a situation which impelled Governor Charles Turner (term of office 1825-26) to set out with troops to Port Loko to intervene in the dispute. He recognised Fatima Brima Kamara, who was crowned Alikali. Turner also secured a treaty favorable to the Colony’s commercial and humanitarian interests, ceding land from Port Loko to the Small Scarcies. The system of the rotating chiefship of Port Loko, which Moriba Kindo Bangura had helped to establish, had been upheld, but at the price of colonial intervention.

GUSTAV K. DEVENEAUX