Kabala, Sierra Leone
Kabala is a large town in
Sierra Leone. It is the capital of the
Koinadugu District of
Northern Province. It is the main town in the north of the country, and is set in a rural landscape.
After the Anglo-Franco settlement of
1895, the British colonial administration post was moved from
Falaba to Kabala, then an insignificant village not shown on the detailed maps of the British. Kabala is a place name in the Limba language literally meaning 'to Bala' or 'Bala's place.' The Limba languages utilizes the prefix 'ka' as a place identifier. The town incorporates two chiefdom centers: Gbawuria the center for the Limba chiefdom of Wara Wara Yagala and Yogomaia the center for the Koronko chiefdom of Sengbe. With respect to native governance Kabala is literally split between the Limba and Koranko Paramount Chiefs. Kabala grew rapidly under
British rule. Traders and merchants were attracted to this colonial administrative town from the
1930s, and after
1947 shop premises were opened by
Lebanese traders.
In
2000 the
United Nations reported that, after the Civil War, "Kabala, in the north, life appears to be returning to normal following fighting". In
2002 newspapers reported a visit to the town by "
Bangladesh's visiting foreign minister", suggesting that the town had sufficiently recovered for it to be shown to important overseas visitors.
The population has grown slowly but steadily since
1947, when it was 3,000, but the town received many
refugees during the civil war of the late
1990s. The
1974 population was 10,335 - the last time a
census was undertaken. It is now probably around 15,000.
Krio is the main language spoken, and it forms a
lingua franca.
The population is remarkably cosmopolitan, but group loyalties are retained and groups often live in their own "sections" of town. The town is inhabited by
Koranke,
Limba,
Temne,
Sankaran,
Fula,
Mandinka,
Mende, and
Loko people. Islam is present, and there are two mosques.
There are government-recognised secondary schools, all of which have religious affiliations. There is a new
Islamic school, the Kabala Islamic Secondary School, which is as yet unrecognised.
The town is known for its
cloth and tailoring. The electricity supply is erratic. There are medical facilities. There are a number of traditional circular hut settlements on the outskirts, but mostly the buildings are single-story tin & brick.
The surrounding landscape is agriculturally lush and there is seasonal rice-planting.
There is an 80-
mile bus service from
Makeni, but the surfaced highway peters out some 25-miles from Kabala and forms a winding dirt track.
There is a large Central Business District and roofed market, with large well-stocked
Lebanese-run department stores. The market serves as an unofficial social centre as well as a trading centre. There is said to be a branch of
Barclays Bank in the town.
There is a cinema, which occasionally shows films. There is a traditional
New Year's Day picnic on
Gbawuria Hill to the west of the town.
