Name: Sierra Leone
Address: Sierra Leone, Global / Diaspora

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Almamy Suluku

Almamy Suluku (c. 1820 – 1906), the Limba ruler of the Biriwa country in northern Sierra Leone and son of its chief Sankailay. As a young man he became Kurugba (war captain) and made Biriwa one of the largest kingdoms in Sierra Leone, and was crowned Gbaku (king) over it; he enriched it by fostering and protecting the trade that passed through its capital Bumban on the way to Freetown. He kept his independence by political manoeuvre alone: when Samori Touré's Mandinka forces occupied Biriwa in 1884 he pretended to co-operate with them while secretly warning the British until they withdrew; in the 1890s he professed loyalty to the British while doing exactly as he pleased; and when the 1898 rebellion broke out he secretly sent warriors and weapons to Bai Bureh, then wrote to the British offering his services as mediator. His subjects refused to let his kingdom be broken up while he lived, and when an aged Suluku was asked by a British official to name his successor he replied, 'Suluku will never die'. He died in 1906.

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Almamy Suluku