Bai Bureh - The Legacy of Bai Bureh

The Legacy of Bai Bureh

The significance of Bai Bureh's war against the British is not a matter of whether he won or lost the war but that a man who had none of what could be called formal military training was able to show that for a significant number of months he was able to take on the British who were very proud of their great military successes across the globe. The British troops were led by officers trained at the finest military academies where war is studied in the same way that one studies a subject at university. The fact that Bai Bureh was not executed after his capture has led some historians to claim that this was in admiration for his prowess as an adversary to the British.

The tactics employed by Bai Bureh in his fight against the British are very much the forerunner of tactics employed by guerilla armies worldwide. At the time these tactics were very revolutionary and he "succeeded" for the good reason he had expert knowledge of the terrain across which the war took place. Bai Bureh had pursued the war not just with sound military brain but also a sense of humour. When Governor Cardew had offered the princely sum of 100 pounds as a reward for his capture, Bai Bureh had reciprocated by offering the even more staggering sum of five hundred pounds for the capture of the Governor.

Many Sierra Leoneans view Bai Bureh today as the greatest man to ever come out of the country. There is a very large Statue of Bai Bureh in central Freetown. He pictured on several Sierra Leonean paper bill. A Sierra Leonean professional football club called the Bai Bureh Warriors from Port Loko is named after him.