Qualla: Bonthe District https://qualla.com/bonthe-district en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Bonthe District https://qualla.com/bonthe-district Bonthe District: Introduction https://qualla.com/bonthe-district/ Look down on the southwestern corner of Sierra Leone and the land seems unsure whether it belongs to the sea. Channels braid through mangroves, low islands break the surf, and the Atlantic pushes deep inland along tidal creeks. This is Bonthe District, 3,468 square kilometers of water and earth that has been a meeting place for far longer than Sierra Leone has been a country. The Sherbro people gave their name to the largest island here, and from these shores they traded with passing ships centuries before colonial maps fixed any borders. Today the district sends one of its own to the nation's highest office: President Julius Maada Bio was born here.

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/9/r/4/bonthe-district-wp/e9r4-bonthe-district-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bonthe District: The People of the Water https://qualla.com/bonthe-district/ Bonthe is the homeland of the Sherbro, one of Sierra Leone's oldest coastal peoples, who shared this shoreline with passing European traders from the earliest days of Atlantic contact. Today they are a large minority in the district, outnumbered by the Mende who farm the mainland...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/9/r/4/bonthe-district-wp/e9r4-bonthe-district-the-people-of-the-water.mp3 0:06 2 full Bonthe District: Titanium Under the Sand https://qualla.com/bonthe-district/ Bonthe holds a secret in its soil. Beneath the district lie some of the largest deposits of rutile, a titanium ore, anywhere on Earth. Sierra Rutile Limited, backed by American and European investors, was founded in 1971 and reached full commercial production by the late 1970s an...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/9/r/4/bonthe-district-wp/e9r4-bonthe-district-titanium-under-the-sand.mp3 0:06 3 full Bonthe District: A Town That Is Not a Chiefdom https://qualla.com/bonthe-district/ Bonthe District governs itself in two halves, a quirk rooted in geography. The mainland answers to a District Council Chairman based at Mattru Jong, while the island capital of Bonthe town has its own Municipal Mayor. The town sits on Sherbro Island yet belongs to neither of the ...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/9/r/4/bonthe-district-wp/e9r4-bonthe-district-a-town-that-is-not-a-chiefdom.mp3 0:06 4 full Bonthe District: When the War Came https://qualla.com/bonthe-district/ The Sierra Leone Civil War reached even this remote coast. In 1995 fighting forces attacked and damaged the Sierra Rutile operation, the district's economic engine, and the company shut down. Internally displaced people streamed out, and the local economy collapsed alongside the ...

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]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/9/r/4/bonthe-district-wp/e9r4-bonthe-district-when-the-war-came.mp3 0:06 5 full