Fula

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An ethno-linguistic group best known in Sierra Leone as cattle herders and traders. In the 18th century they formed a powerful Muslim state centred on Futa Jallon (in what is now the Republic of Guinea) with which the infant Colony of Sierra Leone made repeated attempts to establish trading relations. They form part of the larger Peul/Fula/Fulani linguistic and cultural group which extends across the Sahel region of west Africa from Senegal in the west to Cameroon in the east. One of the chiefly families in the Temne chiefdom of Yoni is of Fula origin. From the 1830s, when Fula traders and craftsmen in metal and leather first established a presence in Freetown, there has been a Fula community in Freetown.

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