Kingdom of Koya

The Kingdom of Kquoja or Koya or Koya Temne, or the Temne Kingdom (1505–1896), was a pre-colonial African state in the north of present-day Sierra Leone.

The kingdom was founded by the Temne ethnic group in or around 1505 by migrants from the north, seeking trade with the coastal Portuguese in the south.

The kingdom was ruled by a king called a Bai or Obai. The sub-kingdoms within the state were ruled by nobles titled "Gbana". The Koya Kingdom kept and maintained diplomatic relations with the British and French in the 18th century. Children of Temne nobles were allowed to seek western educations abroad. Koya also traded with Islamic states to its north and had Muslims within its borders.

Under Nembanga's reign (1775–1793), the Koya kingdom signed a treaty, which made it possible for the establishment of a British colony on the peninsula of Sierra Leone in 1788.

Koya participated in the trans-atlantic slave trade, though sources state that such commerce was much more privatized than in other kingdoms. Subjects of Koya traded in slaves on the coast even against the wishes of the state at times.

From 1801 to 1807, Koya fought a war with British colonists and the Susu. Koya lost the northern shoreline of Sierra Leone to the British and Port Loko to the Susu. However, they remained a power in the region. In 1815, the Temne fought another war with the Susu and regained the port. In 1841, the Temne defeated the Loko tribe of Kasona on the Mabaole River dispersing many of the people. In response to a British bombardment, the kingdom expelled the Church Missionary Society missionaries operating at Magbela in 1860.

The kingdom became a British protectorate on 31 August 1896 after which the Koya kings lost virtually all power. Revolts of the Temne and Mende in 1898 were fierce but futile. The British would govern the area of the former kingdom until 1961.

List of Temne monarchs

Names and Dates taken from John Stewart's African States and Rulers (1989).

#	Name	Reign Start	Reign End
1	Farima I	c. 1505	c. 1550
2	Farima II	c. 1550	c. 1560
3	Farima III	c. 1560	1605
4	Sangrafare (or Pedro)	1605	1610
5	Borea I	1610	1630
6	Borea II	1630	1664
7	Felipe II	1664	1680
8	Naimbanna I	1680	1720
9	Naimbanna II	1720	11 November 1793
10	Farima IV	1793	1807
11	Bai Foki	1807	1817
12	Moriba	1817	1825
13	Jack Coby (or Kunia Banna)	1825	1826
14	Fatima	1826	1840
15	Moribu Kindo	1840	1859
16	Bai Kanta (or Alexander)	1859	1872
-	Alimani Lahai Bundu (Regent)	1872	1890
17	Bai Kompa (or William Rowe)	1890	1898
18	Fula Mansa Gbanka	1898
Sub-Kings of Ko-Fransa
1	Tom I	1770	1778
2	Jimmy	1778	1796
3	Tom II	1796	1807

Sources

• Worldstatesmen
• Sierra Leonean Heroes
• Wars of the World
• Adam Jones, "The Kquoja Kingdom: A Forest State in Seventeenth Century West Africa," Paideuma 29 (1983): 23–43.