Pujehun is the capital of

Pujehun District Pujehun District is a district in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Pujehun District is one of the sixteen Districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is the town of Pujehun . The other major towns in the district include Gando ...

in the Southern Province. The current estimate of the population of Pujehun is 20,121 people. Pujehun is a

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

town and is the commercial and administrative center of Pujehun District. Pujehun lies about 50 miles south of Bo, and about 200 miles -south-east of

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

. The inhabitants of Pujehun are largely from the Mende ethnic group, although like with virtually all areas in Sierra Leone, the

Krio language Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it uni ...

of the

Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of ...

is the most widely spoken.

History

Pujehun was named after the powerful Mende

warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have be ...

Nyagua, who was residing at the nearby village of

Panguma Panguma is a village in eastern Sierra Leone, with a population of 7965. The village had previously been the capital of Mende people, Mende chief Nyagua during the 19th century. The community includes a Catholic hospital, partially supported by ...

. When Nyagua and his men went to battle, they used the site of the present village as their resting place. At that time There was a lot of pepper growing in the town, which the Mende call "puei." At any time they reached that area, they called it Pujehun.

Ethnicity

The majority of the population in Pujehun are from the Mende ethnic group.

References

Populated places in Sierra Leone Southern Province, Sierra Leone {{SierraLeone-geo-stub