Pendembu is a town in

Kailahun District Kailahun District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is the town of Kailahun. The second most populous city in the district is Segbwema. Other major towns in Kailahun District include Koindu, ...

in the Eastern Province of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. The town population was 7,243 at the 2004

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

but increased to 20,502 according to a more recent estimate. Pendembu lies approximately 36 miles from

Kenema Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in Sierra Leone after Freetown, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province, Sierra Leone, Eastern Province. Kenema ...

and about 235 east of

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, 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, e ...

. Pendembu is a

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

center and is one of the main towns in Eastern Sierra Leone. The vast majority of Pendembu's population are from the Mende

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

. As with most parts of Sierra Leone, the

Krio language The Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is the 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, ...

of the

Sierra Leone Creole people The Sierra Leone Creole 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 Sierra Leone be ...

is by far the most widely spoken language in Pendembu and is the primary means of communication in the city. The most widely spoken languages are Mende and Krio. The town is the birthplace of former

President of Sierra Leone The president of the Republic of Sierra Leone is the head of state and the head of government of Sierra Leone, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. As the head of the executive branch of the Sierra Leone government, the pre ...

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (16 February 1932 – 13 March 2014) was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kab ...

. A health clinic south of Pendembu is operated by the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus

religious order A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...

.Side by Side: The Cafod magazine, published Spring 2022Conference of Religious Superiors Sierra Leone
Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus (HHCJ)
accessed 5 June 2022 Pendembu was a center or hub for the buying and transporting of cacao, coffee beans and palm nuts. There still stand old structures of huge stores and large areas owned by the government of the country. The SLPMB, James international, and other private owned companies in their dilapidated states. The presence of those companies established inter marriages between the Krios and the indigenous people, so was the Libanis. There are still those children in the chiefdom that have held key positions and are members of the tradition of the indigenous people. There is one Krio that has served as Councillor of the entire chiefdom from 2018 to 2023.

Namesakes

There are a number of other towns with similar names.

References

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