When Bureh was a young man his father sent him to the small village of Gbendembu in northern Sierra Leone, where he was trained to become a warrior.

He successfully fought and won wars against other villagers and tribal leaders who were against his plan to establish correct Islamic and indigenous practices throughout Northern Sierra Leone.

Bai Bureh's fighters defeated the Susu, pushed them back into French Guinea and returned the land to the local Kambia people.

Bai Bureh refused to recognise a peace treaty the British had negotiated with the Limba without his participation; and on one occasion, his warrior fighters raided their way across the border into French Guinea.

The hut tax enabled the colonial government to build roads, towns, railways and other infrastructure amenities in Sierra Leone.

[1] Bai Bureh finally surrendered on 11 November 1898, when he was tracked down in swampy, thickly vegetated countryside by a small patrolling party of the newly organised West African Regiment in Port Loko.

Both Kpana Lewis and Nyagua died in exile but Bai Bureh was brought back to Sierra Leone in 1905 and reinstated as the Chief of Kasseh.

[dubious – discuss] At the time these tactics were revolutionary, and he "succeeded" for the good reason he had expert knowledge of the terrain across which the war took place.

A Sierra Leonean professional football club called the Bai Bureh Warriors from Port Loko is named after him.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Gary Schulze and his colleague William Hart discovered the only known photograph of Bai Bureh for sale on eBay in August 2012.