[1] It was once home to a sanatorium, and to Miriam Makeba, who last visited the town in 1988, when she came to see her niece, N'Tombi Makeba, who lived in Miriam's house (a round building dating to the French colonial period,[citation needed] but using the same form as traditional homes in the region) for a number of years in the 1980s.

The women of Dalaba dye cotton damask fabric a rich-hued indigo in detailed tie-dyed patterns.

Like the rest of the Futa Djalon region of which it is part, Dalaba's climate is moderated by the altitude.

It was a popular retreat area for French during the colonial period largely for that reason.

The French botanist Auguste Chevalier experimented with the planting of certain pine species in the vicinity of Dalaba in the early 1900s.