[citation needed] Gulama represented Sierra Leone abroad and her travels took her all over Africa, Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
[1] In 1944 Gulama married the powerful Paramount Chief Bai Koblo Pathbana II of Marampa, Masimera Chiefdom, an ethnic Temne.
[2] The couple had seven children, including Frances, Francis Obai, Jubilee, Alex Soccoh, June, Julius Maada, and Jilo.
[1] During her chieftaincy, she had the streets of Moyamba paved and hired a British construction company to install clean tap water.
A power struggle between the candidates, Margai of the SLPP and Siaka Stevens of the APC ensued, destabilising the country and resulting in a rapid succession of military coups.
Her estranged husband's acceptance of the position strengthened the innuendo that Gulama's relationship with Sir Albert Margai was much more than a professional one.
[1] The mercenary Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ravaged Sierra Leone and devastated Moyamba District, killing tens of thousands of people and destroying everything Gulama had spent her life building up.
Gulama was also a member of the Sierra Leone government Scholarship Advisory Board and the Bursary Committee of Fourah Bay College.
[1] She was the recipient of several awards including the MBE in 1959, the OBE in 1965 from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth for "public services as Minister without Portfolio",[5] and a Grand Commander of the Order of the Rokel from President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
At the service, she was described as "a woman of substance", by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah who added: Madam Ella Koblo-Gulama has lived an exemplary life, as a mother, wife and stateswoman whose fortitude has earned her high respect.