Manga Sewa was born in Falaba, Solimana chiefdom, in the Northern Province of British Sierra Leone to Yalunka parents.
In the Beyla region of Guinea, Samori Toure (c.1830-1900), of the Touré clan, had expanded his influence; by 1878 he proclaimed himself faama (military leader) of his own Wassoulou Empire.
In February of that year, he swept into north-east Sierra Leone, with his Mandinka army, bent on conquest.
[1] N'fa Ali, Toure's general, destroyed many villages in the Yalunka Kingdom and ultimately laid siege to the capital, Falaba.
The Yalunka held out for five months and, in the end, were reduced to eating rats and the boiled leather of their sandals and mats.