Life at Madogbo Village, Koinadugu district, Northern Sierra Leone

Madogbo, a small northern village in Koinadugu district plays residence to about 50 or 60 people with about 75% children. The main source of income is farming which is usually halted during the dry season when the rains stopped. This period is usually the difficult time for the residents who are hardly able to eke out a living for their mainly young population.

A very useful cow of Madogbo village. The cows are use for ploughing the earth and makes farming easy for the villagers.

A youth sat on the railings of his family hut at Madogbo village

The hut on the far side hosts the fowls in the village of Madogbo

The bathroom and toilet at Madogbo village

Old people sit on this wooden slab to have their bath

The house of the karrmoko at Madogbo town

Madogbo like most of Sierra Leone is surrounded by hills, mountains and some hard rock like this one

.

The toilet pit at Madogbo village

Despite government's policy that puts the age for a child to be married at 18, child marriage is common here and it is usual for a girl to be married at a tender age of 9 or 10 years old. The celebration is long and big when a virgin is married and that is part responsible for girls being given as brides at such tender age. 

The Local mosque at Madogbo village

A village scene of Madogbo 

Another hut in the village of Madogbo

At night, children sit by the fire with their Karrmoko (Arabic teacher) as they learn verses from the quran written on their wala (a board locally carved with wood)

Residents are mainly muslim and give priority to Islamic education and bother little about Western education. 

This is one of the huts in hosting on average five members of a family at Madogbo village.

In the morning, the People of Madogbo are woken up by the adzan from the local mosque. It is common to see mostly old people with hands folded at their backs or holding water pots  and chewsticks as their form of toothbrush, heading towards the Masjid. Residents normally have a breakfast of cooked green bananas and or satti (Rice pudding). Residents do not normally have lunch but dinner of boiled rice, palm oil, maggie or salt and pepper.

The only voluntary teacher at the only primary school in the village is angry because for months parents have not earned enough from farming to say thanks to him for his efforts. 'Life is hard', he complained  

The village has only one primary school and no nursery and no secondary school.