Bonthe is a coastal town located on Sherbro Island in Bonthe District in the southern Province of Sierra Leone . The town lies on the eastern shore of Sherbro Island, on the Sherbro River estuary. Bonthe is about 60 miles south-west of Bo and 187 miles south-east of Freetown .
8-480: Bonthe is by far the smallest of Sierra Leone's six municipalities and is directly governed by a city council , headed by a mayor . The municipality of Bonthe had a population of 9,535 in the 2004 census, with a current estimate of 10,206. The major industry in Bonthe is fishing . In colonial times the town used to be a major trading centre for piassava and other agricultural products . The population of Bonthe
16-561: A special-purpose district . The English word is derived from French municipalité , which in turn derives from the Latin municipalis , based on the word for social contract ( municipium ), referring originally to the Latin communities that supplied Rome with troops in exchange for their own incorporation into the Roman state (granting Roman citizenship to the inhabitants) while permitting
24-555: Is ethnically diverse, though mainly from the Sherbro , and Mende ethnic groups. As with most parts of Sierra Leone, the Krio language of the Sierra Leone Creole people is by far the most widely spoken language in Bonthe and is the primary means of communication in the city. The local radio station in Bonthe is Radio Bontico 96.4. The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Services (SLBS) TV, is on
32-670: The state . Municipalities may have the right to tax individuals and corporations with income tax , property tax , and corporate income tax , but may also receive substantial funding from the state. In some European countries, such as Germany, municipalities have the constitutional right to supply public services through municipally-owned public utility companies . Terms cognate with "municipality", mostly referring to territory or political structure, are Spanish municipio (Spain) and municipalidad (Chile), Catalan municipi , Portuguese município . In many countries, terms cognate with "commune" are used, referring to
40-515: The Spanish term ayuntamiento , referring to a municipality's administration building, is extended via synecdoche to denote the municipality itself. In Moldova and Romania , both municipalities ( municipiu ; urban administrative units) and communes ( comună ; rural units) exist, and a commune may be part of a municipality. In many countries, comparable entities may exist with various names. Communes of Moldova According to
48-421: The air in the city. Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term municipality may also mean the governing body of a given municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to
56-461: The communities to retain their own local governments (a limited autonomy). A municipality can be any political jurisdiction , from a sovereign state such as the Principality of Monaco , to a small village such as West Hampton Dunes, New York . The territory over which a municipality has jurisdiction may encompass: Powers of municipalities range from virtual autonomy to complete subordination to
64-525: The community living in the area and the common interest. These include terms: The same terms "Gemeente" (Dutch) or "Gemeinde" (German) may be used for church congregations or parishes, for example, in the German and Dutch Protestant churches. In Greece, the word Δήμος ( demos ) is used, also meaning 'community'; the word is known in English from the compound democracy (rule of the people). In some countries,
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