Welcome to Freetown, the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a major port on the Atlantic. Its harbour, in the estuary of the Sierra Leone River, is one of the largest natural deep water harbours in the world. The city's name tells its story. Freetown was founded in 1792 by 1,196 African Americans, guided by the abolitionist John Clarkson, at the foot of a great Cotton Tree, and it became a home for freed people from the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. Their descendants are the Creole people, whose Krio language is spoken across the city. Let's begin where it all started.
Cotton Tree
Photo: Smoking Tyre · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsWe begin at the Cotton Tree, a kapok tree that became the symbol of Freetown. Its importance dates from 1792, when formerly enslaved African Americans settled here. They had won their freedom by fighting for the British in the American Revolutionary War and were evacuated to Nova Scotia before sailing to Sierra Leone, which is why they were called Black Nova Scotians. They founded Freetown beside this tree on 11 March 1792. On the night of 24 May 2023, much of the tree toppled over in heavy rain.
Bunce Island
Photo: Cnes - Spot Image · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAbout 32 kilometres upriver from Freetown lies Bunce Island, small but heavy with history. Its castle was built by the Royal Africa Company around 1670. The island sat at the limit of navigation for ocean-going ships, which made it an ideal base for European slave traders. Tens of thousands of Africans were shipped from here to South Carolina and Georgia and forced into slavery, and they are the ancestors of many African Americans today. We pause here to remember them.
St. John's Maroon Church
Photo: redcross @ Mapillary.com · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsIn the district of Maroon Town stands St. John's Maroon Church, one of the oldest churches in Sierra Leone. Its builders were Jamaican Maroons, deported first to Nova Scotia and brought to Freetown in 1800. In 1822 a group led by Charles Shaw built this small white church, surrounded by a low white wall, because they felt uncomfortable worshipping in the Nova Scotian chapels. For generations they kept their own brand of Methodism, independent of the Methodist establishment until 1900.
Sierra Leone National Museum
Photo: danbjoseph @ Mapillary.com · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAt the junction of Siaka Stevens Street and Pademba Road in central Freetown is the Sierra Leone National Museum. Its roots go back before independence. In 1953 the governor encouraged the founding of the Sierra Leone Society and challenged its members to create a museum, then offered them the old Cotton Tree Telephone Exchange as a temporary home. The museum opened on 10 December 1957. It also holds an exhibit on Bunce Island, created to mark the bicentennial of Britain's abolition of the slave trade.
St. George's Cathedral
Photo: danbjoseph @ Mapillary.com; changes by Rabanus Flavus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia CommonsBefore you rises St. George's Cathedral, built between 1817 and 1828 and long one of the grandest and best-attended churches in Freetown. It is the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Freetown. The building is so closely tied to the Creole people of Sierra Leone that it was once described as that bastion of Creoledom.
Western Area Peninsula National Park
We end in the green hills of the Western Area Peninsula National Park, which covers more than 183 square kilometres. The area was first protected as a forest reserve in 1916 and became a national park in 2012. It is the westernmost semi-deciduous closed canopy forest in Sierra Leone, home to endangered species including a wide variety of birds and three species of duiker. The park has also been put forward as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lomakuume
