Freetown, the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean, located in the Western Area of the country. It serves as Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational, and political center, housing the seat of the Government of Sierra Leone.
Aerial view of Freetown
The Founding of Freetown
The area was first settled in 1787 by 400 formerly enslaved black people sent from London, England, under the auspices of the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, an organization set up by Jonah Hanway and the British abolitionist Granville Sharp. These black people were African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians, and black people born in Great Britain. Disputes soon broke out. King Tom's successor, King Jimmy, burnt the settlement to the ground in 1789.
Alexander Falconbridge was sent to Sierra Leone in 1791 to collect the remaining Black Poor settlers, and they re-established Granville Town around the area now known as Cline Town, Sierra Leone near Fourah Bay.
In 1791, Thomas Peters, an African American who had served in the Black Pioneers, went to England to report the grievances of the black population in Nova Scotia. Some of these African Americans were ex-slaves who had escaped to the British forces who had been given their freedom and resettled there by the Crown after the American Revolution.
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During his visit, Peters met with the directors of the Sierra Leone Company and learned of proposals for a new settlement at Sierra Leone. Despite the collapse of the 1787 colony, the directors were eager to recruit settlers to Sierra Leone. Tired of the harsh weather and racial discrimination in Nova Scotia, more than 1,100 former American slaves chose to go to Sierra Leone.
They sailed in 15 ships and arrived in St. George Bay between February 26 - March 9, 1792. Sixty-four settlers died en route to Sierra Leone, and Lieutenant Clarkson was among those taken ill during the voyage.
Upon reaching Sierra Leone, Clarkson and some of the Nova Scotian 'captains' "dispatched on shore to clear or make roadway for their landing". The Nova Scotians were to build Freetown on the former site of the first Granville Town, where jungle had taken over since its destruction in 1789.
At Freetown, the women remained in the ships while the men worked to clear the land. Lt. Clarkson told the men to clear the land until they reached a large cotton tree. In March 1792, Nathaniel Gilbert, a white preacher, prayed and preached a sermon under the large Cotton Tree, and Reverend David George, from South Carolina, preached the first recorded Baptist service in Africa.
The land was dedicated and christened 'Free Town,' as ordered by the Sierra Leone Company Directors. John Clarkson was sworn in as first governor of Sierra Leone. Small huts were erected before the rainy season. The Sierra Leone Company surveyors and the settlers built Freetown on the American grid pattern, with parallel streets and wide roads, with the largest being Water Street.
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The Cotton Tree in Freetown
Early Challenges and Growth
In 1793, the settlers sent a petition to the Sierra Leone Company expressing concerns about the treatment that they were enduring. The settlers in particular objected to being issued currency that was only redeemable at a company-owned store. They also claimed that the governor, a Mr. Dawes, ruled in an almost tyrannical fashion, favoring certain people over others when ruling the settlement.
The writers then argued that they had not received the amount of land that Lt. Clarkson had promised them on leaving Nova Scotia. The letter expressed anxiety that the company was not treating them as freemen, but as slaves and requested that Lt. Freetown survived being pillaged by the French in 1794, and was rebuilt by the settlers.
By 1798, Freetown had between 300 and 400 houses with architecture resembling that of the United States - stone foundations with wooden superstructures. In 1800, the Nova Scotians rebelled. The colonial authorities used the arrival of about 550 Jamaican Maroons to suppress the insurrection. Thirty-four Nova Scotians were banished and sent to either the Sherbro or a penal colony at Gore. Some of the Nova Scotians were eventually allowed back into Freetown. After the Maroons captured the Nova Scotian rebels, they were granted their land. Themne people attacked the colony in 1801 and were repulsed.
British Colonial Era
The British eventually took control of Freetown, making it a Crown Colony in 1808. From 1808 to 1874, the city served as the capital of British West Africa. It also served as the base for the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, which was charged with enforcing the ban on the slave trade. When the squadron liberated slaves on trading ships, they brought most to Sierra Leone, and Freetown in particular; thus, the population grew to include descendants of many different peoples from all over the west coast of Africa.
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The liberated Africans established the suburbs of Freetown Peninsula. They were the largest group of immigrants to make up the Creole people of Freetown. The city expanded rapidly. The freed slaves were joined by West Indian and African soldiers, who had fought for Britain in the Napoleonic Wars and settled here afterwards. Descendants of the freed slaves who settled in Sierra Leone between 1787 and around 1885, are called the Creoles.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1787 | First settlement by formerly enslaved black people |
| 1792 | Freetown founded by African Americans |
| 1808 | British take control, making it a Crown Colony |
| 1808-1874 | Freetown serves as capital of British West Africa |
During World War I Freetown became a base for operations of British forces in the Atlantic. During World War II, Britain maintained a naval base at Freetown. The base was a staging post for Allied traffic in the South Atlantic and the assembly point for SL convoys to Britain. An RAF base was maintained at nearby Lungi airfield.
Modern Freetown
The city was the scene of fierce fighting in the late 1990s during the Sierra Leone Civil War. It was captured by ECOWAS troops seeking to restore President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1998. In the early morning on 14 August 2017, after much heavy rain, part of Mount Sugar Loaf on an edge of Freetown collapsed in a huge mudslide which drowned over 300 people in Regent town.
Freetown borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Area Rural District. Freetown municipality is politically divided into three regions: East End, Central and West End of Freetown. The wards in the East End of Freetown (East I, East II, and East III) contain the city's largest population centre and generally the poorest part of the city. The two central wards (Central I and Central II) make up Central Freetown, which includes Downtown Freetown and the central business district (Central II). Sierra Leone's House of Parliament and the State House, the principal workplace of the president of Sierra Leone, are on Tower Hill in central Freetown. The three westernmost wards (West I, West II, and West III) of the city constitute the West End of Freetown. These wards are relatively affluent. Most of the city's luxury hotels, a number of casinos, and Lumley Beach are in the west end of the city.
Like the rest of Sierra Leone, Freetown has a tropical climate with a rainy season from May through November; the balance of the year represents the dry season. The beginning and end of the rainy season is marked by strong thunderstorms. Freetown's high humidity is somewhat relieved December through February by the famous Harmattan, a wind blowing from the Sahara Desert, affording Freetown its coolest period of the year. Temperature extremes recorded in Freetown are from 15 °C (59 °F) to 38 °C (100 °F) all year.
Freetown is home to a large population of both Muslims and Christians, though Muslims make up the majority of the population. In the youth populations of both faiths can be found a significant liberal influence. As in many parts of Sierra Leone, the Krio language (the English-based creole language of the Sierra Leone Creole people who make up 5% of the country's population) is by far the most widely spoken language in the city. The language is spoken at home as a first language by over 20% of the city's population and is spoken as a lingua franca by a large number of the population in the city. English (the country's official language) is also widely spoken, particularly by the well-educated. Themne is the second most spoken language in Freetown after Krio.
The city of Freetown is one of Sierra Leone's six municipalities and is governed by a directly elected city council, headed by a mayor, in whom executive authority is vested. The current mayor is Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. The mayor is responsible for the general management of the city. The government of the Freetown Municipality has been dominated by All People's Congress (APC) since 2004.
Since 2004, the residents of Freetown have voted in municipal elections for members of the All People's Congress (APC) by an overwhelming majority. In Presidential elections Freetown is considered a swing city, as it has a large support base of both the All People's Congress and the Sierra Leone People's Party. However, the APC has won majority percent of the votes in Freetown in the 2007, 2012 and 2018 Sierra Leone Presidential election, including The APC winning more than 65% of the votes in Freetown in both The 2012 and 2018 Sierra Leone Presidential elections. The APC presidential candidate Ernest Bai Koroma received 69% of the votes in Freetown in the 2012 Sierra Leone Presidential election; compared to the SLPP presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio who received 30%.
In November 2011, Freetown Mayor Herbert George-Williams was removed from office and replaced by council member Alhaji Gibril Kanu as acting mayor. Mayor Herbert George-Williams and eight others, including the Chief Administrator of the Freetown city council Bowenson Fredrick Philips; and the Freetown city council Treasurer Sylvester Momoh Konnehi, were arrested and indicted by the Sierra Leone Anti-corruption Commission on twenty-five counts on graft charges, ranging from conspiracy to commit corruption to misappropriation of public funds. Mayor Herbert George-Williams was acquitted of seventeen of the nineteen charges against him.
In the national presidential and parliamentary elections, Freetown is similar to swing states in American politics. As the city is so ethnically diverse, no single ethnic group forms a majority of the population of the city. Historically, the APC and the SLPP, two of the country's major political parties, have had about equal support in the city.
The city has the Sierra Leone National Museum and Sierra Leone National Railway Museum. There are also various historical landmarks connected to its founding by African Americans, Liberated Africans, and Afro-Caribbeans whose descendants are the Sierra Leone Creole people. The Cotton Tree represents the christening of Freetown in March 1792.
Top 10 Attractions in Freetown, Sierra Leone 🇸🇱✨
Freetown has a long-held tradition of organized cultural events taking place on specific dates to coincide with specific holidays or seasons within the calendar year. One such event is the Eastern Paddle Hunting Society's annual exhibition of a highly sophisticated masquerade, consisting of a costume built, in a fashionable sense, of various materials available: leather, sequins, sea shells, traditional cloths, etc. The masquerade, known as "Paddle", strategically takes to the streets of the eastern and central parts of the city, followed by members of the Eastern Paddle Hunting Society, traditional musical bands and a crowd of supporters. The "Tangays" Festival is usually held in November, with a traditional theme that involves virtually every aspect of Sierra Leonean culture. It takes place at the National Stadium.
Freetown has its own tradition of Christmas street parades, organised in neighbourhoods across the city. Freetown's tourism sector is an integral part of the city. Although the sector was seriously affected during the Civil War, there has been a steady improvement in recent years. The city has a lot to offer to tourists.
Lumley Beach in Freetown
There is a vast expanse of white sand beaches stretching along the Freetown Peninsula. The Lumley-Aberdeen beach stretches all the way from Cape Sierra Leone down to Lumley. There are also other popular beaches like the world renowned River Number 2 Beach, Laka Beach, Tokeh Beach, Bureh Beach, and Mama Beach.
The Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which is located within the peninsula's vast rainforest reserve, just a few miles from the centre of Freetown, has a collection of rare and endangered chimpanzees. The Aberdeen-Lumley area is a favourite destination for those venturing into the city's nightlife. Nearby is the King's Yard Gate built in stone with a statement inscribed which reads "any slave who passes through this gate is declared a free man", and it was this gate through which liberated Africans passed. Down by the Naval Wharf are slave steps carved out of stone.
Freetown is home to Fourah Bay College, the oldest university in West Africa, founded in 1827. The university played a key role in Sierra Leone's colonial history. The college's first student, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, went on to be named as the first indigenous Bishop of West Africa. National Railway Museum has a coach car built for the state visit of Elizabeth II in 1961. The Freetown peninsula is ringed by long stretches of white sand.
Among the places of worship, Christian churches predominate and the remaining religious institutions are predominantly Muslim mosques. Among the Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown (Catholic Church), United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone (World Methodist Council), Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone (Baptist World Alliance), Assemblies of God, and St. Freetown is the economic and financial centre of Sierra Leone.
The country's state television and radio station, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, is primarily based in Freetown. The other national broadcasters, such as AYV (African Young Voices) and Capital Radio, are also based in Freetown. The city's economy revolves largely around its natural harbour, which is the largest natural harbour on the African continent.
