Freetown

The name Sierra Leone goes back to Portuguese sailors of the 15th century, who named the mountains on the peninsula 'Serra Leoa', the lion range. For centuries this coast was a place where European ships called to trade. The city itself starts in 1787, when a group of poor Black Londoners, including former soldiers and servants, were sent by British abolitionists to found a 'Province of Freedom' here. That first settlement failed within a few years.

A second and more lasting settlement followed in 1792. Around 1,200 Black Loyalists, who had fought on the British side in the American Revolution and been resettled in Nova Scotia, sailed to the peninsula and founded Freetown. They were joined by Jamaican Maroons in 1800. After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, the Royal Navy brought people freed from captured slave ships to Freetown, and by the middle of the 19th century these 'recaptives' and their descendants made up most of the population.

The mixture of people from many parts of Africa and the Americas produced the Krio, a group whose English-based creole language, Krio, became the common language of the city and, later, of the country. Freetown became the capital of British West Africa, and its churches, its schools and its wooden houses in Victorian style reflect that period. St George's Cathedral, begun in the 1820s, is one of the oldest churches in West Africa.

Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827 and later linked to Durham University, was the first Western-style university in sub-Saharan West Africa and earned the city the nickname 'Athens of West Africa'. Students from across the region studied here. Sierra Leone became independent on 27 April 1961, and that date is a national holiday.

For a visitor, the story helps to read the old centre: the museum, the cathedral and the Cotton Tree site sit in the same few streets where the first settlers built. The tradition that the first settlers held their first service under the old cotton tree explains why its fall in 2023 was mourned across the country.

Freetown's history of freedom sits beside a history of the opposite. Long before the city was founded, Europeans bought and shipped enslaved people from this coast. Bunce Island, a small island in the Sierra Leone River about 30 kilometres upriver from Freetown, was the base of a major British slave-trading operation in the 18th century. Traders held people there in dungeons before shipping them across the Atlantic, many to rice plantations in the American South.

The ruins are still there: the walls of a fort and trading post, the remains of a factory house, the shell of a slave house and the cannon that once guarded the river. The site is important to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States, especially the Gullah Geechee community on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, whose language and rice-growing skills have links with Sierra Leone. Visits from descendants have grown in recent decades, and the site has been the focus of international efforts to preserve it.

Reaching Bunce Island takes a boat and half a day or more. Go with a licensed operator and a guide, who will explain the history, and check the weather before you go: the river can be rough in the rains. It is a serious place, and many visitors find it moving. Dress modestly, follow the guide's instructions on where to walk, and do not climb on the ruins.

Understanding this history changes how you read Freetown. The city that the British founded for freed people was also the base from which the Royal Navy patrolled the coast against slave ships, and the recaptives who arrived from those ships shaped the population and the language.

For a visitor who cannot make the boat trip, the National Museum has displays on the slave trade and the early settlers, and a guide in the old centre can point out where the first settlement stood. Either way, treat the subject with care: ask before taking photographs, and listen more than you speak.

Sierra Leone's civil war ran from 1991 to 2002 and was one of the most brutal in West Africa. Tens of thousands of people were killed, and many more were displaced or mutilated; children were forced to fight. Freetown itself was attacked in January 1999, and large parts of the country were in ruins. The war ended with British military help and a UN peacekeeping mission, and the country has been at peace since.

The years afterwards brought elections, a truth and reconciliation process and a special court, and steady rebuilding. Then in 2014 the Ebola outbreak hit West Africa, and Sierra Leone lost close to 4,000 people. Schools closed, borders shut and the economy shrank. The country was declared free of Ebola in 2016.

In August 2017, after days of heavy rain, part of a hillside above Regent collapsed in a mudslide that killed more than a thousand people, one of the worst such disasters in Africa. It showed what the steep hills, heavy rainfall, informal housing and deforestation can do together. In May 2023, the old Cotton Tree fell in a storm, and many people took it as another sign of a city under strain.

None of this makes Freetown a place to avoid. It does mean the visitor should read its problems fairly: power, water, roads and hospitals are under pressure, and the government is short of money. Visitors benefit from a hotel with a generator and a water tank, a driver they trust and enough cash to cover the trip.

It also means that people are generally welcoming and open about their history. Ask about it politely and you will often hear a story. Do not photograph the sites of recent conflict or memorial places without asking, and avoid political arguments with strangers.

Sierra Leonean cooking is built on rice, palm oil, pepper and leaves. The everyday dish is rice with a stew, and the most typical stew is made from cassava leaves, pounded and cooked with palm oil, onions, chilli and fish or meat. Plasas, a similar leaf stew made with potato leaves or other greens, is also common. Groundnut stew, made with peanuts and chicken, is richer and milder.

Jollof rice, cooked in a tomato and pepper base, appears at parties, weddings and restaurants; every West African country claims to make the best. Along the coast, the seafood is good: grilled barracuda, snapper and prawns, served with pepper sauce, fried plantain and rice or chips. Lumley Beach has grills and bars where you can eat with your feet on the sand and a cold Star beer in your hand.

For a cheap lunch, canteens near the centre serve set plates of rice and stew at a few leones, and roadside sellers offer roast corn, fried plantain, groundnuts and fruit. Hot, freshly cooked food from busy sellers is the safest choice; avoid salads washed in tap water and ice of unknown origin. Bring small notes, because sellers rarely have change.

The Lebanese community has been part of the city for over a century, and Lebanese restaurants serve shawarma, grills and mezze in air-conditioned rooms, which makes them a dependable lunch after a hot morning. Hotels also offer international menus.

Drinks: Star lager is the local beer, and soft drinks are cheap. Poyo, fermented palm wine, is tapped in villages and can be very strong, so ask a local guide before you try it. During Ramadan, many people fast in the day, and visitors should eat and drink discreetly in public.

A practical eating plan for a short stay: take breakfast at your hotel, try a canteen or a roadside snack at mid-morning if you feel adventurous, have your main meal at lunch in a restaurant with air conditioning or at a beach grill, and eat dinner at your hotel or at a place you reach and leave by car. Ask for the pepper sauce on the side, because it is very hot. Vegetarians can find rice with vegetable stew, plantain and fruit, and Lebanese restaurants offer hummus and salads, but many stews contain fish or meat stock, so ask what is in each dish.

Freetown sits on a mountainous peninsula, and the hills behind the city are covered in forest that is now protected as the Western Area Peninsula National Park. The forest is home to birds, monkeys and duikers, and it is the source of much of the city's water. Deforestation and building on the slopes are a serious problem, and they contributed to the mudslide in 2017.

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, founded in the mid-1990s, lies in the forest above the city and looks after chimpanzees rescued from the pet trade and from poachers. It is one of the best-known conservation projects in West Africa. Visits are guided and limited in size, and booking ahead is wise. The sanctuary also gives a view of how conservation and tourism can work together here.

West of the city the peninsula has a string of beaches. Lumley and Aberdeen are the closest, with bars and hotels. Further along, River No. 2 beach, where a river meets the sea, is one of the most photographed; Tokeh, Sussex, Kent and York are quieter, and Bureh Beach has surf. The road to the beaches is fine in the dry season and can be rough or flooded in the rains, so check conditions with your hotel before you go.

The sea has currents, and there are few lifeguards, so swim in calm water, stay close to the shore and do not swim alone. Use reef-safe sunscreen and carry water; there is little shade on some beaches.

Weather matters here more than in most cities. Between November and April it is dry and bright; between June and September it is one of the wettest places in West Africa, with heavy storms that flood roads and make boat crossings rough. If you can choose, come in the dry season.

A few habits make Freetown work. First, the airport is across the estuary from the city, and the crossing by ferry or water taxi plus a car takes hours. Book it before you fly and allow a big buffer when you leave, ideally so that you are at Lungi with plenty of time before an international flight.

Second, use a driver from your hotel for every leg. Distances are short on the map and long in traffic; pavements are broken; and after dark the streets are unlit. Agree the price before you go, and agree the waiting time if you want the driver to wait at a site. Traffic accidents are a bigger risk than crime, so wear a seatbelt.

Third, cash. Bring clean, recent US dollars or euros and change them at a bank or a bureau, not on the street. Cards are accepted at a few hotels and restaurants, and ATMs are unreliable. Carry small leone notes for snacks, taxis and tips, and keep your money in two places.

Fourth, manners. Greet before you ask for anything: a handshake, Kushɛ, and how is the body. Use the right hand to give and receive. Dress modestly in the city and in mosques and churches. Ask before photographing people, and never photograph police, the military, government buildings, the port or the airport. In Krio, tɛnki is thank you and aw mɔs is how much.

Finally, plan for health. Take advice from a travel clinic about malaria tablets and vaccinations, carry a yellow fever certificate, use repellent, drink bottled water and buy insurance with medical evacuation. With these done, most visitors find the city warm, funny and generous, and remember the people more than the roads.

Two last points on timing. Sierra Leone runs on flexible time: buses, ferries and appointments start when they are ready, so build buffers into every plan, especially for flights and crossings. And Friday is a day of prayer for the Muslim majority, so many offices and shops slow down around midday, while Sunday is quieter because of church. Plan sights for weekday mornings, when most places are open and roads are clearer, and keep late afternoons for the beach.