Freetown is the capital as well as biggest city of Sierra Leone. It is a significant port city on the Atlantic Ocean and also is situated in the Western Area of the nation. Freetown is Sierra Leone’s major urban, financial, monetary, social, political and educational centre, as it is the seat of the Government of Sierra Leone. The population of Freetown was 1,055,964 at the 2015 demographics. The city’s economic situation rotates greatly around its harbour, which inhabits a component of the tidewater of the Sierra Leone River in one of the globe’s biggest natural deep water harbours. Although the city has generally been the homeland of the Sierra Leone Creole people, the populace of Freetown is ethnically, culturally, as well as religiously diverse. The city is house to a considerable populace of all of Sierra Leone’s ethnic teams, without any single ethnic team creating even more than 27% of the city’s populace. As in essentially all components of Sierra Leone, the Krio language of the Sierra Leone Creole individuals is Freetown’s main language of interaction and is without a doubt the most widely talked language in the city. The city of Freetown was started by abolitionist Lieutenant John Clarkson on March 11, 1792, as a settlement completely free African American, Liberated and also afro-caribbean African servants. Their offspring are referred to as the Creole individuals. The regional Temne and Loko individuals were staying in towns in the land that became called Freetown prior to the European arrival. Freetown is locally regulated by a directly chosen Freetown City Council, headed by a mayor, who also is directly chosen. The mayor as well as members of the Freetown City board are directly chosen by the homeowners of Freetown in a political election held every 4 years. The mayor of Freetown is Yvonne Aki Sawyerr, who was vowed in on Might 11, 2018, after her triumph in the 2018 Freetown Mayoral election. The Freetown city board has its very own municipal police. The area was very first resolved in 1787 by 400 previously enslaved black people sent from London, England, under the auspices of the Board for the Alleviation of the Black Poor, an organisation established by Jonah Hanway as well as the British abolitionist Granville Sharp. These black people were African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians, and also black individuals born in Terrific Britain. They developed the ‘Province of Flexibility’ and the settlement of Granville Town ashore bought from local Koya Temne subchief King Tom and also regent Naimbana. The British recognized the purchase indicated that their new settlers had the land «for ever before.» Although the recognized setup in between Europeans as well as the Koya Temne consisted of provisions for permanent settlement, some historians wonder about exactly how well the Koya leaders recognized the contract, as they had a various perception of the usages of property. Disagreements quickly burst out. King Tom’s follower, King Jimmy, shed the settlement to the ground in 1789. Alexander Falconbridge was sent to Sierra Leone in 1791 to collect the continuing to be Black Poor inhabitants, and also they re-established Granville Community around the location currently known as Cline Town, Sierra Leone near Fourah Bay. In 1791, Thomas Peters, an African American who had actually offered in the Black Pioneers, went to England to report the complaints of the black population in Nova Scotia. A few of these African Americans were ex-slaves that had actually escaped to the British forces who had actually been given their liberty and transplanted there by the Crown after the American Revolution. Land gives as well as support in starting the negotiations had been slow-moving and intermittent. During his browse through, Peters met the directors of the Sierra Leone Business and found out of proposals for a brand-new negotiation at Sierra Leone. Regardless of the collapse of the 1787 colony, the directors aspired to recruit settlers to Sierra Leone. Lieutenant John Clarkson, REGISTERED NURSE, who was an activist, was sent out to Nova Scotia in British North America to register immigrants to require to Sierra Leone for a new settlement. Fed up with the harsh weather and racial discrimination in Nova Scotia, greater than 1,100 former American servants picked to go to Sierra Leone. Sixty-four settlers passed away en path to Sierra Leone, and also Lieutenant Clarkson was among those taken ill throughout the voyage. Upon reaching Sierra Leone, Clarkson and several of the Nova Scotian ‘captains’ «sent off ashore to clear or make street for their landing». At Freetown, the ladies stayed in the ships while the guys functioned to get rid of the land. Lt. Clarkson informed the males to get rid of the land till they got to a big cotton tree. In March 1792, Nathaniel Gilbert, a white preacher, hoped and also taught a preaching under the big Cotton Tree, and also Reverend David George, from South Carolina, taught the very first taped Baptist service in Africa. The land was devoted and also christened ‘Free Town,’ as gotten by the Sierra Leone Firm Supervisors. This was the initial thanksgiving service. John Clarkson was promised in as very first governor of Sierra Leone. Tiny huts were set up prior to the wet period. The Sierra Leone Firm surveyors and the settlers developed Freetown on the American grid pattern, with identical streets and broad roads, with the biggest being Water Street. On August 24, 1792, the Black Poor or Old Settlers of the 2nd Granville Community were incorporated into the brand-new Sierra Leone Swarm, however remained at Granville Community. In 1793, the settlers sent out a request to the Sierra Leone Company expressing concerns regarding the therapy that they were withstanding. The inhabitants specifically challenged being released currency that was only redeemable at a firm owned shop. They additionally declared that the governor, a Mr. Dawes, ruled in a practically despotic style, favoring particular people over others when ruling the negotiation. The writers then said that they had not received the quantity of land that Lt. Clarkson had promised them off duty Nova Scotia. The letter expressed anxiousness that the Business Reputation Management Online was not treating them as freemen, yet as servants and requested that Lt. Clarkson return as guv. Freetown survived being pillaged by the French in 1794, and was reconstructed by the inhabitants. By 1798, Freetown had in between 300 as well as 400 residences with style resembling that of the USA – rock foundations with wood superstructures. At some point this style of housing, constructed by the Nova Scotians, would certainly be the design for the ‘figure oses’ of their Creole descendants. In 1800, the Nova Scotians rebelled. The colonial authorities used the arrival of regarding 550 Jamaican Maroons to reduce the insurrection. Thirty-four Nova Scotians were gotten rid of and sent out to either the Sherbro or a penal colony at Gore. A few of the Nova Scotians were eventually enabled back right into Freetown. After the Maroons captured the Nova Scotian rebels, they were granted their land. Ultimately the Maroons had their very own district, which became recognized as Maroon Community. Indigenous Africans struck the colony in 1801 and were repelled. The British ultimately took control of Freetown, making it a Crown Colony in 1808. This act come with growth that resulted in the creation of Sierra Leone. From 1808 to 1874, the city acted as the funding of British West Africa. It likewise worked as the base for the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, which was charged with enforcing the restriction on the servant profession. When the squadron freed slaves on trading ships, they brought most to Sierra Leone, and Freetown specifically; hence, the population grew to consist of offspring of various peoples from around the west coast of Africa. The British also positioned 3 of their Mixed Commission Courts in Freetown. The liberated Africans established the suburban areas of Freetown Peninsula. They were the largest team of immigrants to compose the Creole people of Freetown. The city expanded swiftly. The freed servants were joined by West Indian and African soldiers, that had actually defended Britain in the Napoleonic Battles and also cleared up below afterwards. Descendants of the freed slaves that cleared up in Sierra Leone in between 1787 and also around 1885, are called the Creoles. The Creoles play a leading function in the city, although they are a minority of the total Sierra Leone population. Throughout World Battle I Freetown came to be a base for operations of British pressures in the Atlantic. Warships entered into the port to resupply and also German seller vessels captured in the region were additionally sent there. Throughout The Second World War, Britain maintained a marine base at Freetown. The base was a hosting article for Allied traffic in the South Atlantic as well as the setting up point for SL convoys to Britain. An RAF base was kept at nearby Lungi landing strip. British boxer airplane which were shipped into Freetown port, were lugged on the Sierra Leone Federal Government Train to Makeni to be assembled as well as flown to Egypt. The city was the scene of fierce fighting in the late 1990s during the Sierra Leone Civil Battle. It was captured by ECOWAS troops looking for to recover Head of state Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1998. Later it was unsuccessfully assaulted by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front. In the early morning on 14 August 2017, after much heavy rainfall, part of Mount Sugar Loaf on an edge of Freetown broke down in a substantial landslide which drowned over 300 people in Minister community. Logging has been condemned for the landslide. Freetown shares border with the Atlantic Sea and the Western Area Rural District. Freetown community is politically separated into 3 areas: East End, Central and also West End of Freetown. The wards in the East End of Freetown (East I, East II, and East III) consist of the city’s biggest population centre as well as usually the poorest component of the city. The Queen Elizabeth II Quay lies within East End. The 2 main wards (Central I and Central II) comprise Central Freetown, which consists of Downtown Freetown as well as the central service district (Central II). A lot of the highest and also crucial nationwide federal government structure and also international embassies are based in Central Freetown. Sierra Leone’s Residence of Parliament as well as the State Home, the major workplace of the head of state of Sierra Leone, get on Tower Hill in main Freetown. The National Stadium, the home stadium of the Sierra Leone nationwide football team (commonly referred to as the Leone Stars) is in the Brookfield area. The 3 western wards (West I, West II, and West III) of the city constitute the West End of Freetown. These wards are reasonably upscale. The majority of the city’s luxury resorts, a number of gambling establishments, and also the Lumley Coastline are in the west end of the city. The west end neighbourhood of Hillside Terminal is house to the State Lodge, the palace of the president of Sierra Leone. Like the rest of Sierra Leone, Freetown has an exotic climate with a stormy period from May through November; the balance of the year stands for the completely dry period. The start and also end of the stormy season is noted by solid electrical storms. Under the Köppen environment category, Freetown has a tropical monsoon environment (Am) largely as a result of the heavy amount of precipitation it obtains throughout the stormy period. Freetown’s high moisture is rather eased December via to February by the famous Harmattan, a wind blowing from the Sahara Desert affording Freetown its coolest duration of the year. Temperature extremes recorded in Freetown are from 15 ° C (59 ° F) to 38 ° C (100 ° F) all year. The ordinary yearly temperature level is around 28 ° C (82 ° F). Freetown is residence to a large populace of both Muslims as well as Christians, though Muslims compose the majority of the populace. In both the Christian and muslim youth population of Freetown can be located a significant liberal impact. Like the remainder of Sierra Leone, Freetown is a really religiously forgiving city, with Muslims and also Christians living alongside and also hitting it off. As in many components of Sierra Leone, the Krio language (the English-based creole language of the Sierra Leone Creole people that compose 5% of the country’s populace) is by far one of the most extensively talked language in the city. The language is talked in the house as a very first language by over 20% of the city’s populace and is talked as a lingua franca by a a great deal of the population in the city. English (the country’s official language) is also extensively talked, particularly by the well informed. The Themne language is the second most popular language talked after Krio. Themne people likewise compose the largest participants of the populace of Freetown and the Western Area Area. The city of Freetown is one of Sierra Leone’s six municipalities and also is governed by a straight chosen city board, headed by a mayor, in whom executive authority is vested. The existing mayor is Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. The mayor is in charge of the general monitoring of the city. The mayor and members of the Freetown City board are elected directly by the residents of Freetown every four years. The federal government of the Freetown Community has been controlled by All Individuals’s Congress (APC) considering that 2004. Since 2004, the locals of Freetown has elected in metropolitan political elections for members of the All Individuals’s Congress (APC) by an overwhelming majority. The APC won the city’s mayorship as well as huge bulk seats in the Freetown city council in the 2004, 2008, 2012 as well as 2018 neighborhood elections by even more than 67% each. In Presidential political elections Freetown is considered a swing city, as it has a large support base of both the All Individuals’s Congress and the Sierra Leone People’s Event. Nonetheless, the APC has won bulk percent of the votes in Freetown in the 2007, 2012 and 2018 Sierra Leone Presidential election, consisting of The APC winning more than 65% of the votes in Freetown in both The 2012 nd 2018 Sierra Leone Presidential elections. The APC presidential prospect Ernest Bai Koroma got 69% of the enact Freetown in the 2012 Sierra Leone Presidential election; contrasted to the SLPP presidential candidate Julius Maada Biography who obtained 30%. In the 2018 Sierra Leone Presidential political election, The APC presidential candidate Samura Kamara obtained 65% compared to the SLPP presidential prospect Julius Maada Bio who received 34%, though Maada Bio won the governmental election country wide. In November 2011, Freetown Mayor Herbert George-Williams was gotten rid of from workplace and changed by council member Alhaji Gibril Kanu as acting mayor. Mayor Herbert George-Williams and also 8 others, consisting of the Principal Administrator of the Freetown common council Bowenson Fredrick Philips; and also the Freetown city board Treasurer Sylvester Momoh Konnehi, were apprehended and prosecuted by the Sierra Leone Anti-corruption Commission on twenty-five trust graft charges, ranging with conspiracy to commit corruption as well as misappropriation of public funds. Mayor Herbert George-Williams was acquitted of seventeen of the nineteen fees against him. He was founded guilty of two less major costs by the Freetown High Court court Jon Bosco Katutsi and punished to pay a fine. Acting Mayor Kanu lost the APC election for the mayor of Freetown in the 2012 Mayoral elections by 56 votes; council participant Sam Franklyn Bode Gibson won 106 in a landslide triumph. In the national presidential and Legislative elections, Freetown resembles turn states in American politics. As the city is so ethnically diverse, no solitary ethnic team creates a majority of the populace of the city. Typically, the APC as well as the SLPP, 2 of the country’s major political events, have regarding equal assistance in the city. In the 2007 Sierra Leone Presidential political election, the APC candidate and afterwards major resistance leader, Ernest Bai Koroma, won just over 60% of the enact the Western Location Urban District, including the city of Freetown, where virtually the whole District populace live. The city has the Sierra Leone National Gallery as well as Sierra Leone National Train Museum. Various historical spots attached to its starting by African Americans, Liberated African servants, and also West Indians whose descendants are the Sierra Leone Creole individuals. The Cotton Tree represents the christening of Freetown in March 1792. In downtown Freetown is the Connaught Medical facility, the very first medical facility created in West Africa that incorporated Western clinical methods. Freetown has a long-held tradition of arranged social events happening on specific days to accompany particular holidays or periods within the calendar year. One such event is the Eastern Paddle Searching Culture’s yearly exhibition of a very advanced masquerade, consisting of an outfit developed, in a fashionable feeling, of various products readily available: leather, sequins, sea coverings, traditional towels, and so on. The masquerade, recognized as «Paddle», requires to the calculated streets of the eastern and central components of the city, complied with by participants of the secret society, conventional musical bands and also a crowd of fans. For many years this event had actually been corresponding with the Muslim holiday of Eid ul Adha up until just recently, as movie critics state such an event needs to not be hung on the very same day as Muslims commemorate Eid, as Islam is versus the techniques of secret cultures and also poses. The «Tangays» Celebration is usually kept in November, with a standard motif that includes practically every facet of Sierra Leonean culture. It happens at the National Stadium. Towards the end of the festival, a pair of music shows are usually held in the main bowl of the arena, with performances from neighborhood and also global musical artists (particularly contemporary musicians from Nigeria and other African countries or the African diaspora). Freetown has its own custom of Christmas street ceremonies, arranged in areas throughout the city. The month-long event gathers homeowners in the streets with a selection of food and also conventional songs. Freetown’s tourism sector is an indispensable part of the city. Although the field was seriously affected during the Civil War; nevertheless, there has actually been a steady improvement in recent times. The city has a great deal to provide to vacationers. There is a substantial stretch of white sandy beaches extending along the Freetown Peninsula. The Lumley-Aberdeen coastline extends right from Cape Sierra Leone down to Lumley. There are additionally other popular beaches like the world renowned River Number 2 Coastline, Laka Coastline, Tokeh Beach, Bureh Beach, and Mom Beach. The Tacugama Primate Shelter, which is situated within the peninsula’s substantial jungle reserve, just a few miles from the centre of Freetown, has a collection of unusual as well as decreasing in numbers primates. Other prominent locations for travelers include the Freetown Cotton Tree, located in Central Freetown, a considerable national monolith as well as integral to the beginning of the city; Bunce Island, which is a boat flight from the city, is home to the ruins of the servant fortress that was being utilized during the Transatlantic slave labor; the Sierra Leone Museum, which has a collection of both precolonial along with early american artefacts and various other items of historic significance; the National Train Museum; or you can take a journey around the city’s shoreline with the preferred Seacoach Express. The Aberdenn-Lumley location is a favourite location for those venturing into the city’s nightlife. There are restaurants, nightclubs and also hotels located not as well far from the coastline along the roadway linking Aberdeen as well as Lumley. While checking out Sierra Leone for the initial time, there are particular social specifics you need to recognize. Sierra Leoneans as a whole are very friendly as well as tolerant. Sierra Leone is generally thought about as one of one of the most consistently tolerant countries in the world. Both Muslim and also Christian holidays are commemorated with a comparable degree of excitement, to name a few points. People in the city are accustomed to dealing with vacationers with a feeling of «advantage of the doubt» in scenarios where a tourist fails to comprehend a certain way of doing something that is unique to Sierra Leonean society as well as practices. Nonetheless, as a traveler, you might locate yourself having problems with somebody that may have observed you consistently neglecting a certain norm, such as continually neglecting straightforward etiquettes like falling short to welcome effectively or otherwise being respectful in the standard way. Numerous dispute circumstances can be prevented by asking inquiries concerning skeptical problems or scenarios, as many individuals are constantly prepared to provide you with solutions as best as they could. Neighboring is the King’s Lawn Gate integrated in stone with a statement etched which reviews «any type of servant who goes through this gateway is declared a cost-free guy», and it was this entrance with which freed Africans passed. Down by the Naval Wharf are servant steps carved out of stone. Prior to Freetown was established, this was where the Portuguese slave investors transferred Africans as servants to ships. Freetown is residence to Fourah Bay College, the oldest college in West Africa, established in 1827. The college played an essential role in Sierra Leone’s colonial history. The college’s initial trainee, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, went on to be called as the initial native Bishop of West Africa. National Train Gallery has a coach automobile built for the state check out of Elizabeth II in 1961. The Big Market on Wallace Johnson Road is the display for neighborhood craftsmens’ work. The Freetown peninsula is ringed by long stretches of white sand. Lumley Beach, on the western side of the peninsula, is a prominent area for neighborhood events and also festivals. Amongst the places of praise, Christian churches predominate and also the continuing to be religious establishments are predominantly Muslim mosques. Among the Christian temples and also churches: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown (Catholic Church), United Methodist Church in Sierra Leone (World Methodist Council), Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone (Baptist Globe Alliance), Assemblies of God. Freetown is the economic and also economic centre of Sierra Leone. The country’s state tv and radio station, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Company, is primarily based in Freetown. The various other national broadcasters, such as AYV (African Young Voices) as well as Capital Radio, are also based in Freetown. Numerous of the nationwide headquarters of the country’s biggest companies in addition to the bulk of worldwide business are located in Freetown – a bulk of these are located in Central Freetown. The city’s economic situation revolves mostly around its final natural harbour, which is the biggest all-natural harbour on the continent of Africa. Queen Elizabeth II Quay can getting oceangoing vessels as well as takes care of Sierra Leone’s primary exports. Industries include food and beverage handling, fish packing, rice milling, petroleum refining, diamond cutting, and the manufacture of cigarettes, beer, paint, as well as fabric. The city is served by the Lungi International Airport, situated in the city of Lungi, across the river tidewater from Freetown. In nearly every community of Freetown there are a variety of high roads with stores of various sort of commercial product or services. Store investors vary, consisting of citizens as well as foreign store owners. Freetown (as the remainder of Sierra Leone) has an education and learning system with six years of primary school (Courses 1 to 6), and also 6 years of additional college (Kinds 1 to 6). High schools are further separated into Junior high school (Types 1 to 3) as well as Elderly additional college (Forms 4 to 6). This system is called the 6-3-3-4 education system, which implies: 6 years of Main, 3 years of Junior Secondary, 3 years of Senior Additional, and 4 years of college. Primary school pupils are normally aged 6 to 12, as well as additional institutions are normally aged 13 to 18. Main Education and learning is required and cost-free in government-sponsored public institutions. Lungi International Airport Terminal is the worldwide airport terminal which serves Freetown as well as the rest of the country. It lies in the town of Lungi, regarding 17 kilometres northeast of Freetown throughout the sea. It works as the key flight terminal for global and domestic travel to and from Sierra Leone. The airport terminal is run by Sierra Leone Airports Authority. There is a frequent business rapid watercraft, bus, and ferryboat solution to Freetown as well as other components of the country. Hastings Airport terminal gives second solution, however can only deal with small airplane as a result of its short path. It lies about 14 km southeast of midtown Freetown (nearly 22 km by road). Passengers have the choice of hovercraft, ferry, road (5 hours), speedboat, water taxi, regional banana boats and helicopter to go across the river to Freetown. Ferry is the most affordable alternative. Hovercraft and also ferryboat operations have at times been suspended due to passenger overloads and also safety concerns. Sierra Leone has the biggest all-natural harbour on the African continent. Ships from throughout the world berth at Freetown’s Queen Elizabeth II Quay. Passenger, freight, and also exclusive craft also use Government Dock nearer to central Freetown. Recent investment has seen the intro of high-tech cargo scanning facilities. Sierra Leone’s infrastructure is limited, and also its highways as well as roads mirror this. The roadways and highways of the nation are carried out by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) which has actually frequently been crippled by corruption. Highway 1 enters the city from the town of Waterloo, several kilometers to the south. Despite the SLRA’s restricted capabilities, primary feeder/trunk roadways have actually been reconstructed to a high requirement. The complying with are random photos of roadways in the city. Following a suggestion from the International Bank for Restoration and Advancement, the Sierra Leone Federal government Train which linked Freetown to the remainder of the country was completely enclosed 1974. The iron rails were robbed in the complying with years. Like the rest of Sierra Leone, football is one of the most preferred sport in Freetown. The Sierra Leone national football group, commonly referred to as the Leone Stars plays all their residence games at Freetown’s National Arena, the biggest stadium in Sierra Leone. Eight of the fifteen clubs in the Sierra Leone National Premier League are from Freetown, consisting of two of Sierra Leone’s most significant as well as most successful football clubs, East End Lions, as well as Mighty Blackpool. A match in between these 2 groups is the biggest domestic-football clash in Sierra Leone. A noteworthy Sierra Leonian footballer is Kei Kamara, that plays for the Colorado Rapids of Major Organization Football. Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, Capital Cities worldwide: An Encyclopedia of Culture, geography, and background, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2013, p. Shaw, Rosalind, Memories of the Slave Labor: Routine as well as the Historical Creative Imagination in Sierra Leone. Reconstructed by Mohamed Sheriff, Memphis, Tennessee, College of Chicago Press (2002 ), p. Adderley, Rosanne Marion (2006 ). «New negroes from Africa» slave profession abolition as well as totally free African settlement in the nineteenth-century Caribbean. Bloomington: Indiana College Press. 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Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Taylor, Bankole Kamara (February 2014). Sierra Leone: The Land, Its Individuals and History. New Africa Press. p. Sylvester Gasopan Goba (August 2014) Sierra Leone Torism: industry introduction. International Development Centre. Archived. United Nations (5 July 2013) Inter-religious cooperation can be essential property for restoring Sierra Leone – UN specialist. Kansas City Sister Cities Association. The Republic of Sierra Leone State Home. City of New Sanctuary.