Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago.The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water, and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and political centre, as it is the seat of the Government of Sierra Leone. The population of Freetown was 1,055,964 at the 2015 census.
Sherbro Island is in the Atlantic Ocean, and is included within Bonthe District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. The island is separated from the African mainland by the Sherbro River in the north and Sherbro Strait in the east. It is 32 miles (51 km) long and up to 15 miles (24 km) wide, covering an area of approximately 230 square miles (600 km2). The western extremity is Cape St. Ann. Bonthe, on the eastern end, is the chief port and commercial centre.
The Western Area or Freetown Peninsula is one of five principal divisions of Sierra Leone. It comprises the oldest city and national capital Freetown and its surrounding towns and countryside. It covers an area of 557 km2 and has a population of 1,447,271. The Western Area is located mostly around the peninsula and is divided into two districts: the Western Area Rural and the Western Area Urban.
Bonthe District is a district comprises several islands and mainland of the Atlantic Ocean in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Bonthe is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital is the town of Mattru Jong and its largest city is Bonthe, on Sherbro Island. As of the 2015 census, the district had a population of 200,730. Bonthe District is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Bonthe District is subdivided into eleven chiefdoms.
The Sherbro people are a native people of Sierra Leone, who speak the Sherbro language; they make up 1.9% of Sierra Leone's population or 134,606. The Sherbro are found primarily in their homeland in Bonthe District, where they make up 40% of the population, in coastal areas of Moyamba District, and in the Western Area of Sierra Leone, particularly in Freetown. During pre-colonial days, the Sherbro were one of the most dominant ethnic group in Sierra Leone, but in the early 21st century, the Sherbro comprise a small minority in the nation. The Sherbro speak their own language, called Sherbro language.
The Western Area Rural District is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. It is located mostly around the peninsula in the Western Area of Sierra Leone. The Western Area Rural District has a 2015 census population of 442,951. The district capital and largest city is Waterloo. Other major towns in the district include Newton, Benguema, Leicester, Tombo and Regent. Most of the towns and villages in the Western area rural District are close to the capital Freetown; and are part of the Freetown Metropolitan Area.
Waterloo is a city in the Western Area of Sierra Leone and the capital of the Western Area Rural District, which is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Waterloo is located about twenty miles east of Freetown. Waterloo is the second largest city in the Western Area region of Sierra Leone, after Freetown. The city had a population of 34,079 in the 2004 census, and 55,000 as per a 2015 estimate.Waterloo is part of Freetown metropolitan area.
Thomas Corker was known as an English agent for the Royal African Company on York Island. He married a Sherbro woman and had two sons with her before his early death.
Gbap is a small rural fishing town in Nongoba Bullom Chiefdom, Bonthe District in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. The town is mainly inhabited by the Sherbro people. Gbap is the traditional home of the Sherbro Tuckers Family, descendants of an English slave trader and a Sherbro princess. It is also the birthplace of Patricia Kabbah, former First Lady of Sierra Leone and wife of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leone's 3rd President.
John Kizell became known as a leader in Sierra Leone as it was being developed as a new British colony in the early nineteenth century. Believed born on Sherbro Island, he was captured and enslaved as a child, and shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was sold again. Years later, after the American Revolutionary War, during which he gained freedom with the British and was evacuated to Nova Scotia, he eventually returned to West Africa. In 1792 he was among 50 native-born Africans among the 1200 mostly African-American Black Loyalists who were resettled in Freetown.
Dr. John Augustus Abayomi-Cole (1848–1943) was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor and herbalist.
Shenge is a coastal fishing town along the Atlantic ocean in Moyamba District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. Shenge is the seat of the Kagboro Chiefdom, part of the third level of administration. The dense coastal jungle has prevented development of a good road network, and the Shenge is still most easily reached by boat. The local small fishing and passenger boats that travel among the coastal towns are known as pampas in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leone Government is constitutionally forbidden from establishing a state religion, though Muslim and Christian prayers are usually held in the country at the beginning of major political occasions, including presidential inauguration.
Tombo is a coastal fishing town located on the southern coast of the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. The town is approximately 30 miles (49 km) east of Freetown. The major industry in Tombo is fishing. Other industries in the town include coal mining and farming. Tombo is a major trade and transport hub for fishing boat.
Sussex is a coastal fishing village, near the town of York, around the peninsular, in the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. The major industry in Sussex is fishing, alongside coal and stone mining. The village lies about twenty five miles outside Freetown.
Baw Baw is a fishing village around the peninsular in the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. The major industry in the village is fishing; and most of its residents are fishermen. The village lies in close proximity to the sea and the peninsular beach. Baw Baw village lies about ten miles west of Freetown.
Tokeh Also known as Tokeh Town is a coastal resort town along the peninsula in the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. Tokeh lies approximately twenty miles east of Freetown and near the neighborhood town of York. The major economic activity in Tokeh is fishing and tourism.
Sierra Leone is home to about sixteen ethnic groups, each with its own language. In Sierra Leone, membership of an ethnic group often overlaps with a shared religious identity.
The Sierra Leone Creole people is an ethnic group in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African American, West Indian, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885. The colony was established by the British, supported by abolitionists, under the Sierra Leone Company as a place for freedmen. The settlers called their new settlement Freetown. Today, the Sierra Leone Creoles are 1.3% of the population of Sierra Leone.
