Freetown

Alyssa Clark

Freetown is the capital of Sierra Leone, located in West Africa. With a population of over a million, freed slaves founded Freetown in the 1780’s, thus giving the town its name. With them, the founders brought their strange new language, Krio or Creole the predominant language of Freetown today. The town itself was founded and built around a cotton tree on a peninsula. Freetown is very important to Africa. It is the largest natural harbor, and was a large tourist attraction for its luxurious beaches. However, it was also the “backdrop to one of the world's most horrendous civil wars which included a military operation called ‘Operation No Living Thing’ (goafrica.about.com). This civil war was caused by the blood diamond wars and lasted from 1991 to 2002. While still bearing evidence of the civil war Freetown is slowly recovering. In order to get to Freetown one would have to take a helicopter, ferry, or hovercraft. While the civil war is considered to be over there is still a problem with smuggling diamonds out of Freetown.



Works Cited:

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"Glimpses: Freetown, Sierra Leone, August, 2008 - Forbes.com." Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. Web. 07 Feb. 2011. .