Interesting facts about Sierra Leone

1. Sierra Leone

is located in West Africa on the Atlantic coast and bordered by Guinea and Liberia.

2. The country takes its name from the Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra who named the country “Serra Leoa” (Lion Mountains) due to the impressive mountains he saw while sailing along the West African coast in 1462.

3.Archaeological evidence suggests Sierra Leone has been inhabited for thousands of years with successive waves of inv.aders as well as immigration from inland peoples making up today’s diverse population

4. Sierra Leone is home to 16 ethnic groups. Each group has their own language and traditional attire.

5 If there is one thing that this small nation is blessed with is its rich mineral resource. Sierra Leone is famous for its diamonds. Apart from diamonds, bauxite and titanium are also extracted on large scale. It also produces gold and rutile on a large scale.

6. Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, was founded as a home for repatriated and rescued former slaves in 1787

7. English is the official language; however, Krio is the language that is understood by most of the population. Krio is a Creole language, first spoken by descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who settled in the Freetown area.

8. Sierra Leone has a simple horizontally striped green, white and blue flag. Green stands for agriculture and the mountains, white for unity and justice, and blue for the aspiration to “contribute to world peace, especially through the use of its unique natural harbour at Freetown”.

9 .The Outamba-Kilimi National Park, a tract of savannah and jungle in Sierra Leone, is home to highly diverse wildlife including primates such as chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and sooty mangabeys as well as hippos, bongo antelopes, buffalo, forest elephants and over 150 species of bird.

10. Freetown was home to the first institution of higher learning in modern sub-Saharan Africa after the collapse of the university at Timbuktu. Fourah Bay College opened in 1827 and at the time was the only alternative to Europe and America for British colony West Africans who wanted a university degree.

11. Sierra Leone’s “blood diamonds” helped fuel atr0cities during the w.ar. Blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, were used to fund certain conflicts in Africa

12 . Freetown has the largest natural harbour on the African continent. It is capable of receiving oceangoing vessels of all kinds.

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