2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 38
Freetown DAT
Outside of Africa, places such as Gadsden’s Wharf in
Charleston, South Carolina and Valongo Wharf, Rio
de Janeiro already capitalize on this spending. Those
locations, while honoring a shared history, are focused
on enslavement and not the celebration of freedom that
Freetown can offer.
In a very small area of downtown, Freetown can offer
a rich heritage walking trail to serve resident, tourist,
and Diaspora visitors and encourage them to come
downtown. In the short term, since such a trail could
be developed almost immediately with very little
investment, visitors would need to rely on existing hotels
and restaurants (e.g., in Aberdeen). At the start, this
might simply attract visitors already staying Aberdeen
to stay an extra day in downtown. That increased
visitation would provide proof of concept to begin to
attract significant private-sector downtown investments
needed, such as hotels.
Over time, as hotels and other private-sector visitor
services are provided and the cable car system is
developed, Freetown can reach its full Diaspora and
tourist potential. As those services are provided, instead
of short visits to downtown, downtown can become a
base for Diaspora visitors, traveling to locations further
afield such as Bunce Island, leaving from Government
Wharf or taking the cable car to leave from Kissy
Terminal, but with most visitors returning at night to the
comfort and services of downtown.
The Freetown Heritage Trail requires an initial low level
of investment that can be enhanced over time. At its
simplest, the trail only requires a wayfinding program
with interpretive signs at each stop and clear route
markers. Collected by Fourah Bay College University
student volunteers, the following provide examples of
interpretive sign language. Signs could be small, with
only the first lines of the samples below, or larger, with
the sample adjacent full text.
See also: Exhibit A- Placemaking, Community-based
Tourism, and Heritage Trails for a discussion of precedents
that can help inform Freetown’s work.
• Old Wharf Steps and Guard House (1818) - built
under colonization when stone was mainly used
in the construction of private and public facilities.
Colonial Gov. Charles MacCarthy, Colonial had the
wharf rebuilt with stone breakwaters & steps.
• Big Market (1802) – One of the oldest indoor
markets in Sierra Leone - now a tourist market.
Built by the British as a market, whilst the present
NASSIT Building at the back was used to keep the
slaves. This building was built very close to the
shore, so the slaves could be easily transported to
the ships. After the slave trade, the building was
referred to as the Granny Market, because the
predominant sellers were elderly women. During
the rebel war/civil war the market was burnt down
(1999) and then rebuilt with one level added.
• King Jimmy Market (c. 1787) – One of the oldest
and most popular local markets in Freetown that
provides jobs and daily supply of food. During the
resettling period, King Jimmy was a famous Temne
leader along the peninsula. It contributes to the
food supply chain from the uplands to Freetown.
• King’s Yard and the Gateway to the King’s Wharf
(1817) - the immediate ancestors of nearly all
the present-day inhabitants of the Colony proper
passed through this gateway. Inscribed “Royal
Asylum and Hospital for the Africans Rescued
from Slavery by British Valour and Philanthropy.
After the Abolition Act (1807), captured vessels
were brought to the nearest British Colony, Sierra
Leone. An Admiralty Court was set up about 1809
to deal with the legal aspects of the liberation of
their human cargoes and the condemnation of
the vessels. In 1819, this part of the Court’s duties
was handed to an International Court or the Mixed
Commission Court. Slaves who landed at King
Jimmy Wharf were taken to a compound erected
for their reception this became known as the King’s
Yard With the abolition of the slave traffic and
the closing down of the Mixed Commission Court
about 1870, there was no longer any use for this
yard and in 1880, it was converted to the Colonial
Hospital which was burnt down in 1920. The site
was later converted into a private paying block of
the Connaught Hospital.
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• Maroon Historic District and Freetown Board
House – The origin of the timber/ Board houses
locally called “bod ose” can be traced back to the
incoming freed slaves, in the era of freed slaves,
colonization, and independence - the origin of
Freetown. To the Krio’s it brings back memories of
their ancestors and their roots linked to the ‘Nova
Scotians’ and Jamaican ‘Maroons.’
• St. John Marron Church (1822) - Built by the
Jamaican Maroon and celebrating freedom from
oppression. The Maroon originated from the
Jamaica in the Caribbean. They had surrendered
at the end of the Second Maroon War in Jamaica
and were deported to Nova Scotia by the colonial
authorities (1796). They were then transported to
Freetown in 1800, where their opportune arrival
and assistance enabled the authorities put down
a rebellion by some of the Nova Scotian Settlers,
the founders of Freetown. They settled down in
an area that became known as Maroon Town. The
Maroons gradually gave up their African beliefs and
converted to Christianity. In 1820, they received a
grant of land between Percival and Liverpool Street
in Maroon Town. Uncomfortable worshiping in
Nova Scotian chapels, a group led by Charles Shaw
Harding built St. John’s Maroon Church. The church
was declared a national heritage site in 1956 under
the Monuments and Relics Ordinance of 1 June
1947. The structure showed the skill of the men who
erected it using materials that were readily available
and at the same time using materials obtained from
the ship that brought them thereby serving as a
symbolic gesture of being home.
• National Museum (1957) – rich collection of Sierra
Leone’s history. Founded as the museum of the
Sierra Leone Society, a ‘learned society’ whose
members included colonial officials and prominent
members of Freetown’s Krio community. In the
mid-1960s, the museum came under the control of
Sierra Leone’s Monuments and Relics Commission
and Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.
• Cotton Tree – bringing memories of slavery
while reaffirming the joys of freedom and liberty.
HISTORY - The Nova Scotians settlers after landing
on the shoreline walked up to “The Cotton Tree”,
where they held a thanksgiving service, gathering
around the tree in a large group to thank God for
their deliverance to a free land. It was a symbol of
their present situations during that period. These
newly arrived Africans gave the capital the name it
bears today, Freetown.
• Peace and Culture Monument (2011) –
Celebrating the 50th anniversary for Sierra Leone’s
independence and its multiculturalism, unity in
diversity.
• Law Court History (1910) – Sierra Leone’s highest
court and housing the office of the Chief Justice.
It was erected to be a symbol of Justice with its
foundation stone being laid by Field Marshall His
Royal Highness Arthur W. P. A. Duke of Connaught
and Strathearn.
• Treasury – one of several sites in Freetown where
fruit bats and their nests are easy to observe.
• Wesley Methodist Church (1859-1886) – “John
Ezzidio who preached and ran the Sunday School in
a little chapel in Bathurst Street, longed to replace
it with a large church on a central site to rival the
Cathedral which stood opposite his shop.”
• St. George’s Cathedral (1828)- As an iconic edifice
associated with the Creole people of Sierra Leone,
St George’s Cathedral was described as “that
bastion of Creoledom.” It is the Anglican Diocese
of Freetown and formerly Church Mission Society
Anglican church. It creates a form of religious
balance with the nearby Central Mosque
• Central Mosque - One of the two largest mosques
in Sierra Leone. It serves as a vista and creates
a form of religious balance with the nearby St.
George’s Cathedral, attracting a deep sense of
community belonging and ownership.
