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Happy 65th Birthday Sierra Leone!
On the outskirts of the Songhai Empire
The Mountain of the Lionesses
On April 27th 2026 - Sierra Leone turned 65, according to the- colonial timeline! That’s 65 years of independence after destruction and “colonisation”. Nobody bats an eyelid about this nation’s name. It isn’t Spanish, nor is it Portuguese. According to Wikipedia, she was named by a Venetian cartographer. The Portuguese name is Sera da Leoa, which is often mistakenly translated as Lion Mountain. I’ve been to Portugal and to Cabo Verde. Portuguese sailors have a fondness for likening sleeping lionesses everywhere. I’m reclaiming my nation’s name from the patriarchy in one fell swoop.
Dispel the myth. The lioness is smooth. She doesn’t have a mane. She hunts with her sisters. Let’s put paid to the myth of the lion being the king of the jungle. He lives in the savanna, not in tropical West Africa.
April 27th 2026
This is the day that Sierra Leoneans and especially Diasporans will come out of the woodwork to slam our ancestral home but not me. The crown only ever leased the Western Area from the rightful owners of the land, I.e. the sons and daughters of the soil. I love that my friend’s mother is a Paramount chief in Salone. (A Scottish ex-colleague didn’t believe that we call…
