UNDER THE COTTON TREE

In the center of Freetown, at the junction of Westmorland Street and Pademba Road, stands a colossal cotton tree, nearly a hundred feet high. It has seen the city grow from rows of wattle houses plastered with clay to steelwork concrete Law Courts and brick structures of Government. It was here on the May 14, 1787 that the first settlers, including 300 freed black men, gathered to celebrate their freedom. The cotton tree symbolizes the fight for and establishment of a society of freed men and women.
One hundred and eighty seven years and two days later I arrived in Freetown searching for my freedom, after a journey of twenty-four years and six thousand miles. Standing under the cotton tree, I considered the plight of all those who had come before me, and prayed that my days of struggle would now be over.
Freetown, like Monrovia, was founded by the philanthropic and abolitionist movements in Britain and America respectively, which wanted to end slavery of Africans, in the Americas and England, and find them a home in Africa. Granville Sharp, a British parliamentarian, invested in and helped establish the Sierra Leone Company in London. It later obtained backing from the British government and settled freed blacks from Nova Scotia who had helped the British during the American War of Independence. Jamaican Maroons, given the choice of prison or repatriation to Africa, preferred Sierra Leone, and in 1800, 1500 arrived establishing the original Creole population which was to become a special feature of the new colony.
The name of Sierra Leone comes from Portuguese for 'mountain lion'. The roar of the tropical storms from the high mountains, which rise out of the peninsula, reminded the 15th Century Portuguese sailors of a lion. It was in this area that the first settlers obtained land from the local Temme leaders, and although many settlers were to die through disease, and wars with the indigenous peoples, it was here that the Creoles, the black representatives of British society, were to establish themselves.
On arriving in Freetown my first visit was with a Creole woman, the wife of my London friend’s brother, and the curator in the museum which was next to the cotton tree. When I presented myself to her the look of horror on her face couldn't be disguised. Still dressed in my Tuareg gown from the desert, my hair wild and long, a ring in my ear and amber stones around my neck, I must have confused her with my London accent! She kindly read my letter from her brother-in-law and said in a most dismissive tone,
"Did Ivor give you any other contacts?"
When I answered in the affirmative she suggested that I check them out first.
"My husband is at work just now, please come back later this afternoon, if you must. Good day.”
Rich relations may give crust of bread and such
You can help yourself but don't take too much…
Billie Hoilday