Sierra Leone

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About Sierra Leone

Welcome to the Sierra Leone group. Please feel free to post all photos from Sierra Leone, and also consider joining worldwidewandering - a travel atlas, where you can not only add photos, but also post your Sierra Leone pictures and comments to the Sierra Leone thread.
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Capital: Freetown
Languages: English, Krio, Mende, Temne, indigenous
Ethnic Groups: Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other African
Religions: Muslim 30%, Animist 30%, Christian 10%
Monetary Unit: Leone (SLL 694)

-- from derAmialtebloede - (?)

Large Map

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea on the north and Liberia on the south, with the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The name Sierra Leone was adapted from the Portuguese name for the country: Serra Leoa. The literal meaning is "Lioness Mountain." During the 1700s Sierra Leone was an important centre of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The capital Freetown was founded in 1792 by the Sierra Leone Company as a home for Black Britons who had fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War.

In 1808, Freetown became a British Crown Colony, and in 1896, the interior of the country became a British Protectorate. The Crown Colony and Protectorate joined and gained independence in 1961. From 1991 to 2000, the country suffered greatly under a devastating civil war. To end the civil war, UN and British forces disarmed 17,000 militia and rebels, in the largest UN peacekeeping act of the decade. The average life span of a Sierra Leonean is 38 years for men and 42 years for women. [1]...more
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Also on flickr:
• West Africa / Afrique de l'Ouest
• Africa
• Images of Africa
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Other Forums:
• Lonely Planet Thorntree: Sierra Leone