Sierra Leone - Early History
Archaeological finds show that Sierra Leone has been inhabited continuously for at least 2,500 years, populated by successive movements from other parts of Africa. Sierra Leone by the 9th century, and by AD 1000 agriculture was being practiced by coastal tribes. Sierra Leone's dense tropical rainforest largely protected it from the influence of any precolonial African empires and Islamic colonization, which were unable to penetrate through it until the 18th century.
Traditional historiography has customarily presented it as a people by successive waves of invaders; but the language pattern suggests that the coastal Bulom (Sherbro), Temne, and Limba have been in continuous settled occupation for a long time, with sporadic immigration from inland Mende-speaking people including Vai, Loko and Mende.
They organised themselves in small political units of independent kingdoms or chiefdoms, the powers of whose rulers were checked by councils. Secret societies, notably the Poro society also exercised political power as well as instructed initiates in the customs of the country.
European contacts with Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa. In 1462, the Portuguese explorer Pedro da Cintra mapped the hills surrounding what is now Freetown Harbour, naming the shaped formation “Serra de Leão” (Portuguese for Lion Mountains). Its Italian rendering is Sierra Leone, which became the country's name. Some say the coastal regions looked like “lion’s teeth”. Others suggest he thought the thunderstorms over the mountainous peninsula sounded like the roar of a lion.
Soon after Portuguese traders arrived at the harbor and by 1495 a fort that acted as a trading post had been built. Portuguese sailors, Alvaro Fernandez (1447) and Pedro Da Cintra (1462), were among the first European explorers to detail their adventures along the coast of Sierra Leone. Located near present day Freetown, the Rokel estuary was established as an important source of fresh water for sea traders and explorers. Over the next 30 years, sea traders opened a bay for trading goods such as swords, kitchen and other household utensils in exchange for beeswax and fine ivory works. By the mid 1550’s, slaves replaced these items as the major commodity.
The Portuguese were later joined by the Dutch and French; all of them using Sierra Leone as a trading point for slaves. Though the Portuguese were among the first in the region and their language formed the basis for trade, their influence had diminished by the 1650’s. English, French, Dutch and Danish interests in West Africa had grown. Trade was established through coastal African rulers who prohibited European traders from entering the interior. Rent and gifts were paid for gold, slaves, beeswax, ivory and cam wood.
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