Sierra Leone Profile

Sierra Leone, with its population of 8.606 million (2022), is located on the west coast of Africa bordered by Guinea to its north and east, by 291 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline to its west and south-west and Liberia to its south-east. Because of its dense tropical rainforest, Sierra Leone (named after the mountains around Freetown harbour by the Portuguese 'Serra Lyoa' ~ Lion Mountains) was mostly cut off from the rest of Africa. Europe made its first contact there in 1462 and soon established trading posts and inevitably introduced slavery. By the 17th century Portuguese imperialism was on the wan and their presence there was largely supplanted by the British. By the 1800s Sierra Leone, whilst then a British colony, was much smaller than its present day area insofar as much of the land was still ruled by its indigenous people.