 What's up everybody it's your boy Mr. Ghana baby right here in the land that we love, that is Salon. It's all about Africa to the world and it's time for us to tell our own story and if you want to tell our own story we need to tell our own history the way it is. I am here but I don't even know your name but what is your name? I'm John Mamadu. John Mamadu. So John Mamadu is going to be our tour guide today and he's going to take us through all the history about this country Salon. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm John Mamadu. You are welcome to the Sierra Leone Peace and Cultural Monument. It was established ten years ago by the Sierra Leone forces. It's just to create the relationship between the civilian and that of the military and it was done during the regime of our former president Dr. Anasibai Kuruma. Once more you are welcome. As you can see these are elephants. This is also to tell you that to have them in Sierra Leone you can found this elephant in the northern part of Sierra Leone in the Cuenadugo district, now Carina district. From here to that place it's 177 miles and they occupy 200 acres of land. The place you can found this elephant it is called the Otambak Kilimi National Park. If you have the opportunity to go there you will see a lot of different types of animals there and a very nice place to stay. And here is the Lion Mountain. Lion Mountain. Yeah. The Lion Mountain. 557 years ago when in particular there by the name of Fedora Central was sailing across West Africa and he was in search of freshwater and salt. Yeah he saw this topography of the surface of this mountain when he look at the mountain he said oh it's example the lion. So he decided to call the mountain the Lion Mountain. The second reason was he came during the rainy season. During the rainy season when he heard the sound of the thunder it thought it was a roar for Lion. But when he looks around he's seeing a lion. We're trying to tell you that when the Portuguese came in here the people were not living here. People were living. So how come he got the name for us? Well that's what Istri tells us that when he they came around when they saw the lion when they just look at the the mountain the surface of the mountain when he said oh the example the lion. So that's came the name. That's came the name Sierra Leone. So when the people that were living here what what is the name that they call this place? Freetown because you know Freetown was known Freetown was having several names. We have the Maroon Maroon Town and now Grabbing Town you know all these names and later became Freetown. Okay all right. So but when the British people came in 1808 that when Sierra Leone came in this calm colony they decided to change the Sierra Leone to Sierra Leone. But the meaning still remains the same the Lion Mountain because there were British Portuguese people before the British came in here. Three at last it represents 411 slaves that were bought in Sierra Leone. I told you earlier that there were slavery before the British that we have the Portuguese system of slavery. During the Portuguese system of slavery these slaves they have the right liberty to see their loved ones friends and relatives when we are working for the Portuguese people. But during the era of the British they were classed as second class animals treated like animals. They took them to Kent later went with them to England came with them back and passed to the gateway to the old kinsial which we now call the Conalto hospital. Okay. At that place whenever a slave step his or her feet there you automatically free that's why I see see we are no longer slaves we are now free I'm now free man. So from there they walked through to this majestic country this is where they were praying and doing their normal businesses. So from there they moved this way go to villages closer to the colony at that time. These villages like Leicester, Gloucester, Regent, Batos, Waterloo, Kent, York. This we are the original settlement of these slaves. And we have another important personality this is Bibore. Bibore as far as the district of Sierra Leone is concerned is one of the hills that fought for the Sierra Leone. He was the hero of the whole tax war which started in 1898. Bibore was born in 1840 and he led the timidly uprising against the breaches when the breaches said these people should pay tax. And he said why my people should pay tax for houses or land belongs to them. So he revolted against the breaches and the breaches at that time the governor at that time sent two of his officers go to Bibore go and ask Bibore that his people should pay tax. So he killed one of them and let the one go go and tell your governor that my people are not going to pay tax for houses or land belongs to them. But unfortunately for him it was he was betrayed by his own people. He sold him for 100 pounds to the breaches and they sent him on exile to Ghana to the Gold Coast Brains called Ghana. He was there for seven years. He came back and he was stated again as chief of Kase and he died. So that's why to remember Bibore we have the 1000 news notes his face is there and we have the Bibore beach the Bibore road yes and the Bibore town as well. As we are talking about politics in Sierra Leone these are the two major people we should always remember as far as politics is concerned in Sierra Leone. This is Samuel Timangai and this is Shaka Provence Steven. Both of them came from the same district went to the same primary school secondary school and college and the university as well. He was the first prime minister we have in Sierra Leone and the first executive president we have in Sierra Leone. This is the bond and it took to England for Sierra Leone to gain independence. Samuel Tim was the first man to graduate in the phobia college from the provinces. The first medical doctor as well to graduate at the phobia college from the provinces. This is the bond that it took to England for Sierra Leone to gain independence in 1961. Both of them went and they were in the same party the SOS now called the SLPP. Yes but something brings separation. When Shaka Steven said election before independent he said no independent before election separation. So Shaka Steven came back and he was part of the SOS now the SLPP. He broke away from there and formed his own his own party the APC. In 1967 election there is election he won election by one vote because at that time all the parliamentarians are legible to vote. So automatically he became the first executive president we do have in Sierra Leone and he died in 1988. So to remember them we have the Shaka Steven street we have the Shaka Steven stadium and both of them when they died they were beggar the parliament. Yeah so this and this is the founder of the Sierra Leone People's Party and this is the founder of the Old People's Congress the APC and the SLPP. The SLPP is in power. Yes it's the green and this is the red. This is reconciliation. I'm once a former president I'm doing after our civil war. This man you are seeing he was an ex combatant a power man chief his wives and this man his family but during the war because of he was under the influence of drugs he amputated the power man chief his wife and he did the same thing to his own family. But after the war he came back to his village and his acts of mercy please forgive me for what I've done and he came to the power man chief in Africa in Sierra Leone particularly when somebody has done something wrong this is how that individual would be acts of mercy. Either he will touch the foot of you or lie down and say please forgive me until you touch the head of that person and he said you are forgiven. So it's what this man is doing with the amputated hands the prime man chief is touching the head of this man and said you are forgiven. But the second wife of the chief she was not around when she came so why are you forgiving this man with all what he has done to us and the chief said we should learn to forgive one another no matter the atrocity no matter the things he has done to us let's just forget about everything and to maintain peace because there is a sweet word there said once said by a former army chief of staff Major General Alfred Nelson Williams there is so much in us that unite us than divide us as single unions we must recognize this fact and learn to live with one another This is Thomas Peters he is the true founder of free town he was born in 1738 he was an Afro-American he was a slave poor and uneducated he was in America he left America and went to England and joined the army there and went to the rank of sergeant there he met a Sierra Leonean coming in England he said they want to come to Sierra Leone to establish a colony okay but before that they took them to England and to Nova Scotia but because of the weather condition there they came back to England and he met the Sierra Leonean coming in England said they want to come to free town to establish a new colony at that time free town was called the Maroon Town but on arrival five thousand of them they are all slaves so they saw a very beautiful land say oh this place is so beautiful so he decided to give the name free town in 1792 Afro-American which means he's an African born in America born in America this man you are seeing he was Italian so they are doing the Second World War his name is Farang Befambe the meaning of that word is if you hit on a stone you will feel the stone if a stone hits on you you will feel the stone but he's trying to preach about discrimination as a soldier your responsibility is to save a civilian and out of a soldier and he even telling us that as a Sierra Leonean we should stop discrimination as far as you are Sierra Leoneans you are all one no matter whether you are a Mende or a Timene or a Limba or you are a Sosu we are all one we are all Sierra Leoneans so he's preaching about discrimination said as a soldier he has the responsibility to save a civilian and out of a soldier that's why he hold the hand of a civilian and out of a soldier but the man at the back is telling us all these things we are using to kill ourselves why are we not using them for material that we use for agriculture so he is destroying this weapon we are using to kill ourselves and turning them to things we use for agriculture which means that this story came about after the civil war after doing the the Second World War