By Stephen Douglas, in Freetown

The skyline and downtown core of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city, was radically changed under the dark of night on 24 May 2023, amidst the heavy rains and swirling winds that mark the beginning of rainy season. The West African country’s iconic and symbolic Cotton Tree, believed to be over 400 -years old, came crashing down, ending its tumultuous career as the cultural, political, commercial and historical centre of Sierra Leone.

“She was a grand old lady,” said Michael Mohamed Turay, a yellow-vested worker with the Freetown City Council, at the scene of clean-up efforts.

The giant kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra), estimated to be over 70-metres tall with a 20-metre circumference, sat at an intersection that links the Supreme Court and courts building, the drive to State House, the National Museum and the main commercial district of Freetown. “It was at the hub of everything from prayer sessions to rallies… commerce and politics,” said Jane Moseray, who couldn’t resist taking time off work to visit the disaster site.

A Sierra Leonean visiting from their home in the US, Ali Bangura, said, “This is like New York losing the Statue of Liberty or if the Eiffel Tower in Paris fell. This tree is what we recognize and what used to stand for all of Sierra Leone.” Bangura was taking pictures on his phone as the hum of chainsaws ripped through the remains of the gigantic tree.

In early 1792, 15 ships set sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia carrying over 1,100 freed slaves, known as the “Nova Scotians”, who’d lived in Canada after seeking refuge from slavery and the southern United States. The Nova Scotian settlers were offered passage to Africa by a British company and a British Naval Lieutenant, John Clarkson, who later became Sierra Leone’s first Governor. Clarkson and Thomas Peters, both staunch abolitionists, travelled from the UK to Nova Scotia to recruit and transport families looking to escape the harsh weather, discrimination and difficult living conditions on Canada’s east coast.

The passengers from the ships anchored just offshore were lead inland through a kilometre of dense tropical forest to an open clearing with the kopak tree at its centre. Single track footpaths criss-crossed the entire area, probably remnants of the slave trade. On 11 March 1792, following a prayer meeting under the tree, the town was christened “Free Town”, and the Ceiba tree became its symbol of freedom and hope. Freetown became part of the larger British colony of Sierra Leone founded by the UK-based, Sierra Leone Company in 1787.

The kopak tree in Freetown was known simply as “the Cotton Tree” and probably got its local name from the fluffy, off-white tufts of fibre that grows from seed pods. Freed slaves would have been familiar with the look from fields of cotton in southern United States.

An older onlooker, Isata Marie Kamara, watched as the debris was craned into awaiting dump trucks. She said, “We can trace our history through this tree… from the founding of Freetown and before… slavery, colonialism… through Independence in 1961, the war, lightning strikes and fires, the death of President Kabbah, Ebola, up to now.”

Raymond DeSouza George, a local historian, said, “The Cotton Tree was the spine that held up Freetown and Sierra Leone. Our parents used to tell us stories passed down from their parents about the significance of that tree.” He added, “Some believe in the magic of the tree and its premonitions or mystical powers.” The Cotton Tree has appeared on bank notes, stamps, medals and in lullabies sung by Sierra Leonean mothers to their children.

Rodney Michael, a local businessman, tweeted, “It is a very sad day for our country. A beautiful, natural symbol of our capital and our country is gone for good. I will miss the gigantic structure I admire when going to town. The junction will look empty now. Our capital, particularly the State House junction, will never be the same again.”

The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, said, “All Sierra Leoneans will pause for thought at the loss of such a prestigious national symbol as the Cotton Tree. For centuries it has been a proud emblem of our nation, a symbol of a nation that has grown to provide shelter for many.”

In March 2017, crews from the Royal Canadian Navy, HMSC Summerside and HMCS Moncton, berthed near the heart of Freetown at the Queen’s Quay. The Naval personnel and the then Canadian High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Heather Cameron, visited the historic Cotton Tree. At a small ceremony under the shade of over-arching branches, the High Commissioner said, “This month marks the 225th anniversary of the Nova Scotians arriving from Canada and the establishment of Freetown in 1792. This is likely the oldest contact between Canadians and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sierra Leone’s President has vowed to replace the giant Cotton Tree in the same location with something that reflects a collective past and a future of the modern, forward-looking nation of Sierra Leone. “For us,” the president tweeted, “the Cotton Tree wasn’t just a tree, it was a connection between the past, present and the future and we must strive to immortalise it.”