Leicester, Sierra Leone

Leicester, Sierra Leone Lɛsta
Location in Sierra Leone
Coordinates: 8°27′N 13°13′W
Country	Sierra Leone
Region	Western Area
District	Western Area Rural District
Population  (2015)
• Total	18,678
Time zone	UTC-5 (GMT)

Leicester (Krio: Lɛsta) is a coastal town in the Western Area Rural District of Sierra Leone. The town lies approximately fifteen miles east of Freetown. The town has an estimated population of 18,678. Leicester is largely populated by the Krio people. The Krio language is the primary language of communication in the town.

History

Leicester was founded in 1809 to provide accommodation for liberated enslaved Africans, who had been brought to Freetown by the British Royal Navy West Africa Squadron.[1]: 122  It was probably named by Thomas Ludlam, who ended his third term as Governor of Sierra Leone on 27 July 1808, and was born in Leicester, England.[2]

A hospital was founded here, and John Macaulay Wilson, one of the first Africans to be given European medical training worked here as an Assistant Colonial Surgeon.[3]: 62 

Notable people

• Dr. Oloh, musician

References

1. Sanneh, Lamin (2009). Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
2. Anderson, Richard Peter (2020) Abolition in Sierra Leone: Re-Building Lives and Identities in Nineteenth-Century West Africa, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p105. Online ISBN 9781108562423
3. Patton, Adell (1996). Physicians, colonial racism, and diaspora in West Africa. Gainesville [u.a.]: Univ. Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-1432-6.

External links

• Every Picture Tells a Story, BBC Radio Humberside