Sierra Leone's 50th Independence Celebrations

[bubudi]

on wednesday 27th april 2011, all over sierra leone, citizens gathered to celebrate the golden jubilee of their country's independence from great britain in 1961. one of the most remarkable things was that while the government did set aside a sizeable budget for this grand event for the main celebrations at freetown, bo and other main cities, the citizens themselves went out of their way to fundraise and clean and beautify the streets/villages, make and hang hundreds of meters of bunting in the colours of sierra leone's flag - green (symbolising agriculture, mountains and natural resources), white (peace and justice) and blue (atlantic coastline) and participate in any way possible for sierra leone's biggest ever independence day celebrations since the big day itself 50 years ago.

the president added his own personal touch, beginning with sending the following text message to all cell phones on the day before independence:

“Congratulations to all Sierra Leoneans on our country’s fiftieth Independence Anniversary. May the patriotism, unity and dedication we have shown during this great moment always abide with us as we move fifty years forward with the new Sierra Leone.

Ernest Bai Koroma President.”

president koroma's presence was very much seen and felt during the celebrations in freetown. koroma also hosted five african heads of state. other notables from various african countries, the african union and abroad also attended.


president ernest bai koroma (sierra leone)


president wade (senegal) and president obiang (equatorial guinea)


vice president njie-saidy (gambia) and president conde (guinea)


president toure (mali)


president sirleaf (liberia) and president conde (guinea)


vice president mahama (ghana)

the celebrations began several days prior and included a durbar of chiefs from all the chiefdoms of sierra leone.

indigenous culture was big this year, with the odele masquerade, lantern parade and many cultural troupes performing. also performing were dance troops from guinea and nigeria.

i will add any other photos i come across.

these photos courtesy of switsalone.blogspot.com

[bubudi]

durbar of chiefs

chiefs from all over sierra leone were paraded through in their floats. after that was done, the chiefs greeted the public and each other and participated in the ceremonies. this is a once in a lifetime event.

[bubudi]

[Waraba]

that's an amazing last picture. Were they caught, or did they cascade to the ground, landing on their feed in sequence? Would love to see a video of that.

[bubudi]

i haven't seen any videos yet but hopefully something will come up. there's been surprisingly few photos and no coverage of the lantern parade (other than newspaper articles without images) which is the biggest attraction during independence celebrations.