By Esther Wright
Taking many by surprise, the ancient and historic “Cotton Tree” caught fire under mysterious circumstances. Videos circulating on social media showed enormous flames leaping from the hollow centre of the tree – which symbolises freedom from slavery – in Freetown late Thursday night and early Friday morning.
According to legend, slaves who won their freedom fighting on the British side of the American War of Independence prayed under the tree when they arrived in West Africa.
It has remained a landmark. Freetown residents continue to pray beneath the enormous tree, which now towers over a busy roundabout.
They also hold protests there, or pour libations to ancestors.
Firefighters “swiftly intervened to put out the inferno” but the cause of the fire remains unknown, however. A similar fire occurred in 2018.
A senior Internal Affairs Ministry official said the government had opened an investigation.
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr also said in a social post that the city had hired a “tree specialist” to assess the damage.
