Zion Freetown 230 Zion Freetown

A virtual '⁠⁠⁠One Journey⁠⁠⁠' symposium held September 30-October 1, 2022 was the third in a series and featured speakers in Jamaica, Canada, United States, and Freetown West Africa. This symposium highlights different perspectives and contributions of the journeys and legacies of Jamaican Maroons, African-Caribbean connections, and the founding of Historic Maroon Town in Africa 222 years ago in 1800.

For full content and information on future events visit https://historicfreetown.com/one-journey-september-symposium/

Part 3

African-Caribbean Music & Culture


Iyamide Thomas, Curator and Historian
Adrian Q. Labor
Adesina During

AfriCaribbean Festival - Empress Jalloh & Danny Labor


Organized by Adrian Q. Labor & Akindele T.M. Decker of African Curator, Barbara Morgan of Zion 230, Adesina During of KDU-Global, in partnership with the Freetown City Council.


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A virtual '⁠⁠One Journey⁠⁠' symposium held September 30-October 1, 2022 was the third in a series and featured speakers in Jamaica, Canada, United States, and Freetown West Africa. This symposium highlights different perspectives and contributions of the journeys and legacies of Jamaican Maroons, African-Caribbean connections, and the founding of Historic Maroon Town in Africa 222 years ago in 1800.

For full content and information on future events visit https://historicfreetown.com/one-journey-september-symposium/

Part 2
West Indians in Sierra Leone
- Dr. Nemata Blyden, Historian & Professor, George Washington University
- Natassja Bynoe, The African Diaspora Institute of Cultural Exchange and Historical Research, Inc.

Liberated African Emigration to West Indies & West Indian Immigration

- Adrian Q. Labor
- Akindele T.M. Decker


Creolized Languages: Krio, Jamaican Patois, Gullah, Suriname Creole - Dr. Malcolm Finney


Organized by Adrian Q. Labor & Akindele T.M. Decker of African Curator, Barbara Morgan of Zion 230, Adesina During of KDU-Global, in partnership with the Freetown City Council. 


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A virtual '⁠One Journey⁠' symposium held September 30-October 1, 2022 was the third in a series and featured speakers in Jamaica, Canada, United States, and Freetown West Africa. This symposium highlights different perspectives and contributions of the journeys and legacies of Jamaican Maroons, African-Caribbean connections, and the founding of Historic Maroon Town in Africa 222 years ago in 1800.


For full content and information on future events visit https://historicfreetown.com/one-journey-september-symposium/

Part 1 - Speakers touch on the lived experience of their common African history and their communities' shared heritage.


Chief Michael Grizzle, Flagstaff Maroon Council, Trelawny Town, Jamaica


Gaamang Gloria Simms, CEO of Maroon Indigenous Women's Circle, 1st Female Gaamang of the Maroons of Jamaica and Suriname


Mr. Victor Barber-Richards, Representative of St. John's Maroon Church in Freetown, Sierra Leone


Ing. Melbourne Garber, Historian & Engineer


Organized by Adrian Q. Labor & Akindele T.M. Decker of African Curator, Barbara Morgan of Zion 230, Adesina During of KDU-Global, in partnership with the Freetown City Council.


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A virtual 'One Journey' symposium held on March 10, 2022 was the first in a series and featured speakers in Sierra Leone, Maryland, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nova Scotia and other locations. They present perspectives, contributions and legacies of black Settlers around the world, and reflect on the founding of historic Freetown in 1792 and journeys beyond. For full content and information on future events visit https://historicfreetown.com/one-journey-symposium/



This session's topics include West Africa before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, differences between history and heritage; Black Loyalists who fought during the American Revolutionary War and later settled in Canada, the largest exodus of free blacks from the Americas to Africa; the Gullah-Geechee Corridor, Black Seminole stories; #1792 initiatives including the Book of Letters and Proclamation projects; Liberated Africans and diasporas within Africa; the Krios, Islam and Freetown with all its Identities, 230 years on.



Organized by Adrian Q. Labor & Akindele T.M. Decker of African Curator, Amadu Massally & Aminata Kondeh of TPISENT, Barbara Morgan of Zion 230, Adesina During of KDU-Global, in partnership with the Freetown City Council and the Mayor of Freetown. 



Visit https://youtu.be/it6VDkgCYFI for highlights of 'Freetown At 230 Years Anniversary Celebrations - 7th to 13th March 2022' (FCC).


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Freetown's Cotton Tree was the south-west demarcation of the city when its earliest plans were drawn up. It stood at the junction of trails, one of which led to Pademba’s Village, where the town’s children were taken to seek refuge from the French invasion in which they burnt the town in February 1794.

The Cotton Tree has a place in many significant cultural events and so many traditional beliefs by the seventeen nations that called Freetown home.  In particular, it is integral to the story of the early founding settlers, the Black Poor, Nova Scotian, Jamaican Maroons, Emigrated American and Caribbean Families. The founding settlers all gave significance to Cotton Tree as it stood majestically within their neighborhoods or within sight for the first decade since 1792.

After the fall of the Cotton Tree on a stormy night in May 2023, Sierra Leoneans are telling its stories infused with social history and  traditional myths, it is how folktales are birthed.  The Cotton Tree took its last stand on that night, burdened by the nation’s unsettled past, its current political and economic storms, and weary of the prevailing winds of tumultuous attitudes. - Adrian Q. Labor

For more of this story visit https://historicfreetown.com/cotton-tree-stories/

For stories on the communities, architecture and institutions in ‘What makes the City of Freetown so historic?’ visit https://historicfreetown.com/stories/

Presented by Akindele T. M. Decker

Music: Sierra Leonean artist NATA (Raps Sweetheart) Nata - Art Thou (2021)



Created by Barbara Morgan


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A five-part series recap and discussion on the 2022 historical epic The Woman King with full breakdown, easter eggs and more. SPOILER WARNINGS for the movie. A conversation for mother's day, easter eggs and pop culture cross-references


(00:00) Introduction

(00:34) A conversation with Yema

(09:45) A conversation with Ezra

(20:15) A brief exploration of Ifa

(21:45) A brief exploration of Vodun and Boccio

(25:12) Traditional knowledge for medicine and magic or religious purposes

(27:55) Kingdom of Dahomey, physical and human architecture

(32:22) The scramble for Africa

(35:27) Bloopers and Trivia

(41:58) Closing and outro



Images from Sony Pictures Entertainment (2022) https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thewomanking

Podcast theme 'Final Form' - Sampa the Great (The Return, 2019) https://sampathegreat.com/ Sampa the Great Final Form Official You Tube

For a list of the African Names and some details recorded of captives found on board over two thousand condemned vessels around the Atlantic basin, now located in the Registers of Liberated Africans at the Sierra Leone National Archives, Freetown see 'People of the Atlantic' - African Origins Database:
⁠https://www.slavevoyages.org/past/database⁠


Created by Barbara 'BJ' Morgan


Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed belong solely to the creator, and not necessarily to the Zion Freetown 230 initiative.


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