About the Igbo and Sierra Leone: What You Should Know.

1. The first president of Sierra Leone was an Igbo by the name of Christopher Okoro Cole. Before then, Okoro served as the Governor-General of Sierra Leone. His ascendancy into the presidential seat took place on April of 1971.

2. In April of 1992, an Igbo by the name of Captain Yahya Kanu became Military Head of State of Sierra Leone.

3. In 1857, an ex-slave of Igbo extraction, Simon Jonas, wrote the first manuscript written in Igbo language, ‘Isoama-Ibo Primer’. This was done in Sierra Leone for emancipated slaves from Igboland in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Igbo dialect spoken in Sierra Leone is called Isoama/Isuama-Igbo. Ex-Lagos slave, Samuel Crowther, published it as a book. Both Jonas and Crowther stayed together in Lagos before being shipped to Sierra Leone.