One of West Africa´s smaller countries – a bit more wee than Scotland and a smidge bigger than Delaware plus West Virginia – the landscape of Sierra Leone (pop. 8.9 million) is a tropical mix of rainforests and savannahs. It was originally founded by the British in 1808 as a refuge – like next-door Liberia – for freed slaves (although its curious name dates back to 1462, when explorers sailing the coast from Portugal dubbed the mountains they spotted the “Serra Leoa,” which means Lion Mount
