It stood for centuries as a towering symbol of freedom, but this week it collapsed due to torrential rain.
Sierra Leone has suffered a «great loss», the country’s leader said on Thursday, after his iconic cotton tree was felled by the storm.
The giant tree loomed over the capital Freetown for around 400 years. At 70 meters tall and 15 meters wide, its physical stature was only surpassed by its status as a national symbol.
Crowds gathered in the center of the capital to see for themselves the smashed trunk.
«It was considered as a symbol of liberty and freedom by the first settlers» in the West African country, which was founded by freed American slaves, according to President Julius Maada Biowho joined the crowd at the site on Thursday.
“The Cotton Tree was not just a tree”, Biography he said on Twitter. “It was a connection between the past, the present and the future.”
The great shade of the Cotton Tree had offered returning freed black slaves a place of rest and place of prayer when they arrived by ship in the 18th century, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs said in its website.
While holding its own in the face of climate change-induced landslides and lightning strikes, a heavy downpour Wednesday night left nothing of the Cotton Tree more than a stump. It was «damaged beyond repair,» he said Zebek Internationala press agency that works with the government of Sierra Leone.
«Its entire trunk fell off a few meters from the ground.»
The weight of the loss «is comparable to the 2019 fire that destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris,» Zebek said.