Salone Stories
A podcast series from Africell.
Presented by legendary playwright, historian and traditional storyteller Charlie Haffner, this podcast series explores the personalities, places and events that have shaped Sierra Leone, one of Africa’s most extraordinary countries.
Presented: Charlie Haffner
Written and created: Charlie Haffner and Sam Williams
Edited: Nadia Mehdi
Executive producers: Sam Williams and Max O'Brien
Sound design and mixing: Naomi Clarke
Special thanks: Abdul Karim Sesay, Shadi Gerjawi, Eleanor Biggs, Claire Crofton, Pippa Smith and the Africell Impact Foundation.
Episodes
7 episodes
Episode 6 - The Athens of West Africa
Fourah Bay College has produced some of Africa’s most influential thinkers and leaders. It has also given Freetown an enduring nickname. Though the college struggled during Sierra Leone’s civil war, today it is leading a resurgent culture of le...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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16:09
Episode 5 - Bruno the Chimpanzee
A chimpanzee’s daring escape from a sanctuary near Freetown in 2006 captured the imagination of Sierra Leone. Almost twenty years later, Bruno remains in the wild, with an almost mythical status, seen by many as a symbol of Sierra Leone’s fierc...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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15:35
Episode 4 - Geraldo Pino and The Heartbeats
African music has never been more popular. Selling out stadia from Lagos to London to LA, Africa’s top artists are slick, stylish and social-media savvy. But there is another story: the risk to more precarious local music traditions in an age o...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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15:31
Episode 3 - Juliohs Siza
“Padi dem, kohntri, una ohl wey dey na Rom”. This is a Krio translation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines. Sierra Leone has a powerful tradition of poetry, song, and plays. In 1963, a playwright translated one of Shakepeare’s m...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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17:27
Episode 2 - “High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free”
Sierra Leone became independent in 1961. As Independence Day approached, soldiers polished their boots, lawyers drafted a constitution, and two men wrote what would become Sierra Leone’s new anthem. In this episode, Charlie Haffner listens to “...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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14:01
Episode 1 - The Cotton Tree
Many countries have an iconic building. Sierra Leone had an iconic tree. The giant cotton tree which stood in the heart of Sierra Leone’s capital symbolised the country’s origins as a haven for freed slaves. Until the day it fell in 2023 it was...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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15:45
