Soul Asylum Poetry & Publishing/Freddy Will Publishing

                               The Dark Road From Romarong
                             Wilfred Kanu Jr. (aka) Freddy Will

The Dark Road From Romarong is a true story of how a country, named Romarong traveled on a very dark path to become the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Early tribes traveled from the Western Sudan and the Northern Sahara regions to assemble in the rainforest in Romarong to settle their families, build their settlements, grow their crops and trade. This book unveils a glimpse into the sophistication of lost medieval African Empires rarely spoken of, like the Fouta Jallon. Freddy Will’s perspective outlines the culture, lifestyle and traditions of the main West African tribes that evolved from those fallen empires and traced how their influence affected their inter-migration from Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, The Ivory Coast and Guinea to where Sierra Leone and Liberia were being formed.

As time pressed on, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade brought wealth, influence and power to countries such as Portugal, Germany, Spain, France and England. Their presence in West Africa changed innumerable lives. Even touches of Islam and Christianity came to overshadow the long standing traditions of African religions. The eventual end of the slave trade and the emancipation and repatriation efforts saw a massive haul of ex-slaves being delivered back to Romarong. What tribes would survive under the insurmountable pressure of being taken and forced into slavery? How could their foreign masters gain such dominance? What were the ex-slaves experiences and contributions once repatriated? What final war defined the heroes of a burgeoning nation and yet, crushed the country’s inhabitants into submission? The Dark Road From Romarong begins…

‘The Dark Road From Romarong’ contains the translations (from Krio to English) of the lyrics featured in Freddy Will’s™ accompanying album, ‘Dark Horse From Romarong …a city of kings.’ Freddy Will recorded the entire album in the Krio language, which is one of the main fourteen languages spoken in Sierra Leone today.