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Alpha Kanu, Minister of Presidential Affairs: Photo By Lucy NalpathanchilTraditional African music welcomed the delegation to a ceremony staged next to New Haven City Hall. It's the exact spot where a slave from Sierra Leone, Sengbe Pieh known as Cinque and other slaves were jailed after staging a revolt aboard the Spanish schooner, La Amistad, in 1839.
The ship ended up off Long Island where the slaves were arrested and later tried in Hartford. The abolitionist movement helped the slaves legal defense and they later won their freedom in a historic legal case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Standing next to a statue of Cinque, Sierra Leone's Minister of Presidential Affairs, Alpha Kanu says Cinque's legacy forever ties New Haven to the African nation
"To the great people of CT, I'd like to take this opportunity to beseech you to translate this experience of our heroes of freedom into a positive, intercultural and political union. We must try to build upon the heroic, historic connections and strive to forge valuable economic and social ties."
Dauda Sesay was one of the onlookers at Tuesday's ceremony. Sesay lives in Boston after leaving Sierra Leone during its bloody Civil war.
Sesay travelled to New Haven just to meet the delegation.    
"I'm actually proud of the progress back home. Knowing that my country can have a presidential election with a democratic elected government with no issues....I'm more than happy."
Sierra Leone's President, Ernest Bai Koroma was scheduled to attend the New Haven ceremony but cancelled to attend President Bush's address to the United Nations General Assembly.
After the ceremony, the delegation also visited a gravestone at the Grove Street cemetary in New Haven that's dedicated to slaves from the Amistad who died while
incarcerated.

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