Illustration showing a lantern being paraded in Sedhou (Senegal)

The tradition of parading lanterns was almost certainly brought by traders to Freetown from The Gambia and Senegal. In 1862 an English traveller, William Winwood Reade, witnessed what he called the ‘Feast of Lanterns’ in Sedhou (in Casamance, now part of Senegal) on Christmas Eve. The illustration in his book, Savage Africa (1864), is the earliest known representation of a lantern float (or fanaal as it is called in The Gambia and Senegal). It is not clear whether it is based on a sketch by Winwoode Reade or whether it was drawn by an unknown illustrator from Reade’s verbal description. If the latter then it is impossible to know how reliable it is in terms of accuracy of detail.