The slave fort on Bunce Island has reverted to jungle, with roots clutching at the stone walls that once enclosed helpless men and women waiting for the slave boats to arrive. We spent November 3 through November 5, 2023, driving to Freetown, Sierra Leone from Conakry, Guinea and then touring the sites of Freetown. The two most memorable events in Sierra Leone were visiting Bunce Island and visiting a chimp rehabilitation center in the hills above Freetown.
When our boat docked on Bunce Island, we realized we were virtually alone in the jungle, haunted by the torture of people who had been stored here before being shipped across the Atlantic.
Our local guide described how each of the crumbling buildings had served--a fort here, the male slave enclosure there, the female enclosure here, the holding cell for slaves whose boat was docking over there.
The British were intimately involved in the slave trade before outlawing it in 1809. The British royal mark is on the cannons peering out through the crenelated walls of the fort. Several European nations fought each other in West Africa between the 1460s, when the Portuguese arrived, and the 1960s, when most of the West African nations became free.
We paused in the English graveyard, where slave traders were buried.
Our guide told us about John Newton, an English slave trader who served on Bunce Island. He later realized the enormity of his sins, as a slave trader, and wrote the hymn, "Amazing Grave". The words include, "Amazing grace, that saved a wretch like me...." Our two local guides sang "Amazing Grace" as we thought about the slaves who died here and about John Newton and his repentance.
The other highlight of Sierra Leone was the chimp rehabilitation center, in the hills above Freetown.
We learned how intelligent chimps are, and we even studied a sign, showing what their various sounds and gestures mean.
We then visited several enclosures, where we saw the chimps being readied to return to the wild. Some have been orphaned by poachers and others have been rescued from people keeping them as pets.
The chimps play together and take a special interest in visitors. We stood behind a net to protect us from the rocks the chimps threw at us. One big fellow climbed down from his perch to get rocks, threw them at us, and then climbed down to get more. He had great aim, and we would have been hit, if it were not for the nets!
Mike took excellent pictures of the chimps with his telephoto lens. Some of these guys had graduated to the least regulated section of the rehabilitation center, where they essentially lived in nature, with very little relationship to humans.
We enjoyed our stop at Freetown's Freedom Park, where school children joined us on their field trip. Our guide told us the history of Sierra Leone, through the murals and statues around the park, and the children listened in. Our guide invited them to sing one of their school songs for us, about how learning makes them better and better!
I was fascinated by the intricate hairstyles of the little girls.
We met this little fellow outside the park. The poor are always there, in Africa. I wondered if he would be able to have a blue t-shirt and go to school.
This church, in downtown Freetown, was visited by Queen Elizabeth, as part of her travels around the British Commonwealth.
Our guide proudly showed us Queen Elizabeth's signature in this guest book for the church. Hers is the second signature from the top, "Elizabeth", with an "R" for "king" or "royalty".
We also visited the National Museum, with its great collection of masks. Th museum director described these full-body costumes as "masks." As we watched native dancing during our trip, demons in full-body costumes were often brought out to perform, to the delight of the audience!
Each African country and/or region also has its own distinctive face masks.
The lion is the symbol of Sierra Leone, which originally meant "Lion Mountain" in Portuguese.
The museum director showed us photographs and maps relating to Sierra Leone's history. An important part of that history was settlement by blacks from the New World, who named their city "Freetown." Some blacks had been slaves in America and others were black loyalists who fought with the British against the Americans and then were delivered by the British to Sierra Leone.
In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a civil war in Sierra Leone and in neighboring Liberia between the "Creoles", returning from the Americas, and the natives who had stayed behind.
One final treat was lunch on an island off the coast of Sierra Leone, near Bunce Island.
We were welcomed by a local band, singing and playing drums.
We walked up a shell path from the shore to the restaurant.
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