Bunce Island December 2005

Bunce Island December 2005

On the morning of Friday the 30th of December 2005, a group of ten people gathered at the famous Aqua Sports Club to embark on a journey to the historic place off the coast of Sierra Leone called Bunce Island.

I got in the boat filled with anticipation. The excitement of going on a boat trip, the opportunity to soak up the scenery of Freetown from the sea and most definitely the step back into our history.

I never thought Sierra Leone had that many Islands. The scenery was truly remarkable.

The sun was out, the water was calm, the view was breathtaking, and the fishermen were friendly, well from a distance at least.

After an hour into the boat trip, the Island was in sight, bringing back the excitement of the trip. I started questioning myself on whether I was actually going to feel different been on this Island, considering its history? Would there be any emotions when we got there? Is it really safe to be there? So many thoughts, expectations and emotions were racing through my mind.

Stepping onto the Island I was met with an instant yet almost inexpressible emotion. I started thinking of what had happened here hundreds of years ago and how it has defined us as a race over the years. I tried to picture how it must have been back then but off course that was impossible. So I was just left to imagine the number of people that had lost their lives and connection with loved ones through the trade that took place on this little plot of land.




As I mused over the Island’s history, I started to feel faint. Could it be affecting me this much I thought to myself? Then I remembered I hadn’t had any breakfast and we were under the hot boiling Sa Lone sun, so it was either my emotions getting the best of me or plain old hunger. It turned out to be the latter.

We sat down to ingest a little snack, when someone scared the life out of me by mentioning the word Snakes!!! I don’t do well with snakes. I knew they where bound to be there but acknowledging it made it a lot more worrying.



As we finished our snack, Pa Brima arrived by canoe from a neighbouring Island. He was going to be our tour guide for the day.

He was pleasant and pleased to give us a tour of Bunce Island, enlightening us in detail on how the slaves where brought to the Island, numbered, stored, sold and shipped across the Atlantic. He also gave us a brief history of the ownership of Bunce Island, from the Portuguese to the French and then the English. It was very educative and amusing considering they were fighting over an Island that was neither theirs.

Being on the Island that day I trust everyone must have at one point thought that decades ago been on the Island simply meant one thing, you where owned by another person and freedom to you was nothing but a dream.

After about two hours on the Island we decided to head back to Freetown. The visitor’s book was signed and we all became part of Bunce Island’s history.

So to answer my questions to myself upon arriving on the Island, Yes I did feel different been there, as I had experienced a very significant part of our country’s history and our history as black people.
Yes there were emotions, though mixed with the irritation of knowing the history behind the Island, there was also happiness that we had come a long way from those days and were now standing on the Island as free individuals, not someone’s commodity. It was strangely beautiful.
And oh yeah it was an all around safe trip…..no snakes!!!!

It was beyond any doubt an amazing and inspiring trip, one I would love to do again. To quote one of the other visitors: “as a Sierra Leonean this is not a place where you should try to visit. It’s a place you have to visit”. Too right… and thanks to “Visit Sierra Leone” for making this possible.