The crumbling walls
Overgrown with trees.
Pierre Chrzanowski — CC0 · Pierre Chrzanowski — CC0 · Pierre Chrzanowski — CC0 · Pierre Chrzanowski — CC0 · Pierre Chrzanowski — CC0
Bunce Island is a small island in the Sierra Leone River, in the estuary of the Rokel River and Port Loko Creek, about 32 km upriver from the capital, Freetown. It measures about 500 metres by 107 metres and holds the ruins of a castle built by the Royal African Company around 1670. It is one of the most important slave-trade sites in West Africa. Tens of thousands of Africans were shipped from here to the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia in North America, and they are the ancestors of many African Americans today. Its position at the limit of navigation for ocean-going ships, in Africa's largest natural harbour, made it an ideal base for traders. An American university built a three-dimensional model of the castle as it stood in 1805. You see crumbling stone walls with empty windows, covered in grass and trees with huge roots. Old rusted cannons lie among the plants, along with stone gravestones. At the island's edge a small pebble beach looks over the broad, calm river, with thick trees on the far bank. It is about 23 km from Freetown in a straight line, and visitors arrive by chartered boat on a half-day trip. Arrange the boat with a reliable operator and ask for a life jacket. It is a place of remembrance, so treat it with respect.
Overgrown with trees.
Among the plants.
On the river.
Sierra Leone River estuary, north-east of Freetown, Sierra Leone
By chartered boat from Freetown, on a half-day trip.
Tens of thousands of Africans were shipped from here to North America.