Bunce Island is Sierra Leone’s World Heritage site that served as a major slave trading post for 300 years. Today it's restored ruins hold the story of Sierra Leone-American cultural heritage and connection.

Join this conversation with Isatu Smith, former head of Sierra Leone’s Monument & Relics Commission as she shares the fascinating history of Bunce Island and the preservationists working to restore it.

Show Notes

For More on Sierra Leone and Slavery Check out The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University https://bit.ly/2Ue5ZXL.

About Bunce Island

Bunce is a 1600 feet uninhabitted island lying approximately 20 miles up the Sierra Leone River from Freetown, the Capital city of Sierra Leone. Bunce Island was established as a slave trading station in 1670. From 1670 to 1728 two companies- the Gambia Adventurers and the Royal African Company of England ran Bunce Island one after the other.  Bunce Island’s prosperity ran from 1744 to 1807 during private management by a consortium of London firms. At their slave trading heights British traders shipped tens of thousands of African slaves to the Americas from this place. The trading fort was subjected to attacks a number of times by other Europeans. Slave trading ceased on the island with the abolition of slace trade in 1808. It was however in the 1840 that the Bunce Island fort was finally abandoned. Bunce Island was declared a National Monument in 1948. (Read More)

https://bit.ly/3xvvB0E

Bunce Island - World Monuments Fund (https://bit.ly/2Sc2roh)

The Language You Cry In (1998, Film) https://bit.ly/3cQ77Hp

Joseph Opala in His Own Words (https://bit.ly/3xyMjw9)

The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone-American Connection by Joseph Opala (https://amzn.to/2S9Isqe)

For more information on Colin Powell: https://n.pr/3wGaEQx

To listen to 'Beautiful' by Jimmy B: https://bit.ly/3xxC9f9