I meet Donald Macauley, the 37-year-old founder of Sierra Leone's first surf school, along a sunny swath of silky yellow sand at Bureh Beach, a surfing destination on the Western Peninsula where he’s been catching waves for more than 20 years. Macauley learned how to surf from a British soldier; before he had access to a proper board, he and other local teens would ride wooden surfboards shaped from busted fishing boats. In 2012, he launched Bureh Beach Surf Club—whose slogan, “Di waves dem go mak u feel fine,” says it all—and today he leads a handful of instructors, mentors street kids, and rallies behind some of Sierra Leone’s most promising young talents. Among them, I meet 25-year-old Kadiatu “KK” Kamara, the country’s preeminent female surfer.
“My dream is to teach more girls in Sierra Leone how to surf,” says Kamara, who herself learned at Bureh Beach eight years ago and hopes to someday open her own school. When girls sign up for lessons, she refuses their money. “It’s my responsibility,” she says solemnly. “I want to motivate them not to be afraid of the water.”
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In the ’70s and ’80s, beaches like Bureh would have drawn a small number of (mostly French) backpackers and beach bums to this tiny West African nation, bordered by Guinea, Liberia, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its nascent tourism sector, however, was decimated by the civil war that lasted from 1991 until 2002, leaving more than 120,000 people dead and displacing another 2 million. A headline-grabbing Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016 killed an additional 20,000 Sierra Leoneans and saw scores of international investors and NGOs pull out. More recently, the country has been pummeled by calamitous floods and mudslides, hammered with sky-high unemployment and spiraling inflation, and roiled by political instability, including protests following last month’s contested presidential election. I arrived in Sierra Leone this spring to explore a nation in the throes of transition—and to meet people like Macauley and Kamara who are working tirelessly to reimagine its future.
Driving upcountry to Kabala, the country’s agricultural heartland, my guide Peter Momoh Bassie of Tourism Is Life Tours recounts harrowing memories of his time as a former child soldier. He was 11 when the war began; he lost both parents and countless neighbors and friends to the fighting, and went on to spend six years serving the rebels against his will. The guerrillas would force Bassie and other children in the SBU, or Small Boy Unit, to crawl for hours across the highway’s blazing-hot asphalt, skin tearing from the friction and heat. “Raise an elbow, they shoot you. Raise a knee, they shoot you,” he says with the same matter-of-fact detachedness with which one might read off a grocery list. He and the other boys, in turn, were forced to haze incoming recruits. “You had no choice,” says Bassie. “You did it to survive.”
Like many former child soldiers, Bassie has gone through a reconciliation program that focuses on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration; after finishing his schooling, he eventually became a tour guide. “Tourism is a key tool for economic development in Sierra Leone,” says Bassie, noting that guiding is one of the rare jobs that doesn’t discriminate against ex-child mercenaries. “Whether you’re educated or not, you still have a story to tell and experiences to share.”
Before meeting Bassie, my knowledge of Sierra Leone, like many Americans, was largely informed by Blood Diamond, the 2006 Oscar-winning drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an unscrupulous gem dealer and Benin-born Djimon Hounsou as the humble protagonist who unwittingly finds himself in possession of a 59.6-carat diamond. Set during the height of the civil war, it paints a devastating picture of a devastated country; it was ruinous to Sierra Leone’s global image, and continues to plague the country as it tries to transform itself into an enticing tourism destination. I met numerous Sierra Leoneans who took issue with the depiction—although Bassie wasn’t one of them. “I want the world to know what we experienced during the war,” he says, “and how far we’ve come since.”
Despite its myriad uphill battles, 2023 marks Sierra Leone’s first real attempt to reopen itself to tourism in decades. A new airport—the first since British colonizers built Lungi International after World War II and the only one in West Africa powered by a 1.5 megawatt solar farm—was unveiled in Freetown in early March, and officials have eased visa restrictions, permitting visa-free and visa-on-arrival landings for U.S. citizens. The hotel scene is growing to accommodate new visitors: Rumored openings from Kempinski and Crowne Plaza are in the offing, and Freetown’s homegrown boutique inn, Toma, is adding new suites while also building a small eco-camp in the richly biodiverse Turtle Islands this fall.
Inspired by Ghana’s successful 2019 “Year of Return” campaign, which commemorated the 400th anniversary of the first recorded enslaved Americans arriving in Virginia, Sierra Leone has made a notable play for DNA heritage tours targeting African American travelers. More enslaved people transited through here than any other part of West Africa, but only now is the country starting to protect and memorialize its important historic sites. On Banana Island, a villager led me to an unmarked mass grave where more than 1,000 people who refused to board the slave ships were buried. In Kent—which a local guide told me stands for “keep every knot tight”—I crouched inside a cell where as many as 400 people would be crammed while waiting for a transfer to Bunce Island and eventually, the New World.
Primate tourism has major potential, too, with Sierra Leone laying claim to 15 different species, six of which are threatened. The Western Chimpanzee was declared the country’s national animal in 2019—extending a level of protection only made possible by the sustained lobbying of Bala Amarasekaran, who is founder of Freetown’s Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and is working to develop the country’s first eco-tourism circuit. “If Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, can secure such an important policy decision, then other nations can also undertake similar reform to save species from extinction,” Amarasekaran says. A planned expansion of Tacugama will include an interactive learning space, library, exhibition hall, and rooftop café; once complete, it will be the country’s first zero-carbon, EDGE-certified building.
To visit Sierra Leone right now is to witness a phoenix rising from the ashes. Bassie suffered unfathomable torture at the hands of the rebels, yet he's open to sharing his experiences. Amarasekaran has been saving chimps’ lives since 1979 and has no plans to stop. Macauley and Kamara know what they’re up against in trying to put Sierra Leone on the international surf map, yet they charge forth undaunted. In a decade, I hope to return and see what they've built. Because if their resiliency, optimism, and ambition are any indication, it’s only a matter of time before Sierra Leone has a new story to tell.
How to visit Sierra Leone
Traveling to Salone, as the country is also known, requires a sense of adventure. Power outages are common, ferries break down, hotels get overbooked, and border patrol may try to shake you down for money. (Politely refuse and they should relent.) An open mind and go-with-the-flow attitude will serve you well here.
Getting there and around
There are no nonstop flights between the United States and Sierra Leone; most connect through Paris or Brussels. The old Lungi International Airport and the new, fully green Freetown International Airport are both located across an estuary from the capital, which is best reached via a 40-minute ferry ride on the Sea Coach Express. The potholed roads in and around Freetown are choked with kekeh (similar to Thai tuk tuks but painted with phrases like “No Food 4 Da’ Lazy Man”) and poda poda, or brightly colored mini buses, and traveling by vehicle can take hours thanks to notoriously gridlocked traffic. Many locals get around on foot, which is also exhilarating. Book your excursions through a reputable outfitter like Tourism Is Life Tours and they’ll arrange a private car and driver as needed.
Where to stay
Unless you prefer an international business hotel like the Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel, the best bet in Freetown is Toma. If you travel upcountry to hike in Kamala or tour the village farms growing cassava and cashews, Weinday’s Guest House (+232 78 709 253) is a clean if barebones option serving delicious home-cooked meals. The Place Resort at Tokeh Beach, meanwhile, offers some of Sierra Leone’s most upscale accommodations, complete with air-conditioning, rain showers, and a backup generator to counter the not-infrequent blackouts.
What to do
Head out to the Western Peninsula for an $8 surfing lesson at Bureh Beach Surf Club. Swimming at Lumley Beach or Tokeh Beach, two of the country’s cleanest, widest coastlines with bathtub-warm water and sunsets that stretch to infinity, are musts, as is a tour of Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a wildlife rescue in the Western Area Peninsula National Park that rents rustic eco-huts for overnight jungle stays. For a more immersive primate experience, the best starting points are Tiwai Island, Gola Forest, and Outamba-Kilimi National Park.
Where to shop
Sweet Salone in Freetown, run by the Icelandic nonprofit Aurora Foundation, sells a lovely array of artisan-made goods including pendant lamps and placemats from a weaver’s collective in Brama Town, and minimalist ceramics from the Lettie Stuart Pottery Centre in Waterloo. Staffers are keen to explain its local makers’ backstories.
Money matters
Sierra Leone is a cash economy. Most businesses, including many hotels, do not accept credit cards and there are few ATMs. You’re best off finding a money changer downtown and swapping American dollars for Sierra Leonean Leones. Outfitters like Tourism Is Life Tours have their “guys” and can negotiate a fair rate on your behalf. (Note: While the government reissued its currency earlier this year, shaving off three zeros to help temper inflation, you’ll still find yourself walking around with stacks of rubber-banded cash. Pack a roomy money belt for safekeeping.)
