Bunce Island: Aug. 20, 2011

A crew member organized a trip to Bunce Island. We took two of the ship's landrovers and drove 2 hours into the country. We arrived on beaten up roads to a very small village where young guys were ready to row us to the island in their canoes. We each paid $7.50 USD or 30,000 leones for the round trip. The canoes were a trip, most of us screeched thinking they'd capsize, but we all made it safely. We arrived to the island after 15-20 minutes of rowing, and then had a tour of the small island. The ruins of the castle took up the majority of the island. The places where slaves were kept were sad and hard to imagine. (See more stories on Facebook.) One of the most memorable parts of the trip was in the cemetery. A Sierra Leonian had given the land/the island to the white men to use for the slave trade, so we asked our guide whether these men were good or bad. Our guide was very hesitant to say that anyone was bad, even the white men, who traded their people as slaves. We all exclaimed that the white men were bad! But the guide didn't want to say that. After we ate our packed lunches, the young guys rowed us back and we returned to the ship. The whole day reminded me of the slave memorial in Ouida, Benin. Pics of that are probably in the archives of this blog as well. Slavery is such a crazy horrible concept to me. I see the aftermath destruction of it in the segregation of DC. And I wonder how much impact it has had on Africa in general, is it why their economies are so far behind those of developed countries? (For more pics of the trip, see my Facebook page)