Africa attracts tourists from around the world with its breathtaking scenery. But the continent also has a dark past and there are some places that are a constant reminder of that. One of those is Bunce Island. Located around 20 miles up the Sierra Leone River from Freetown, Bunce Island was once a key location in the transatlantic slave trade. Between 1670 and 1808, it operated as a British slave trading post and sent tens of thousands of enslaved people to the Americas – mainly to rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia.
According to Yale University, the castle on the island was run by several British companies, including the Royal African Company. Enslaved Africans were chosen specifically for their expertise in rice farming, a skill that helped develop the American rice industry. The trade created deep links between West Africa and the southern United States. Yale historians say one of the island’s main operators, Richard Oswald, worked closely with Henry Laurens, a wealthy South Carolina planter and slave trader who became President of the Continental Congress. Laurens sold slaves arriving from Bunce Island and sent profits back to London.
Even during the American Revolutionary War, Bunce Island was caught in conflict. In 1779, the French attacked the site as part of their alliance with American colonists, because they were jealous of Bunce Island’s commercial success.
Though damaged, the castle was rebuilt, but operations came to an end after Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807. It was abandoned a few decades later.
Today, Bunce Island lies in ruins, overgrown with vegetation. Visitors can still see remains of the slave prison, factory house, watchtowers, cannons, and a graveyard.
The island is only about 600 metres long but is recognised as one of the most important slave sites in Africa. According to Tourism Sierra Leone, the site is now protected and efforts are underway to preserve what’s left.
In 2008, the World Monuments Fund listed Bunce Island among the world’s “100 Most Endangered Sites”. It has since become a destination for dark tourism, drawing people from around the world – especially African Americans whose ancestors may have passed through the island.
Documentaries like Family Across the Sea and The Language You Cry In have followed emotional pilgrimages by descendants of enslaved people. Colin Powell, who visited in the 1990s, described it as a powerful moment in his autobiography My American Journey.
“I felt something stirring in me,” he wrote. “I am an American…but today, I am something more. I am an African too.”
Tours to Bunce Island usually leave by boat from Freetown and take about 45 minutes.