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🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | Dodging a Civil War by Two Months

✈️ Arrival in 1997 After 24+ hours of flights (via Europe, as all Africa routes did then), I landed in this West African nation—clueless it stood on the brink of a 5-year civil war. 🏨 Mammy Yoko Hotel: The Unwitting Witness • Only "international" hotel in Freetown (famous by default!) • UN staff & ECOWAS diplomats filled its halls, mingling under towering tribal wood carvings • Helipad life: Took a Soviet Mi-8 chopper from the airport (road trip = 3hr detour) ⚔️ History’s Shadow • Bunce Island: Walked through the slave-trade fortress 30km north—where thousands were held before the Middle Passage to America • Golden rivers: Canoed to a waterfall where sand glittered with raw gold dust (upstream? A motherlode!) 💥 Two Months Later... News headline: Rebels storm Freetown, rocket the Mammy Yoko, take hostages. The hotel’s lobby—where I’d sipped Star beer—was now bullet-riddled rubble. That "peaceful" beach? A battleground. #WarZoneEscape #AfricanHistoryUnfiltered

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Vittoria Camille
Vittoria Camille
5 months ago
Vittoria Camille
Vittoria Camille
5 months ago
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🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | Dodging a Civil War by Two Months

✈️ Arrival in 1997 After 24+ hours of flights (via Europe, as all Africa routes did then), I landed in this West African nation—clueless it stood on the brink of a 5-year civil war. 🏨 Mammy Yoko Hotel: The Unwitting Witness • Only "international" hotel in Freetown (famous by default!) • UN staff & ECOWAS diplomats filled its halls, mingling under towering tribal wood carvings • Helipad life: Took a Soviet Mi-8 chopper from the airport (road trip = 3hr detour) ⚔️ History’s Shadow • Bunce Island: Walked through the slave-trade fortress 30km north—where thousands were held before the Middle Passage to America • Golden rivers: Canoed to a waterfall where sand glittered with raw gold dust (upstream? A motherlode!) 💥 Two Months Later... News headline: Rebels storm Freetown, rocket the Mammy Yoko, take hostages. The hotel’s lobby—where I’d sipped Star beer—was now bullet-riddled rubble. That "peaceful" beach? A battleground. #WarZoneEscape #AfricanHistoryUnfiltered

Freetown
Outamba Kilimi National Park
Outamba Kilimi National ParkOutamba Kilimi National Park