Ricketts, one of the three islands that make up the Banana Islands, is everything Dublin isn’t. While Dublin depends largely on tourism, Ricketts depends on fish.
Founded by Major Henry J. Ricketts in 1830, it was populated from the start by freed slaves brought to Freetown by the British Navy. Ricketts worked in the Liberated African Department, which was responsible for housing the 100,000 Africans freed in Sierra Leone.
We jumped at the chance to crash a TransAfrica boat trip to Ricketts when only 3 of their group of 9 opted to go. We could have hiked there and taken a boat back but we were aiming to catch the 3pm boat to Kent and time was limited. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.)
It was a choppy start. The engine on our boat failed just as we puttered out of the bay. The wind was up and the boat was bopping a little too much for my comfort – I’m not a great one on the water. But I wanted to see the village so I kept quiet and concentrated on the horizon.
Having motored across the water with a trail of garbage in our way, I was saddened to see more still in the harbour. What looks like a raft on the left is a compacted plate of garbage. We’d see more as we walked through the village. I wondered why it was left there and not cleared away. It’s one of those never-ending jobs, though. You spend weeks and months cleaning up a place and then the rains come and bring even more back. Same with the beach. Clean it up at low tide and then the next ebbing will bring so much more with it.
The aesthetics bother me. This is a beautiful part of the world. I wonder if people living here even see the trash any more.
It’s good manners to meet with the village head and ask permission to walk around. You don’t just rock up and start wandering. Bamiecolay Allen met with us and told us a little about his village.
Like Veronica Sackey, the head woman of neighbouring Dublin, Allen is also in his second term. He’s in the process of building a secondary school so that the children who can’t afford to go to Freetown to study will have a shot at going to college. He’s also building a community centre.
He told us that the Government of Sierra Leone has largely forgotten them. They get no help, no support. He has to fight for everything. They come with the ballot boxes on election day and then go away. Next time, he says, he hopes they will go away with an empty ballot box. It’s one way of protesting, I suppose.
While the village of Dublin is spread out, Ricketts is concentrated. It’s a lively spot of about 250 people. There are 60 or so kids in the local school. We met with a volunteer teacher who is supported by the village, not paid by the government. He was busy prepping some students for their final exams. He told us he taught grades 3 to 6 – all in the one class. I nodded and said we also had two-teacher schools in Ireland. Everyone but himself was surprised.
![Blackboard in a classroom. Text reads: Class VI Home Economics 3rd January 2025 Food preservation What is food preservation? Food preservation simply means preventing food from spoilage or going bad. Methods of food preservation The following are some methods of food preservation. These are: 1. Salting 2. Smoking 3. Fermentation 4. Freezing/refrigeration 5. Drying/rehydration 6. Pasteurization 7. Addition of chemical 8. Irradiation 9. Canning/sterlization. The reasons for food preservation: The following are some of the rason for food preservation. These are: 1. To prevent it from spoilage or going bad 2. To provide a store of food for later use 3. To make use of food when it is heap and plentiful 4. To have a variety of diet 5. To keep as much of the quantity of the food fresh as possible 6. to stop very small germs from spoliage [sic] of the food. What is food spoilage? Food spoilage is when the food deterioriates (going bad) or becomes unfit for eating.](https://anyexcusetotravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20250103_111736_resized-1030x773.jpg)
The men fish. Their wives sell the fish in Freetown and use the money to buy fresh produce to bring back to the island. The other villagers then buy from or barter with them. Two wells supply their fresh water.
The island’s pub made me wish we had more time to spend… I’d have enjoyed a beer and a chit-chat. Aptly name the poor man friend, everything on the island is about keeping life affordable.
I was taken by the fines for abusive language, fighting, and stealing. I’d seen this before, written up as bye-laws for a neighbourhood. This is the old SLL currency though. Things changed in July 2022. Lop off three zeros to get the SLL to get the SLE – a 30 SLE fine for fighting. Slightly more than a euro or dollar. Given though, that the minimum wage for formal sector workers is 800 SLE a month, you’d be keeping the peace. ATM daily withdrawal limits range from SLE150 to 400, a stark indication of how poor this country is. I read that ~60% of Sierra Leoneans live on less than $1.25 a day.
Our appointed guide, Junior, is the caretaker of the third island, Mes-Meheux, a privately owned island named after Jean Meheux, a French merchant and trader who assimilated into African society. It’s an eco-tourism destination for organised trips. He was joined by Prince, who had his yagba on. Both took their time to answer questions, no matter how silly, and patiently explained their way of life.
A way of life that is about to change.
Plans for a deepwater port are well on their way to fruition. And while I can see the attraction of employment opportunities, I wonder at the cost.
For the first time in 80 years, police have been deployed to the islands in anticipation of the surge in population.
The deployment of Police officers to these islands, the first of its kind in over 80 years was borne out of the unmatched wisdom of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. William Fayia Sellu on the backdrop of a proposed Seaport construction project by Mr. Mohamed Gento Kamara which would create jobs for young men and women and would attract thousand of workers from all parts of the country and elsewhere. Hence, the need for Police presence and visibility
While volunteers may consider themselves a helpful source of manpower doing good work, they are actually just another mouth to feed.
