By Jody Ray
Built by formerly enslaved people, Freetown’s historic ‘bod oses’ now face an existential threat as foreign embassies move in. Jody Ray reports.
On a humid March morning this year, police officers came to the scenic Hill Station neighbourhood in Freetown, Sierra Leone to evict civil servants living in historic board houses. The government had announced months prior that residents would be relocated, and their houses demolished in order to build Turkish and Saudi Arabian embassies.
Sierra Leoneans are divided on the controversy: on one hand, some argue, the state can do what it wants with government property, and many of those evicted hadn’t yet relocated despite some having received compensation from the state. Now it was time for them to go.
But residents of the Board Houses, or bod ose as they’re known in the local Krio language, told local media they were devastated by the eviction order and that the money hadn’t been distributed consistently. The houses were built by newly freed slaves, who’d travelled to Sierra Leone from the Caribbean, Britain and North America in the late 18th century and many argue that they should be preserved.
Krio people built houses using timber from the surrounding forests that resembled the kind of homes they had become familiar with in North America. JODY RAY
‘I took pride in living in a wooden house,’ Amira (not their real name) tells New Internationalist. The former bode ose resident says she was evicted earlier this year without receiving compensation from the government. ‘The wooden houses at Hill Station carry so much history that should be passed down through generations.’
These particular structures, relics of the former British administrative core, have always been government property, and so they fall within a precarious position. On one hand, their demolition means Sierra Leone moves on from its colonial past; on the other, they make way for new foreign entities with their own motives. The people living in these homes, and the public at large, are caught in the middle of a debate between its national character and its future, while the strong arm of the State is likely to push forward with demolitions.
Many civil servants living in the houses refused to speak on the record about the demolitions due to fear of reprisals from the government. New Internationalist spoke to several who claim to have already suffered retaliation for speaking out, including the forced resignation of their family members working in government. Others say they were prevented from being awarded public scholarships, grants or accessing other public services.
While growing foreign interest in Sierra Leone is being portrayed as a positive step for the country’s future and its rising strategic importance in West Africa, the story of the bod oses underscores the tension between national development objectives, local needs and the historic character of a nation.
‘The wooden houses at Hill Station carry so much history that should be passed down through generations.’
Den Old Bod Ose
When the first Portuguese sailors arrived in West Africa in the 1460s, the sight of the lush green hills from the sea inspired the name Sierra Leone, or ‘Lion Mountains’.
Freetown was initially established by British abolitionists in 1787 as a settlement to repatriate former slaves. While the scheme was fronted by the Treasury at the time, government support for the settlement had more to do with racist desires to rid Britain of Black people than abolitionist aims. The first settlers in Freetown were a group of 380 former slaves from London, followed by ex-slaves from Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1808, Sierra Leone transitioned into a colony and became the site of anti-slavery operations with Britain setting up an anti-slave trade patrol to intercept ships on route to the US. By 1855, over 50,000 formerly enslaved people had settled in Freetown.
These groups mixed to create the Krio people. They built houses using timber from the surrounding forests that resembled the kind of homes they had become familiar with in North America. The houses were raised on stilts to protect against flooding with large verandas and balconies, steep-pitched roofs and unique, intricate wooden carvings.
The land and buildings were handed over to the newly formed government of Sierra Leone after independence in 1961, and are still used to house civil servants to this day. Others, like this one pictured, are privately owned. JODY RAY
Standing out amongst the concrete and glass buildings of modern Freetown, the bod ose have become a symbol of Krio identity, serving not only as communal living residencies but heralded as symbols of independence and self-sufficiency.
‘For the liberated slaves, Freetown was an emblem of the possibility of self-governance, ownership and dignity, which was denied to them under the yoke of slavery,’ wrote the late Akintola J.G. Wyse, a history professor at Fourah Bay College in Freetown in his book The Krio of Sierra Leone.
The Houses at Hill Station
Today, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are the latest in a long list of foreign countries that are vying to open embassies in Sierra Leone. And each wants the best land in the capital.
In Freetown, that means Hill Station. Land in this neighbourhood, elevated 250 metres above the rest of the capital, has become prime real estate because of its scenic vistas, quiet surroundings, fresh air and exclusivity. It’s where the Presidential Lodge is located, surrounded by dozens of bod oses standing tall with reinforced metal roofs, echoing some of the first raindrops that fall in Freetown. These structures once accounted for 24 two-story homes in Hill Station.
The Sierra Leone Ministry of Lands – the agency that would provide statistics on the number of bod oses that remain – did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
The bode oses here were built by the British to be used as colonial administration offices as well as homes for civil servants and their families. The land and buildings were handed over to the newly formed government of Sierra Leone after independence in 1961, and are still used to house civil servants to this day. Others are privately owned.
But the relics were already in trouble long before Saudi Arabia and Turkey set their sights on Hill Station.
Preserving the aging wooden homes requires significant investment. During the country’s 10-year civil war in the 1990s, funding for preserving and maintaining the homes was scrapped, and many of the buildings in the eastern side of the city did not survive the conflict.
Today, these fragile wooden effigies are in a state of disrepair and are highly vulnerable to poor weather and fires. In 2010, a bod ose caught fire in eastern Freetown, killing a 90-year-old woman. Another house burned to the ground in 2022 in a kitchen fire.
Some NGOs like the Freetown Cultural Heritage Project, the World Monuments Fund and the British High Commission have been involved in scattered activities that provide small donations to families in private bod oses to maintain the boards or reinforce the walls with aluminum siding.
But these preservation efforts face a combination of challenges. Maintenance projects have been hindered by insufficient funding, rapid urban development and a lack of public awareness about the cultural significance of the board houses. Weak regulatory enforcement and economic priorities focused on modern infrastructure further exacerbate the situation. Additionally, environmental challenges and complex land ownership issues add to the difficulties in sustaining these historic structures.
Many Sierra Leoneans now prefer structures made of concrete as a sign of development, modernity and foreign investment.
‘When Sierra Leoneans got television, all we saw were Nigerian shows with people living in these large, modern homes made with concrete, and then everyone here said, “Oh no, we’re way behind. We’ve got to catch up”,’ says Zeinab Beah, an NGO worker in Freetown who was raised in a bod ose. ‘Everyone wants to build modern houses here now, and no-one wants to spend the money to maintain a bod ose, even if it’s historic,’ Beah continues. ‘Having a modern home made from concrete is a sign of wealth here.’
It’s not known exactly how many bod oses have disappeared in Freetown as comprehensive records are lacking and the Ministry of Lands refused to comment on this story. However estimates and reports from local heritage organizations suggest a significant portion have been lost over the years due to urban development, neglect and other environmental factors.
‘Everyone wants to build modern houses here now, and no-one wants to spend the money to maintain a bod ose, even if it’s historic.’
Out with the old
Just five miles outside of Freetown is Gloucester, a Creole stronghold high in the mountains. Founded in 1814, Gloucester is home to many original bod oses, including that of Chief Frederick Hanciles. The descendants of slaves, his family has lived in a bod ose for generations.
‘Some people think it’s good to go ahead and demolish these homes,’ he says. ‘It’s not convenient for living. Most of them don’t have modern toilets and master bedrooms. People look at them now like they shouldn’t exist.’
But Hanciles says there are many people that still find the homes valuable and admire their history.
‘People have come to me on several occasions, wondering how we are keeping the house up and what it takes [to maintain].’
In these historical enclaves, people are tired and exasperated by discussions about preservation efforts and Krio history. With no major advocacy campaigns and with dwindling resources to maintain these homes, older generations are at their wit’s end. But even rebuilding a structure with concrete costs money they do not have, so they remain on their porches, caught in the limbo between history and ‘progress’.
In York, another Krio neighbourhood, Ade Turner works as a caretaker of some of the oldest bod oses in the country. Standing outside one of them, he says: ‘The owners were about to destroy this home … but we asked them to rent it out instead, and we try and do what we can to fix them. We don’t want to do away with them – these should be permanent houses. I know everything about [Sierra Leone], and these houses are significant.’
In with the new
Back in the capital, government workers are under serious pressure from international organizations, development agencies, donors and private investors, as well as ordinary Sierra Leoneans to develop and modernize the country quickly.
Sierra Leone’s appeal to foreign actors is multifaceted. With abundant natural resources like diamonds, gold, bauxite and iron ore, its geostrategic location connects trade routes across all of coastal West Africa. The country is relatively stable with a young population that is majority Muslim.
Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia, whose embassies will sit on the land once occupied by the bod oses, see themselves as rising – in some ways competing – powers in the larger Muslim world. Turkey is involved in several major civic construction projects in Sierra Leone and Saudi Arabia has said it plans to recruit hundreds of Sierra Leoneans for domestic and unskilled jobs abroad.
‘West Africa’s geopolitical landscape is in flux amid a push by China, Russia, Turkey and the Gulf states to make inroads into places which Western powers have long considered within their sphere of influence,’ says Chris O Ogunmodede a geopolitical analyst of West African politics, security and international affairs. ‘African governments generally welcome – and even encourage – the competition now as they believe it is prudent for them to diversify their range of international partners.’
While China’s investment in Sierra Leone is smaller than in other African states (it has invested $6 billion into Sierra Leone since 2010, compared to $40 billion into Ethiopia), proximal states like Saudi Arabia and Turkey see a window of opportunity.
Both countries want access to Sierra Leone’s mineral wealth and cheap labour, which Sierra Leone is happy to provide as it forges an unrelenting path to modernity. Meanwhile, the few remaining bod oses stand in the crosshairs of modernity, diplomacy and development.
For people like Beah, the NGO worker, this piece of Sierra Leone’s history might soon be lost.
‘In 20 years, I think all these bod oses will be gone,’ she says.
SOURCE: https://newint.org/housing/2024/interactive-sierra-leone-bod-ose