Reading this week:

• The Histories by Herodotus, translated by Tom Holland

Last weekend (less than a year ago now as I am writing this), I went off to go visit Madam Yoko‘s gravesite!

Madam Yoko is in the pantheon of Sierra Leonean heroes. I mean that roughly literally; she is in the book Sierra Leonean Heroes: Fifty Great Men and Women who Helped to Build Our Nation. That book was published in 1988 during the presidency of Major-General Dr. J.S. Momoh (as he signed the foreword to the book) in order to bolster national pride. You can read Madam Yoko’s entry in the book here. Potentially a controversial figure to be exalted as at least some of her power derived from a cozy relationship with the British (the exact opposite of Bai Bureh, also on the above-linked page), but hey we are not here to debate that, we are here to take a road trip.

Speaking of Bai Bureh, I had initially contemplated going off to visit his gravesite, but I think it is in fact in a sacred grove that takes some arranging to enter. Plus it is up in Port Loko, one of the few general areas I had at least driven through, and going down to Moyamba gave me a chance to check out someplace new. I still have not travelled nearly as much as I would have liked within the country, and the rainy season is fast approaching (again, as I write this), so I had to go out and see things while I had the chance. Madam Yoko’s gravesite, as far as I could tell, was accessible, even if no one had been kind enough to pinpoint the exact location. Until now, anyway, because it is exactly here: 8°09’28.2″N 12°25’46.9″W.

Also, a quick note that whenever you see a photo of Madam Yoko, it is the one taken in W.J. Johnson’s studio and published as a postcard c. 1906. It is the one used in Sierra Leonean Heroes, for example, and also the German Wikipedia page (though not the English one). But there is another photo! The British Museum has it (surprise surprise). It is right here and depicts Madam Yoko in 1889, which was the Hut Tax War and so was before Queen Victoria gave her the medal she’s depicted with in the post card:

Anyways so to go find the gravesite I set off relatively early in the morning and had a very lovely drive. Driving up-country in Sierra Leone, between major cities anyways, is a pleasant experience as they have very nice roads and very little traffic and the sites are just stunning and gorgeous. I took several opportunities to hop out of the car and just take photos of the landscape, which the camera can never capture, but here is my try nonetheless:

All in all from Freetown the trip to Moyamba took about three hours. I only made one wrong turn, because I hadn’t noticed that the town of Moyamba Junction is the junction for Moyamba and you need to make a right there, but I noticed my error pretty quickly and turned around and made what was now a left turn instead of a right turn. And then I pretty quickly came to Moyamba and started my hunt. I had pictures of the grave itself and a brief video courtesy of Gary Schulze, but neither gave a great amount of context clues. I knew though it was in “the market,” so I started off by driving around the town to spot “the market.” My plan was to park somewhere likely and go around on foot, but I was somewhat quickly thwarted by rain. So that kept me stuck in my car for a while because despite the looming rainy season I hadn’t thought to like, bring any rain gear. I tried to tool around in the car for a while looking closely for the gravesite and eventually became paranoid that I was looking suspicious.

So then I tried to ask some people. The nice man at the gas station, Olu, told me he was familiar with the place (I showed him the photos), but his directions didn’t quite pinpoint it. I was briefly led astray when a nice lady I asked thought I was just looking for the graveyard and pointed me to the edge of town. The graveyard was there but Madam Yoko wasn’t. By this time I was starting to despair a bit; I would have to start making the drive back home soon. I finally decided to make one last go and pulled into a place that I thought was a closed government building but turned out to be an operating car wash. This however was a stroke of luck because when I showed the two kids who wanted to wash my car the picture, they knew exactly what it was. I asked if they could take me there instead of washing the car, they were game, and so off we went!

Turns out I had driven past the gravesite a few times. As I eventually divined from the pictures, the gravesite had a low wall around it which obscured it. But the kids took me right up into the market there and led me to it. And uh yeah that was it. I took some photos, happy to have reached my destination:

And um yeah with that there wasn’t a whole lot else for me to do in Moyamba. I gave the kids some cash for their troubles and we head on back to the car. I contemplated lunch but the weather was turning a bit and I thought I should start the drive home, so off I went. I wasn’t in so much of a hurry that I didn’t stop to take more landscape photos:

This country really is just so gorgeous. And especially with the rains starting a bit and things starting to get green the forests and hills are just dazzling, and the views from even just the road monumental. There is also shopping to do. I picked up a mortar (which did not come with a pestle, so now I don’t know where to get one of those) and later on closer to Freetown picked up some rather large baskets my super amazing wife especially liked. So that all was pretty successful. I did also run into some traffic on the way back:

A thrilling conclusion to a very fun adventure. I just enjoyed having a reason to go out on a drive in Sierra Leone, and I always like pinpointing monuments and landmarks that haven’t yet made it onto easily accessible maps. And I met some very friendly kids who were willing to play tour guide, so that is a bonus. If you’re ever in Sierra Leone I can’t say that the gravesite itself is worth the drive from Freetown, but seeing the countryside certainly is.