
Sherbro Island is in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
, and is included within
Bonthe District
Bonthe District is a district that comprises several islands and mainland of the Atlantic Ocean in the Southern Province, Sierra Leone, Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Bonthe is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital is the t ...
,
Southern Province,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
. The island is separated from the African mainland by the Sherbro River in the north and
Sherbro Strait in the east. It is long and up to wide, covering an area of approximately . The western extremity is
Cape St. Ann.
Bonthe
Bonthe is a coastal town located on Sherbro Island in Bonthe District in the Southern Province, Sierra Leone, southern Province of Sierra Leone. The town lies on the eastern shore of Sherbro Island, on the Sherbro River estuary. Bonthe is about 60 ...
, on the eastern end, is the chief port and commercial centre.
Historically, this was part of the territory of the historic
Sherbro people, who dominated a large area of what is now Sierra Leone. Today they are concentrated in the southern and central part of
Moyamba District. They make up by far the largest
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
in the island, where the total population is 28,457. The island has more than of tropical beaches. It has been earmarked by the Ministry for Tourism and Development of Sierra Leone for tourism development.
Economic activities
Swamp-rice cultivation, tourism, and fishing are the main economic activities.
In 2024 it was reported that English actor
Idris Elba, whose father is
Sierra Leonean Creole, had founded Sherbro Alliance Partners with the goal of developing a "smart-city" capable of supporting up to a million people on Sherbro.
History
Sherbro Island was long inhabited by the Sherbro people, who historically dominated other ethnicities in much of the region on the mainland. The islanders had an economy based on extensive fishing. They also traded by boat with neighboring people in villages along the coast.
During the
Mane invasion in the 16th century, Sherbro was the center of one of their main kingdoms.
[
] The king throughout the first half of the 17th century was a man named Sherabola or Selboele, after whom the island was named.
[
In the seventeenth century Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch explorers and traders came to this area. They traded with the Sherbro and with other tribes up the rivers to the interior. They referred to what is now known as the Sherbro River as the ''Madrebombo'' River, which may have referred to "mother drum" in Spanish. Dutch letters dated 1633 refer to the river in a spelling variation as ''Maderebombo.'' Other spelling versions included ''Madrabomba.'' (See: ''Navigantium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca'')
In the seventeenth century, the Royal African Company, chartered as a monopoly in England, began to operate here and on the Guinea Coast as traders. While originally seeking gold, particularly along the ]Gambia River
The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra, French language, French: ''Fleuve Gambie'', Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Rio Gâmbia'') is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward ...
, by the early eighteenth century the RAC became involved in slave trading, which its monopoly covered.
The RAC established a Company fort known as York Island at Sherbro Island. It was a port for exporting enslaved Africans to the Americas. Thomas Corker, who was from Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Falmouth was founded in 1613 by the Killigrew family on a site near the existing Pendennis Castle. It developed as a po ...
, had been working with the RAC for more than a decade when he was appointed agent here in the late seventeenth century. He married the daughter of a Sherbro chief, and their two sons became the patriarchs of a family dynasty of traders and chiefs in the region. Shortly after being reassigned to The Gambia
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...
, he died on a business trip to England in 1700, but his descendants in Sierra Leone did well.
After Great Britain abolished the international African slave trade in 1808 in partnership with the United States, it used the former RAC trading fort on Sherbro Island as a base for naval operations against illegal slave traders. Liberated slaves were resettled in the Freetown
Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
colony. But for decades more, both Spain and Portugal continued to buy African slaves for their colonies in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
In 1815 Paul Cuffe
Paul Cuffe, also known as Paul Cuffee (January 17, 1759 – September 7, 1817) was an African American and Wampanoag businessman, Whaling in the United States, whaler and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. Born Free negro, free int ...
, a successful African-American ship maker of Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, became interested in resettling free blacks in west Africa. The British had undertaken this at Freetown, Sierra Leone since 1792. There, Black Loyalists
Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots who served ...
from Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
(African Americans freed in the American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
) had been joined by Maroons
Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas and islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery, through flight or manumission, and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with Indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into ...
deported from Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
, Liberated Africans freed from illegal traders, and some of the ethnic groups in the territory of Sierra Leone who were interested in western culture,[Harris, Sheldon H. ''Paul Cuffee: Black America and the African Return''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.] coalesced into the Creole/Krio ethnicity.[ Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).]
Cuffe believed that skilled American blacks could help develop trade between Sierra Leone and the United States, benefiting both. In 1815, he resettled a group of 88 American freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
on Sherbro Island. After returning to the US, Cuffe marketed his cargo of goods taken on at Freetown.
Cuffe died in 1817, but the American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in 1820 by both abolitionists and slaveholders, continued the effort to resettle free blacks in Africa. They commissioned a survey of possible areas, including Sherbro Island. They found John Kizell, a Sherbro born locally who had returned after being captured and held in slavery in South Carolina. He gained freedom with the British during the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
and was among 1200 Black Loyalists
Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots who served ...
resettled in Freetown
Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
in 1792. Kizell became a leader to a number of Sherbro people.
The U.S. Congress passed an act on March 3, 1819, authorizing transport of freed blacks to their "motherland". The ACS began to develop a colony in Africa for free American blacks. It later became known as the Republic of Liberia. In this period, most free blacks (and enslaved) in the US were native to the nation; they had family and history there. They wanted to gain equal rights and non-discriminatory treatment in the US.
In 1821, the ship ''Elizabeth'' from New York carried 86 free African Americans (including missionary Daniel Coker), as well as three ACS agents, as the first ACS sponsored group to Sherbro Island. Disease and fever quickly killed more than a quarter of the would-be settlers. The survivors relocated in April 1822 to Providence Island at Cape Mesurado in what developed as the nation of present-day Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
.
In 1861 the British Crown Colony at Freetown
Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
acquired Sherbro Island from the Sherbro people, putting it under the jurisdiction of its government. The Sherbro continued to live there. The colonial and later protectorate government administered it until Sierra Leone achieved independence in 1961.
As of 2024, there is an ongoing project to make the island a special economic zone
A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...
.
Environment
Sherbro Island is believed to be a breeding ground for green sea turtle
The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exte ...
s as well as leatherback sea turtles. The waters surrounding the island hold some of the biggest tarpon in the world. Records of the sportfishing organisation IGFA have been made by catches from this area. African manatees also inhabit the delta of the Sherbro river system north of the island.
Population
In May 2013, the Government of Sierra Leone's record of the island's population was 28,457.
References
External links
*
1746 map of the Guinea Coast, including Sierra Leone
by N. Bellin. Published in French.
''Navigantium Atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca''
Google Books
{{Coord, 7, 33, N, 12, 42, W, region:SL_type:isle, display=title
Islands of Sierra Leone
Southern Province, Sierra Leone
Sherbro people