Sierra Leone for Overseas Travel: People with British-origin flint & superior wetland rice cultivation techniques traded at high prices in the American market! An uninhabited island with many negative legacies🏝 A deep dive into the country, including a sanctuary visited by primatologists where chimpanzees were designated as the national animal🐒!🌊🍷🌾

1. Features

1. Time, Currency, Climate⏰💸🌞

・There are no direct flightsandnone，the shortest flight timeisincluding connectionsabout 25-30 hours・
The9-hour time differencefrom Japan

・1 Leone = approx. 6.52 yen ・Prices
areJapan'safractionandvery cheap, butin recent yearshigh inflation(rising prices) has continued, andexchange ratescausevery large fluctuations

・The entire countryishot and humidatropical monsoon climate.In the dry season(winter),the Sahara Desertblowsdryanddust-filledseasonal winds called the 'Harmattan'causingvisibilitytohazeover

② Culture👩🍷💫

・Sande Society → women-only secret society(social organization). When girls reach adulthood initiation rites, they learn practical morals, life wisdom, and social rules at forest schools(secluded camps).

・Palm (local liquor) wine music → local liquor made from palm trees is drunk at taverns at dusk while playing acoustic(a very relaxed, tipsy mood) guitar and singing improvisationally(origin of the name)

・Lantern Festival → Held to celebrate the end of Ramadan(fasting month) or on Independence Day. The themes are the history of the slave trade, memories of the colonial era, and religious motifs in a festival of lights

③Cuisine🌊🥜🌾

☆Abundantseafoodandpalm oilarethebaseforstews(soups or stews) which areeatenover rice (annual consumption rivals Japanese levels).

・Cassava leaves→A dishwherecassava(tuber)leavesarefinely choppedandslowly simmeredwithfish or meatinpalm oiluntil themoistureevaporatesand the oilrises to the surface.Similarinflavorto spinach.

・Groundnut soup → A peanut-based paste soup, stewed with meat, fish, and vegetables for a rich, savory-sweet flavor. It is eaten by tearing off and dipping a mochi-like staple food called 'fufu' made from kneaded cassava flour.

④Souvenirs🎭🪡🥜

・Sowei mask → A jet-black wooden mask (rarely) worn by women, dyed with plant-based dyes. It features an elaborately styled hairstyle tied high, folds on the plump neck (representing wealth and health), and a small, pursed mouth (the ideal of nobility and beauty).

・Gara cloth → local artisans by hand vibrantly dye textiles(social significance and ethnic identity) culture symbolizing tie-dye(shibori) technique. Originally Kpokpo(hand-woven cloth) was a symbol of wealth

・Groundnut cake → crushed peanuts sugar hardened into peanut brittle (candy). Not a sponge cake using flour, but locally locally lump sweets collectively cake is the culture

2, Tourist Spots

Capital: Freetown

① Bunce Island🏝

[General Characteristics]

・From the 17th to the 19th century, it functioned as a the Americas and the Caribbeanbound transatlantic slave trade fortified transit hub, an historical negative legacy (ruins of ramparts, watchtowers, slave holding cells, and settler graves) on uninhabited islands

[In-depth Information]

・"Flint" (flint originating from the UK). Trade ships from the UK to Bunce Island trade ships would on the way there carry a light load, so they loaded stones to maintain the ship's balance loaded stones, and when boarding many Africans, they discarded them on the shore to keep the now-heavy ship afloat discarded

・In the 18th century, American white plantation owners sought to cultivate rice domestically but struggled as they lacked environmentally suitable techniques and, setting their sights on people who possessed superior 'wetland rice cultivation techniques', Africans sent from Bunce Island were traded in the American market at extremely high prices.

② Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary🐒

[General Characteristics]

・Rich rainforest located in, illegal pet trade and poaching from rescued over 100 chimpanzees protecting, and reintroduction to the wild towards rehabilitation and educational activities

・"Blood Diamond" (source of civil war funding) image is a country where it strongly remains, but when a world-renowned primatologist visited, the government chimpanzees as national animal designated since, negative image was diamond dependency from breaking away

[Trigger Episode]

・The founders,a married couple,were not environmental protectionexperts, but after finding awildbabychimpanzeethat wastiedto atree, theybought and rescuedit forjust 20 dollars, named itBruno (the first rescued individual), andraisedit athome, which was thestarting point.

・Led by Bruno,,31 chimpanzees (possessing superhuman strength many times that of humans) escaped en masse from the sanctuary, causing panic locally. Eventually, they gradually returned to the sanctuary or were recovered, but only Bruno remains missing