The place to Store, Eat, and Keep in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s Capital

On most Saturdays throughout her childhood, MaryAnn Kai Kai would buy groceries together with her household on Rawdon Avenue in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Trend was throughout Kai Kai, who grew up admiring the huge closet of her grandmother, a diplomat’s spouse. “She had all types of African prints and the newest fashions from the U.Okay.,” Kai Kai says.

As we speak, she makes customized caftans and attire beneath the label Madam Wokie, a reference to her great-great-aunt Madam Wokie Massaquoi, a former member of Sierra Leone’s parliament who as soon as met Queen Elizabeth. Kai Kai has proven her beautiful tie-dyed m’boubou robes on the runways of New York and Lagos and outfitted Idris Elba, the Duchess of York, and the primary women of Angola and Nigeria.

Kai Kai additionally strives to provide again. In the course of the pandemic, she launched a program to show girls to hand-dye fabric utilizing the gara method, which originated in Indonesia. The material patterns that Kai Kai makes use of typically embrace cow’s eyes. Final spring, with the help of the Sierra Leone Financial Diversification Challenge, she helped practice 800 girls throughout the nation to make batiks and beads. As we speak the ladies promote their wares on the seashores outdoors city and within the extra distant Banana Islands. 

To discover Freetown’s inventive tradition, observe Kai Kai’s information to town. 

The place to Keep

“From the veranda of Cole Avenue Guesthouse, within the suburb of Murray City, you may see the Atlantic Ocean, and the courtyard is filled with fruit bushes. “

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The place to Browse Artwork

“One among my favourite artists is Hawa-Jane Bangura, who has a by-appointment-only studio in Cockle Bay. Her work explores African historical past, tradition, and identification, and she or he actually performs round with colours.” (Above: I Am Not My Hair.) 

The place to Store

“On Malama Thomas Avenue, you’ll find distributors promoting tons of various materials, from Sierra Leone’s gara and kontri fabric to Ghanaian, Nigerian, West African, and even Dutch prints. I additionally wish to browse carvings, beads, jewellery, and drums at Large Markit, on Lamina Sankoh Avenue.” 

The place to Eat and Drink

“At Cole Avenue Visitor Home, I order contemporary juice, like ginger, mango, or hibiscus, the “ros bif” corn tacos, and the spicy jerk goat with plantains and rice. On weekends, everyone heads to the nightclub there, Warehouse, to bop and listen to DJs. It has a mixture of all ages. The homeowners are two sisters. Many of the employees, together with the bouncers, are girls.”

For one thing downtown, Crown Bakery does an incredible Sierra Leone–type jollof rice with fish, beef, and rooster. There’s additionally paintings on the market.” 

The place to Hit the Seashore

“I all the time see locals out within the waves at Bureh, River No. 2, or Tokeh Seashore (seen right here), on the Freetown Peninsula. After a day within the solar, I wish to hit Franco’s for lobster and oysters — the tables are proper on the sand.”

A model of this story first appeared within the April 2024 situation of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “All Eyes on Freetown.“