Going into the last week of December 2019, 50+ African Americans from South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, landed in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The trip had been dubbed by South Carolina Public Television as the sequel to the first trip of its kind, 30 years ago. An epic journey in motion, the theme was set to highlight Sierra Leone’s historical role in the transatlantic trade, particularly in the areas of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. The journey began with a visit to historic Bunce Island where the group had an opportunity to tour the remains of a fort that many African Americans had been taken through as enslaved people to the Americas during the transatlantic trade. Next stop was the northern region of Sierra Leone, Makeni, where the group received a traditional welcome from local dances and the rhythm of Temne music. A rice feast introduced the guests to Sierra Leone’s many variations of rice. Rice is symbolic to both Gullah and Sierra Leonean communities, whose rice cultivating skills have been preserved for centuries. It was the main reason thousands of Africans were taken from the Rice Coast and sent to South Carolina during the transatlantic slave trade. The next day the journey continued into the resistance part of the trip, for a 3-hour drive to Old Yagala village in Kabala, where the group were received by 4 Limba Chiefs and village residents. Several of the group members hiked up the historic Old Yagala hill for an hour long climb up, to witness firsthand, relics of an old village that used the hilly terrain as a method of resistance against slave traders. The highlight at the next stop in Rogbonko Village was historic. Gullah sweet-grass basket maker, Nakia Wigfall sat with a local shuku blai maker to make 5 baskets together. Like rice, sweet-grass baskets have also been symbolic to both communities, preserving such craftsmanship unbroken for over 250 years. The journey to the western region of Sierra Leone, Freetown, led the group to the third part of the theme, abolition. It started with a watch night service at the historic Zion Methodist Church, reminiscent of the first watch-night service by the first ever group of freed African Americans to resettle in Africa. Zion Church was founded by African Americans who along with 1,000+ others established the settlement in 1792. The next day, the group was hosted by the Mayor of Freetown and members of the Krio ethnic group, descendants of the African American settlers. The Mayor, who had just recently signed a ‘Sister City’ partnership with the Charleston, South Carolina, recounted the fact that she herself, is a descendant of one of the African American Settlers of 1792. Her Ancestor, David Edmonds was from Virginia, another, John Morgan was from the Maroons of Jamaica, another group of Freetown Settlers who arrived in 1800. After weeks of retracing the middle-passage throughout Sierra Leone, the group made a final visit to the southern region of Sierra Leone, Bo. They were welcomed by traditional Mende masqueraders, such as the traditional Gorboi, Sowei, Gongoli, and others.. One of the highlights of the performances was the ‘Mama Kparah’, known as ‘Moko Jumbie’ in Trinidad and other Islands of the Caribbean. Like rice and sweet-grass, many traditions were preserved through music, songs, and dances carried on through generations. At Senehun-Ngola, the last stop before returning back to the airport for take-off, two Gullah family units of the group made their unique re-connection with the village. A Mende song that had been traced back to this village by American Anthropologists more than 30 years ago, had been preserved in the Moran family of Georgia for over 250 years. Wilson Moran of Harris-Neck, Georgia, along with his cousins, the Relafords of Riceboro, Georgia, led the group to an emotional end of this middle-passage journey, reconnecting with kinfolk unbounded by the shackles of slavery. In this trend of ‘Year of Returns’ emerging swiftly across West Africa, Sierra Leone made a mark on the journey of the middle-passage through this epic trip. It has been dubbed in the local media, as the largest visit of African Americans to Sierra Leone, in the country’s recent history.