Old Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College became a magnet for English-speaking Africans on the West Coast and remained the only European-style university in West Africa for more than a century.
The First Western-Style University in Sub-Saharan Africa
Old Fourah Bay College once stood at the center of an idealistic endeavor to create a new and just society out of the awful destruction wrought by the horrors of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. Established in 1827, it was the first university of Western education in sub-Saharan Africa. For a century, Old Fourah Bay College was a laboratory for experimenting with the transfer of Western ideas of governance, religion, political organization, and public service bureaucracy.
But when civil war engulfed Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002, people displaced by fighting flooded into Freetown, the country's capital, looking for shelter and safety, and Old Fourah Bay College was taken over by many families of internally displaced people. During the conflict, the Rebel United Front (RUF), which was one of the most brutal rebel groups fighting the government and peacekeeping forces, laid siege to Freetown, eventually occupying the eastern part of the city where Old Fourah Bay College is located.
An Urgent Need for Intervention
In 1999, shortly after the siege, a catastrophic fire broke out at the building, consuming the roof and wooden floors. Miraculously, the main masonry superstructure survived and remains standing today, but without urgent conservation, its survival is severely threatened.
Our Involvement
World Monuments Fund (WMF) placed Old Fourah Bay College on the World Monuments Watch in 2006 to bring international attention to the surviving cultural heritage of a country devastated by war and poverty. Old Fourah Bay College is a symbol of emancipation and a monument of immense importance, not only in the history of Sierra Leone, but for the region.
The Future of Old Fourah Bay College
In 2021, WMF embarked on a project to carry out emergency stabilization of Old Fourah Bay College and implement a planning and design process for the structure's eventual rehabilitation funded by the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP). The goals of the complete three-phase project are to save an iconic monument in West Africa and develop a plan for its reuse as a cultural hub and museum in close collaboration with the community, thereby creating an educational facility and visitor destination that further stimulates the nascent tourism industry, creates economic opportunities, revitalizes a historically important but badly neglected district of Freetown, and helps to build a stable and prosperous society.
The first phase of the project was completed in early 2023. It included securing the building from collapse, engaging the community and stakeholders in reimagining a future for the structure, and providing a framework for phased implementation of conservation and redevelopment of the site and its surroundings.
In 2023, WMF was awarded a second grant from the AFCP. The second phase of the project will build on the achievements of the first phase, focusing on conservation of the historic fabric, structural repairs, and installation of new building elements with the objective of making the building a functional facility at which cultural and other activities can begin to take place. This phase of work is scheduled to be completed in 2025. The third phase, which is not yet funded, will involve installation and commissioning of a performance space, cultural hub and small museum in the historic heart of Freetown.
Related Projects
Bunce Island
Christ Church Cathedral and Exhibition at the Former Slave Market Site
World Monuments Watch
Through the World Monuments Watch, WMF collaborates with local partners to design and implement targeted conservation programs—including advocacy, planning, education, and physical interventions in the historic built environment—to improve human well-being through cultural heritage preservation.
Our Supporters
World Monuments Fund's work at Old Fourah Bay College has been made possible, in part, by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) and the U.S. Embassy Freetown.