Researching a History of Epidemics in Sierra Leone during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

This article provides a narrative about archival research experience in Sierra Leone as the coronavirus outbreak spread globally in early 2020. Coincidentally, the research concerned the country’s history of epidemics since 1787, when Freetown, its first city, accommodated freed Blacks repatriated from Britain and the Americas. As Sierra Leone prepared for another disease outbreak after Ebola in 2014, leaving or staying in Freetown (after seven months into a ten-month Fulbright US Scholar term) had health and research outcomes at stake. Historicizing the pandemic while engaging personal/social memory in historical accounts, the article highlights containment measures adopted against epidemics/pandemics across time.