This project relies on our friends and collaborators around the world, who are generously contributing photos for references, archival sources, archaeological survey materials and satellite imagery, for this work. Ongoing work with researchers closely connected to the ruins at Bunce Island, as well as in-person trips throughout the past decade have produced a wealth of data sources from which we are recreating the ruins through the photogrammetry software offered by RealityCapture.

We anticipate that this work will be the first pilot of a far-reaching network of historical events recreated using sophisticated digital technologies, offering an entirely new way to engage with difficult pasts, permitting both Afro-descendants and learners to discover and experience histories that have shaped our present world.

Through a partnership with Freetown's We Own TV, we added to this rich resource with drone footage and careful photographs, from which we are creating 3D assets to be incorporated into the digital environment. We have also partnered with students and faculty at CUMT-SL in Mile 91, Sierra Leone, whose talented creatives are lending voice acting skills, sharing traditional knowledge, and offering ideas as we work to build a compelling series of branching narratives for learners. All work is drawn from careful archival research and discussion with international experts and scholars, with the intention of crafting a virtual experience which attempts to capture the feel and flavour of the eighteenth century in Sierra Leone's estuary. Intended for an African and a global audience, this project will present a complex historical world at the height of the slave trade and offer a glimpse into African cultures before colonization.