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The old Fourah Bay College (FBC) building is among several heritage projects that have been directly affected by US foreign aid cuts.
French media house, Le Monde reported that the Trump administration is withholding $750,000 meant for the restoration of the Old FBC building and other key heritage sites in Africa, Ukraine and the Middle East.
President of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), an NGO that selected the old FBC building, Bénédicte de Montlaur said the cuts are significant for the WMF.
“The State Department is one of our important partners, providing us with between $1 million and $2 million annually,” Montlaur said.
The WMF get aid from private donations but these cuts are significant for the restoration of the Old FBC building located in Cline Town, Freetown. The structure, which was constructed in 1827, is regarded as the first modern university in British Africa. It served as the epicentre of civilisation and education in British West Africa with Sierra Leone earning the nickname, the Athens of West Africa.
The condition of the site has been deteriorating since the end of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) launched a brutal attack on the capital, Freetown in 1999. The structure was pillaged and torched by the RUF living it in further ruins.
Recently, the Relics and Monuments Commission of Sierra Leone, and the US Embassy in Freetown, have been actively working to restore the structure to its original condition. However, there are concerns that a recent action may hinder these restoration efforts.
