Meet Kadiatu Kamara: The Only Woman Surfing in Sierra Leone Helping To Change Surf Culture in West Africa

Kadiatu “KK” Kamara is Sierra Leone’s only female surfer. She is ranked as a top surfer in West Africa after coming in second place at her most recent competition in Liberia. She didn’t know she would make it this far. Statistically speaking, becoming a professional surfer wasn’t supposed to be in the cards for her. Kamara didn’t get a chance to finish school, and unfortunately, she’s not an anomaly in one of the world’s poorest countries. Sierra Leone’s economy and its people have suffered greatly from a civil war that lasted from 1991 until 2002. The 2014 Ebola epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic have also affected the economy.

More than 60 percent of Sierra Leone’s population lives in poverty, and in 2017, a reported 35% of school-aged children between the ages of six and eighteen had not attended school. Despite making up a little over half of the country’s population, girls and women are marginalized across all sectors. Sexual and gender-based violence continues to be a problem. More than 60 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have reported experiencing physical violence.

Kamara knew it would be a long shot but wanted something different for her future.

“You can do anything [for] money [in Africa], but if you don’t know how to do business … if you don’t [have skills], you use your body for money,” Kamara tells Travel Noire, referencing women who make a living through sex work in Sierra Leone. “I didn’t want to do that, so I decided to join the guys at the surf club.”

Bureh Beach Surf Club: Sierra Leone’s First Surf Club

Kamara joined Bureh Beach Surf Club at 14 and didn’t know how to swim. The club is located in Sierra Leone’s coastal town, Bureh. Bureh has one of the best beaches in Sierra Leone and is currently known as the country’s surfing capital, thanks to the transformation that began when the surf club was officially launched in 2012.

“British guys taught us how to surf,” Donald Macauley, a club surf instructor, tells Travel Noire. “Before then, we used broken, wooden fish boats to surf.”

Macauley says Bureh Beach was a popular destination for British, German, and Irish surfers who would watch and learn from the locals.

“One day, we decided to borrow their board. That was the very first time we stood on an actual surfboard, and we [learned] the correct form,” Macauley adds.

Macauley says German and Irish surfers helped establish Bureh Beach Surf Club as the first surf club in Sierra Leone. The organization would later go on to train the country’s first female surfer. Even though Kamara couldn’t swim, Coach Donald saw something in her and motivated her to keep going.

“At first, she was fighting the ocean,” Macauley recalls. “We had to teach her how to swim first.”

She didn’t give up and eventually could swim back and forth to the island, where she would take her surf lessons. This journey amazed Macauley, who says it takes approximately 20 minutes. Now, she’s a hometown hero, especially for young girls.

“She really took her lessons seriously,” says Macauley. “I saw her potential, and now other girls want to follow her.”

Hoping More Women Catch The Wave

Kamara is tired of being the only woman surfing in Sierra Leone. She has taught and mentored at least seven young girls but has slowed down because resources, including a lack of surfboards, are limited nationwide.

“I stopped because it’s not easy in Sierra Leone. Everything is so hard,” she says. “When you take kids out to surf, you always have to feed them, and I don’t have the money to take care of them.”

Kamara, Macauley, and the other surf coaches are hopeful the dire situation will change as more organizations fund educational and extracurricular activities for youth in Sierra Leone. Macauley says there are plans to open a new surf school funded by the World Bank. For Kamara, she hopes the funding will do more to showcase what Sierra Leone offers for surfers while bringing women to the forefront of a sport where she’s the lone representation.

“I want to put Sierra Leone on the map for surfing in the world,” says Kamara. “I want to motivate the girls.”

Beyond surfing, Kamara wants young people to catch a wave she hasn’t conquered yet by finishing their education.