The Society for Indigenous Languages, Communities, and Cultures of Sierra Leone (SILCC) is a community-based organisation founded in 2020 by language educator and community organiser Gibrilla Kamara (Mani/Limba, Sierra Leone) and Dr. Joshua McDermott, assistant professor of sociology at Southeastern Louisiana University, U.S.
SILCC works to inspire and invigorate connections between language, land, communities, and cultures. We take a holistic approach that recognises the interconnection between Indigenous knowledge systems and traditional ecological knowledge, cultural practices, biodiversity conservation, and Indigenous practices surrounding land management.
We work in partnership with Indigenous community groups, particularly women, youth, and Elders, to revitalise endangered languages and reclaim traditional cultural knowledge that has long contributed to environmental protection in Sierra Leone.
SILCC is presently working in Kambia District as a Community Based Organization. Kambia District has a population of over 345,000 people, whom we serve.
By building relationships grounded in trust, respect, reciprocity, mutuality, and collectivity, SILCC co-creates and co-generates solutions that are locally relevant and meaningful to communities.
We recognise that community stewardship of land and cultural lifeways is fundamental to the thriving of both the human and natural world. SILCC nurtures sustainable, just, and equitable possibilities where the diverse human and ecological communities of Sierra Leone don't just co-exist, but thrive together.
We are working to build a future where Indigenous communities of Sierra Leone are connected to their languages, cultural knowledge, lifeways, and lands in ways that restore and renew community, culture, and ecology for generations still to come.
Language educator and community organizer (Mani/Limba, Sierra Leone), co-founder of SILCC.
Assistant professor of sociology at Southeastern Louisiana University, U.S., co-founder of SILCC.
Sierra Leone faces multiple, intersecting challenges that have disproportionately impacted Indigenous communities, women, and other marginalised communities, including environmental degradation marked by high deforestation rates, recovery from a brutal 10-year civil war that ended in 2002, systemic gender discrimination, particularly in land ownership, inheritance, resource access, and decision-making, and cultural and linguistic loss due to rapid urbanisation, population pressure, and other challenges.
SILCC works to preserve, revitalise, and promote the Indigenous languages of Sierra Leone and to nurture the intergenerational connections that sustain them; to protect and restore the land and water to build diverse and harmonious ecosystems; to strengthen intergenerational relationships and inspire connections to ancestral knowledge in ways that create flourishing communities; and to inspire people to value, strengthen, and reclaim their Indigenous identities, traditional cultural knowledge, and lifeways.
SILCC envisions a world where Indigenous languages are spoken widely with confidence and pride; where land and clean, abundant waters flourish in support of both people and the natural world; where communities are connected to Indigenous ancestral knowledge and ways of knowing; and where Indigenous cultural identities and traditional ways of doing and being are thriving.
Mission: Preserve, revitalise, and promote Indigenous languages and the intergenerational connections that sustain them.
Vision: Indigenous languages spoken widely with confidence and pride.
Mission: Protect and restore land and water to build diverse, harmonious ecosystems.
Vision: Flourishing land and clean, abundant waters supporting people and the natural world.
Mission: Strengthen intergenerational relationships and connections to ancestral knowledge.
Vision: Communities connected to Indigenous ancestral knowledge and ways of knowing.
Mission: Inspire people to value, strengthen, and reclaim Indigenous identities and lifeways.
Vision: Thriving Indigenous cultural identities and traditional ways of doing and being.
SILCC is a registered Nonprofit Community Based Organization working to revitalize endangered languages and cultures while protecting Sacred forests in Kambia District, Sierra Leone.
