Our Story
Born in Sierra Leone.
Built by families.
Carried across generations.
We Cotton Tree is a community archive created to preserve Sierra Leonean family stories—especially the voices of elders—before they are lost.
What began as a response to the fall of the Cotton Tree in Freetown has grown into a living archive shaped by families, youth, and communities around the world.
We collect oral histories, photographs, recipes, songs, and everyday memories—shared not by institutions, but by people who carry them.
Our Purpose
Our Commitments
Legacy — honoring what
came before us
Community — stories belong to the people
Care — cultural respect, consent, and dignity
Continuity — memory carried forward, not frozen
Why It Matters
Stories are disappearing.
Elders age. Memories fade.
What isn’t recorded is often lost.
We Cotton Tree exists so families can listen, record, and pass stories forward—together.
How it works
This model is rooted in Sierra Leone, but designed to grow with diaspora families and future generations everywhere.
Elders share their stories
Families and youth record them
We preserve and organize them in a living archive
Elders Council
Our Elders Council helps guide the archive with wisdom, care, and cultural grounding. L to R