SIERRA LEONE BRIDGE HOUSE

During Sierra Leone's brutal 1991 - 2002 civil war, dozens of people were executed on the Aberdeen Road bridge in the seaside capital, Freetown.

Their bodies were thrown into the fishing waters below.
While most of those who could afford to get out of the country did, others hid anywhere they could manage. One Sierra Leonean man, Mohamed Bangura, found an entrance to a hollow in the bridge during the heat of the fighting.

Long, narrow 'house'
Mohamed first discovered the area when he took shelter under the bridge in heavy rains. Later he noticed a trapdoor that led to an opening inside the long concrete bridge, and made it his family's home throughout the war as the attacks went on overhead. Entry to the long, narrow 'house' is via a rickety wooden ladder and small rectangular hole in the concrete base.

Bullets

"I was brave enough to come here when the war came to Freetown," says Mohamed. "There were bomb blasts all over. They fought everywhere. "Everybody who had money left – to the US, UK, The Gambia, Guinea, anywhere – but I had no money so I entered inside and opened this place up. "From inside I can see down down and I see the fight. We see bullets fly over the city. Jets come and bomb and people they die. "That's why I call it the bunker: I hid here for my life."

Black and white murals

A large water pipe and telephone wires in metal casing run the whole length of the home. Inside the echoing gloom Mohamed's wife, Gladys, prepares meals on a cooking pot with coals, and his four children sleep on mattresses lying on the floor. There is also a four-poster bed with sticks for posts draped with a mosquito net for Mohamed and Gladys, and murals painted in black and white on the smooth concrete walls. "I love my bridge," says the unemployed 43-year-old. "I want to stay here."

Shake shake

During the war, more than 100 people climbed in to join Mohamed and take shelter. "People died in the water trying to escape in boats that were too heavy and sank," says Mohamed. "Innocent people come here to hide. All men were sad." Missiles from the Nigerian-led West African troops sent in to defend the country made a direct hit on the bridge. "They bomb the bridge and it did shake shake," says Mohamed. "Even myself I shake with fear. We hid in the pillar inside."

WelcomingReggae-loving

Mohamed painted a sign welcoming guests to the "bonka" (bunker) alongside images of helicopters, drums, animals and black people and white people living in harmony, with the slogans "together as one" and "righteousness" daubed on the walls. While they live with the constant rumbling of traffic overhead, the concrete insulates them from the hot sultry air outside.

Cry for peace

Despite a harrowing beginning, Mohamed has tried hard to turn the bridge into a home he can be proud of. "The bunker is not a bunker for war - it's for peace. I am a peacekeeper. "I draw the prophet Muhammed and Christ next to each other. "It's a window on the world, to bring a big impact on this country. The war bring me up here so now we only talk of peace. We cry for peace."

Problems

The father of four children, Mohamed can only afford to send one of them to school. He used to send his eldest child – 11-year-old Adama – to school, but now that his son is eight he has decided to send him instead. "If I get the upper hand I want to send Adama too. The problem is jobs. "I am glad to be alive but we need support. We need money for make we do something. We want do business. Business collapsed with the war."

Good things
Five years after the end of the war, elections this summer gave opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma power, in the hope he will provide more for the next generation.
He promised to fight corruption and work to improve the country listed second least developed in the world by the UN.
"We suffer and strain but the corruption is too much. We really want changes," says Mohamed. "We need local housing, good roads, light, water, free education. I like life and I want good things for my country."

Vision
Mohamed has spent his own savings to buy paint to create a vision of how he would like the area, which is strewn with excrement and rubbish, to look one day.
"When I came here the first time people had messed this place. I clean it, I put in a bench, I begin to play music, and entertain the people in the area. Now I tell the people about reggae and peace. I am the caretaker of the bridge and I take great care as a citizen. I have a vision."