OUR STORY
The Eldest Daughter
Has Returned.
It Started With a Question Every Diaspora Child Carries.
For Dr. Aisha Abdul Rahman, where are we really from? was not a rhetorical question. It was a life’s work. An archivist by training, a genealogist by calling, and a heritage traveler by necessity — she spent decades doing what she teaches others to do.
Tracing the lines. Following the DNA. Sitting with the silence of what was taken and what survived. The answer, when it came, pointed to Sierra Leone. And instead of simply visiting, she went back and built something permanent — for herself, and for everyone still finding their way home.
THE NAMING CEREMONY
On Tasso Island, the chief looked at me and gave me a name that had been waiting my entire life.
Rukor aka Ruqiatu.
The first. The eldest.
In that moment, something that had been missing for generations was restored — not just a name, but a place in a lineage.
A belonging that no institution had granted and no document had created.
It had simply always been there, waiting.
— Dr. Aisha Abdul Rahman, Rukor Kargbo
The Compound
Ye-Ruqor is a heritage compound in Newton village, outside of Waterloo, Sierra Leone — a living Temne community where Dr. Aisha is not a visitor but a citizen, a neighbor, and a name-bearer.
The compound is a duplex — two side-by-side homes connected by a greenhouse that spans the full width of both. Solar powered. Starlink connected. Furnished with intention. Built not as a hotel or a resort but as a home — because that is exactly what it is. During retreat weeks it becomes yours too. Four guests. Eight days. One experience that does not scale because the things that matter most never do.
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Your Name Is Waiting for You in Sierra Leone.
Retreats are limited to 4 guests. Add your name below and be first to know when doors open.