大象传媒

鈥淵ou just learn that the people who are against you鈥� will always exist and they鈥檒l always use every opportunity they can to amplify mistakes and actually very often try to portray them as deliberate. That鈥檚 part of the learning I鈥檝e had to go through.鈥�

Being the mayor of Freetown is a tough job. Yvonne Aki Sawyer grew up in Sierra Leone but then went to the UK to study as a student. She stayed, built up a well-paid career in finance, got married, had kids. But after Ebola hit Sierra Leone in 2014 she took a sabbatical to help and became the director of Planning for Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre.

In the years since, she鈥檚 been voted in as mayor of Freetown twice 鈥� running on a ticket dominated with environmental concerns. But she鈥檚 also been investigated for corruption and accused of misappropriating public funds - allegations she denies and says are politically motivated.

In a frank conversation, she tells Alan Kasujja about her attempts to work with the government, how women support women in Sierra Leone, and denies she鈥檚 drunk the political Kool-Aid.

鈥淢y life is very different to what it was (in the UK)鈥� I certainly don鈥檛 earn a fraction of what I used to earn鈥� I am here because this is my heart,鈥� she tells Alan.

You can see the Africa Eye film about her work 鈥� and the pretty brutal election campaign she went through - 鈥淢ayor on the Frontline: democracy in crisis鈥欌�� on the 大象传媒 News Africa Youtube page.