Long known as one of Africa's great beach destinations, a new generation of Sierra Leoneans is eager to show visitors that the formerly war-torn nation is now safe and reintroduce it to the world.

Sitting in the shade of a palm tree on Tokeh Beach, one of Sierra Leone's many postcard-worthy, white-sand waterfronts, Peter Momoh Bassie told me his story. "I am not ashamed to say I was part of the rebels because I was captured by force," he said, looking out over the emerald-coloured water. "I never killed anyone," he added.

Stories like Bassie's abound in Sierra Leone, a small nation in West Africa with more than 300km of coastline sandwiched between Guinea and Liberia. The country's 11-year civil war that ended in 2002 killed more than 50,000 people and displaced 2.6 million more. The rebels captured Bassie when he was just 11 years old. He was held captive for six years, managing to escape – and get caught again – three times.

Today, Bassie works as a tour guide for Tourism Is Life, one of many Sierra Leonean travel companies eager to show the world that the nation is now safe and introduce visitors to its many rainforests, beaches and rich cultural experiences.

Though the war ended more than two decades ago, its legacy – compounded by a 2014 Ebola virus outbreak – has meant that Sierra Leone remains something of an off-the-beaten-path destination, attracting only a small fraction of the visitors who venture to nearby Ghana or Senegal, for example.

In its pre-war tourism heyday of the 1980s, visitors were drawn to Sierra Leone's beachfront locations like Bureh, another white-sand haven an hour's drive south from its energetic capital, Freetown. But beyond its famous western coastline, this Scotland-sized nation boasts a stunningly diverse array of landscapes. In the south-east, the Gola rainforest and Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary are home to chimpanzees, rare Diana monkeys, Bongo antelopes and more than 320 bird species. In the north, the Outamba-Kilimi National Park is a woodland savannah and sanctuary for hippos, elephants and colobus monkeys. And in the east, plateaus lead up to Mount Bintumani, one of West Africa's highest peaks.

Dubbed "the forgotten industry" by some residents, tourism is now becoming a focus for Sierra Leone once again. A multi-year World Bank development project is underway, training tourism staff, building infrastructure and developing ecotourism sites in areas like south-eastern Sierra Leone, where the elusive – and endangered – pygmy hippo lives.

Now, a new generation of Sierra Leoneans wants visitors to reconsider what their country is all about.

"Growing up, I would hop around Tokeh Beach and Maroun Island, drink coconuts, get a lobster, and cook it for lunch," said Wissam Stanger Sfeile, a freediving coach who competed for Sierra Leone in the freediving world championships. In 2016, he co-founded Bafa, an eco-resort on the northern tip of Banana Islands, a lush trio of islands south of Freetown.

At Bafa, hammocks swayed in the breeze and glamping tents were spread throughout the shore as fresh lobster sizzled on the grill. Together with his wife Emily, Sfeile wanted to recreate the experience he had as a child. The eco-resort........

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