The Sierra Leone Creoles, or Krios, are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone, descendants of West Indian slaves from the Caribbean, primarily from Jamaica; freed African American slaves from the Thirteen Colonies (Black Loyalists) resettled from Nova Scotia; and Liberated Africans from various parts of Africa.[1] They arrived in Freetown between 1792 and 1855 (or possibly as late as 1860).[2]
They make up about 5.4% of the Sierra Leone's total population (about 377,003 people), and they live primarily in the capital Freetown and its surrounding Western Area.
The Creoles speak English and a distinctive creole language, called Krio, based on a blend of European languages, primarily English but also including French, Spanish and Portuguese. The African influence on Krio is noted in its syntax, grammar as well as some of its vocabulary, mostly Yoruba and Igbo. The Krio language is used as a lingua franca throughout Sierra Leone and is understood by 97% of the country's population. This is due to the history of the founding of this seat of the British Empire in West Africa. It is similar to Gullah (and its variant Geechee) spoken in South Carolina and Georgia.
The Creoles are primarily Christians. About 90% of the total Krio population is Christian, while about 10% of the Krios are Muslim. The Krio Muslims are predominantly found in the Freetown suburb of Fourah Bay, and the Western Area city of Waterloo.
Like their Americo-Liberian neighbors, Creole have varying degrees of European ancestry because some of the African American and West Indian settlers were descended from white Americans and Europeans. There was also considerable intermarriage between the Europeans who settled in the colony of Sierra Leone and the various ethnic groups that coalesced into the Creole identity. Alongside the Americo-Liberians, they are the only recognised ethnic group of African American[3], Liberated African, and West Indian descent in West Africa.
Historically, Krio was the name for the language and Creole was the name for the people. In modern usage, the term Krio is generally used to refer to both the language and people, although the term Creole is still a popular term for the people. There are also Creole populations in Nigeria, the Gambia, and Fernando Po. The Saros in Nigeria, Fernandinos in Fernando Po, and the Aku in Gambia are descendants of Krio traders and colonial officials from Sierra Leone.
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Krio culture is unlike that of all other ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, and it is typical of Westernized cultures and ideals. The only Sierra Leonean ethnic group whose culture is similar (in terms of its embrace of Western culture) are the Sherbro people. Because many Sherbros interacted with Portuguese and English traders and even intermarried with them (producing Afro-European clans such as the Sherbro Tuckers and Sherbro Caulkers), like the Krios, the Sherbro have a more westernized culture than that of other Sierra Leone ethnic groups. The Creoles generally intermarried with their allies the Sherbros from as far back as the 18th century.
The Krios still observe traditional dating and marriage customs. Marriage is still viewed as a contract between two families. Relatives seek out prospective mates for their kin from desirable families. When a mate has been chosen, the groom's parents set a "put stop" day. After this day, the girl can no longer entertain other suitors. On the evening before the wedding, the groom's friends treat him to "bachelor's eve," a rowdy last fling before marriage.
Unlike the other ethnic group in Sierra Leone, Krios live in nuclear families (father, mother, and their children), but the extended family is important to them. Family members who do well are expected to help those who are less fortunate. They assist poorer relatives with school fees and job opportunities. Women typically shoulder the greatest domestic burdens. In most families, women care for the children, clean house, do the marketing, cook meals, wash dishes and clothes, and carry wood and water.
Historically Krio fashion consisted of a top hat and frock coat for men and a petticoat for women. Like their Americo-Liberian neighbors, Creole men were said to adhere to the "Religion of the Tall Hat and Frock Coat". Today, teenage fashion—jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers—are very much in style among young people. However, older Creoles still dress conservatively in Western-style suits and dresses.
Krios typically eat three meals a day, the largest in the morning or near midday. The noonday meal of some creoles is fufu, a dough-like paste made of cassava pounded into flour. Fufu is always eaten with a "palaver sauce" or plassas. This is a spicy dish consisting of leafy greens with tripe (sheep or goat stomach), fish, beef, salt pork, and chicken. A West African one-pot meal, jollof rice, is also popular. Other favorites include rice with various sauces, rice bread, and salad. Krios enjoy alcoholic drinks such as beer, gin, and palm wine.
Krios practice certain African rituals in connection with rites of passage. One such ceremony is the awujoh feast, intended to win the protection of ancestral spirits. Awujoh feasts are held for newborns and newlyweds, and on other occasions.
When someone dies, pictures in the house are turned toward the wall. At the wake held before the burial, people clap loudly to make sure the corpse is not merely in a trance. The next day the body is washed, placed in shrouds (burial cloths), and laid on a bed for a final viewing. Then it is placed in a coffin and taken to the church for the service, and lastly to the cemetery for burial.
The mourning period lasts one year. On the third, seventh, and fortieth day after death, awujoh feasts are held. The feast on the fortieth day marks the spirit's last day on earth. The family and guests eat a big meal. Portions of the meal are placed into a hole for the dead. The pull mohning day—the end of mourning—occurs at the end of one year. The mourners wear white, visit the cemetery, and then return home for refreshments.
Krios have inherited a wide range of tales from their ancestors. They entertain and provide instruction in Krio values and traditions. Among the best loved are stories about the spider. The following is a typical spider tale:
Once the spider was fat. He loved eating, but detested work and had not planted or fished all season. One day the villagers were preparing a feast. From his forest web, he could smell the mouth-watering cooking. He knew that if he visited friends, they would feed him as was the custom. So he called his two sons and told both of them to tie a rope around his waist and set off in opposite directions for the two closest villages, each holding one end of the rope. They were to pull on the rope when the food was ready. But both villages began eating at the same time, and when the sons began pulling the rope, it grew tighter and tighter, squeezing the greedy spider. When the feasting was over and the sons came to look for him, they found a big head, a big body, and a very thin waist!
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The first settlers to found a colony in Sierra Leone were the Black Poor (made up of African Americans and West Indians) and they numbered around 400[4] (Some of the Black Poor were Black Loyalists (who were African Americans) who went to England to petition for a land of their own, and at least half of the 400 Black Poor were African Americans). The journey from England killed many of them but enough survived to establish and build a colony. Seventy white women also came with the Black Poor to Sierra Leone and they were the black men's girlfriends, though they are traditionally depicted as prostitutes from Deptford. Their Colony was known as the 'Province of Freedom' and their settlement was called 'Granville Town' after the English abolitionist Granville Sharp. The land upon which their settlement rested was negotiated with a Temne chief, King Tom.
Although initially there was no hostility between the two groups, after King Tom's death the next Temne chief retaliated for a slave trader's burning his village. He threatened to destroy Granville Town. The Temne ransacked Granville Town and took some Black Poor into slavery, while others became slave traders. In early 1791 Alexander Falconbridge returned, to find only 64 of the original Black Poor (which consisted of 39 black men, 19 black women, and six white women). The 64 people had been cared for by a Greek and a colonist named Thomas Kallingree at Fourah Bay (an abandoned African village). There the settlers reestablished Granville Town. After that time, they were called the "Old Settlers". By this time the Province of Freedom had been destroyed; Granville Sharp did not lead the next settlement movement.
The directors of the Sierra Leone Colony believed that a new colony did not need Black settlers from London. Instead, the directors decided to bring African Americans from Nova Scotia, despite the failure of the last colony. These settlers were Black Loyalists, American slaves who had escaped to British lines and fought with them during the American Revolution, to earn freedom. The British transported more than 3,000 freedmen to Nova Scotia for resettlement, together with white Loyalists. Some of the former African Americans were from South Carolina and the Sea Islands, of the Gullah culture; others were from states along the eastern seaboard up to New England. They had a profound influence on Creole culture; much of the Western attributes of Creole society came from the "Settlers" In Sierra Leone they were called the Nova Scotians or "Settlers" (the 1787 Settlers were called the Old Settlers). They founded the capital of Sierra Leone in 1792. The descendants of African Americans remained an identifiable ethnic group until the 1870s, when the Creole identity was beginning to form.
The next arrivals were the Jamaican Maroons; these Maroons came specifically from Trelawny Town, one of the five Maroon cities in Jamaica. These runaway ex-slaves numbered around 551, and they helped quell some of the riots against the British from the Settlers. The Maroons fought against the Temne during the Temne Attack of 1801.[5].
The next migrations were smaller. West Indian soldiers from the 2nd and 4th West India Regiments settled in Freetown and in suburbs around it. Thirty-eight African Americans (consisting of nine families) immigrated to Freetown under the auspices of Paul Cuffe of Boston. Black Americans immigrating to Freetown, included Perry Lockes and Prince Saunders from Boston, Abraham Thompson and Peter Williams from New York[6], and Edward Jones from Charleston.
The last and major group of immigrants to the colony were the Liberated Africans.[7] Having been captured and put aboard slave ships for sale in the western hemisphere, they were liberated by the British Navy, which enforced the abolition of the international slave trade after 1808. The Liberated Africans, also called Recaptives, contributed greatly to the Creole culture. While the Settlers, Maroons, and transatlantic immigrants gave the Creoles their Christianity, some of their customs, and their Western influence; the Liberated Africans modified their customs and culture to that of the Nova Scotians and Europeans, yet kept some of their ethnic traditions.[8] Initially the British intervened to ensure the recaptives became firmly rooted in Freetown society; they served in the army with the West India Regiment, and they were assigned as apprentices in the houses of Settlers and Maroons, as well. Sometimes if a recaptive's parents died, they would be adopted by a Settler or Maroon family. The two groups mixed and mingled in society.[9] As the recaptives began to trade and spread Christianity throughout West Africa, they began to dominate Freetown society. Soon the Settler and Maroon society began to collapse. The recaptives began to intermarry with the Settlers and Maroons, and the two groups became a fusion of African and Western society.[10]
Creole families typically live in two-story wooden houses reminiscent of those found in the West Indies or Louisiana. This style of housing was brought by the "Settlers" from Nova Scotia, and as early as the 1790s, the Nova Scotians had built houses with stone foundations with wooden superstructures, and American-style shingle roofs. Despite their dilapidated appearance, Creole houses have a distinctive air, with dormers, box windows, shutters, glass panes, and balconies. The elite live in attractive neighborhoods like Hill Station, above Freetown. A large dam in the mountains provides a reliable supply of water and electricity to this area.
The Creole homeland is a mountainous, narrow peninsula on the coast of west Africa. The whole of Sierra Leone covers some 72,500 square kilometres. At its northern tip lies Freetown, the capital. The peninsula's mountain range is covered by tropical rain forests split by deep valleys and adorned with impressive waterfalls. White sand beaches line the Atlantic coast.
As a result of normal immigration patterns, the Sierra Leone Civil War, and some discrimination at home, many Krios live abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom. What has been called the 'Creole Diaspora' is the migration of Krios abroad. Many Krios attend formal and informal gatherings. A Krio Heritage Society is based in New York City, with branches in places like Texas. Historically, Creoles spread Christianity and their lingua franca throughout West Africa, and because of this, Creole communities exist in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia. Many Creoles traded throughout West Africa, and some settled in new countries. Krios who settled in Nigeria were known as Saros, and there is a thriving community there. Creoles who settled in the Gambia are known as the 'Aku'; they make up an elite community in Gambia. Many recaptives returned to their original homes after being freed in Freetown. As most kept their Anglo names, they took partially new identities back to their homelands.
The average creole has a mixed heritage of Liberated African, West Indian, African American, and Black Nova Scotian descent. A number of Americo-Liberians also immigrated to Sierra Leone and their descendants were known as Creoles. Also some Creoles immigrated to Liberia, and their descendants became known as Americo-Liberians such as the Case of Charles D.B. King.
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