Gambian Creole people

Aku
Total population
	1-2% of The Gambia's population
Languages
	Aku (a dialect of Krio), English
Religion
	Christianity
Related ethnic groups
	Americo Liberian, African American, Black British, Gold Coast Euro-Africans, Sierra Leone Creoles, West Indian

The Gambian Creole people, or Krio or Aku, are a minority ethnic group of Gambia with connections to and some roots from the Sierra Leone Creole people. In Gambia the Aku account for about 2% of the population. Some estimates put the figure higher.

Origins

Gambian Creoles are the descendants of Sierra Leone Liberated Africans, Sierra Leoneans of Nova Scotian and Maroon descent, transatlantic immigrants to the Gambia, and liberated Africans released in the Gambia directly.

Gambian Creoles are partly an extension of the Sierra Leone Creole community, and some Gambian Creoles have roots in the West Indies, North America, England, and the various African communities. Some Gambian Creoles also have some European heritage through intermarriage and through their connections to Sierra Leone Creoles who settled in the Gambia between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Language

Many Gambian Creoles speak the Aku, an English-based creole language similar to the Krio language of Sierra Leone.

Aku Marabouts

In Sierra Leone, the terms 'Oku' or 'Aku Marabouts' or the 'Aku Mohammedans' refers to the Oku people, while in the Gambia, the term Aku refers to the Creole population not the Oku people. In the Gambia, "Aku Marabout" or Oku Marabout is the term used for the Oku people while Gambian Creoles or Akus in and around Banjul are Christian.

Sources

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