TheKrios.com is dedicated to the history, language and traditions of Krios. Krios can be found mainly in Sierra Leone, Nigeria – where they are known as Saros and the Gambia – where they are called Akus.
The Krios of Sierra Leone are descendants of freed slaves, who settled in Freetown and it’s surroundings between 1787 and 1885. Freetown, Sierra Leone stands out as a ‘Province of Freedom in Africa’ founded for the resettlement of freed slaves. The first settlement of slaves arrived by ship from Portsmouth in 1787 and established Granville Town (now Freetown) named after Granville Sharp who together with William Wilberforce , had devoted his life to abolishing the slave trade in England. This first settlement of 411 included freed slaves (the ‘Black Poor’) as well as a dozen or so White women who signed on at Portsmouth!
Further settlers included freed slaves from America (the ‘Nova Scotians’) orchestrated with the help of the freed slave Thomas Peters, Jamaica (the ‘Maroons’) and those slaves that were liberated at sea from ships intent on carrying them to slavery in Europe and the America’s (the ‘Recaptives’ or ‘Liberated Africans’. This latter group of settlers came from all down the coast of Africa and included people from Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon etc. The descendants of these four group of settlers (i.e. the Black Poor, the Nova Scotians, the Liberated Africans and the Maroons) make up the unique ethnic group known as the Krios of Sierra Leone.
The Akus of the Gambia are former slaves and recaptured slaves transferred to the Gambia by the British around the 1830s.
Some freed slaves migrated to Nigeria in the 1830s and they formed the nucleus of the Saros.