The Gambian Creole people, or Krio or Aku, are a minority
ethnic group of
Gambia with connections to and roots from the
Sierra Leone Creole people.[1][2] In Gambia the Aku account for about 2% of the population. Some estimates put the figure higher. However, according to the 2013 Gambian Census, the Aku make up 0.5% of the population or around 8,477 people.[3]
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 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.[2]
In Sierra Leone, the term 'Aku Marabout' or 'Aku Mohammedan' refers to the
Oku people, while in the Gambia, the term 'Aku' refers to the Creole people,[6] who are
Christians residing mainly in and around
Banjul.[2] The Aku Marabout people of the Gambia are a non-Creole migrant community descended from the Oku people of Sierra Leone.[7][8]
This article's list of people may not follow Wikipedia's
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^Bassir, Olumbe (July 1954). "Marriage Rites among the Aku (Yoruba) of Freetown". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. 24 (3): 251–256.
doi:
10.2307/1156429.
JSTOR1156429.
S2CID144809053.