The Lost Yoruba Tribe of Sierra Leone and Gambia
The Yorubas do not need any introduction. They are one of the largest groups of ethnic Africans on the continent.
And for centuries, it is believed they lived in what is now Nigeria and Benin, where they had even founded great African empires.
In Nigeria alone, about 40 million Yoruba people are alive today.
And apart from the South West, Nigeria, the Yorubas come from places like the Igala tribes in southeast Benin. They are related to the Yoruba and are proudly the Ewe, Fon, and Egun.
Travel research shows that Yoruba has become scattered across the New World and the Mediterranean as well, particularly during the days of the institutionalized slave trade. Those of Yoruba ancestry can be found in Santa Lucia, Brazil, Cuba, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago, and even Sierra Leone. The more recent generations have freely moved to the United Kingdom and the United States since the 1970s.
This started In the 8th Century BCE, the Yoruba kingdom reigned in the Ile-Ife region located south of the Sub-Saharan Sahel. In the 11th Century, the Yoruba became a cultural entity in what is now Nigeria.
At that time, the Yoruba people already lived in fortresses with high walls, and had a population of 100,000, surpassing many other populated areas, though still not comparable to the most populated city in Africa today, which is Lagos, Nigeria with 20 million people.
The 12th Century Yoruba had advanced in art, and by the 14th Century had perfected their crafts in sculpture, weaving, and creating regalia. This age was the Golden Age of the Yoruba. Thus, the Oyo Yoruba empire was established from the 11th Century on, lasting into the 17th Century. In the 18th Century, the Egba people raised a covert resistance to the Oyo empire, and the 19th Century saw tribal alliances resisting the Oyo expansion.
The Yoruba is a major cultural presence in Nigeria and Benin, as well as much of Africa as a whole. They have also migrated into many parts of the world, and continued on to become famous citizens of those diverse foreign countries. These people have in fact often become international stars in their chosen fields.
The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia primarily the descendants of educated, liberated Yoruba Muslims from Southwest Nigeria, who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century. Some Oku historically have intermarried since then with the ethnic Creole people. The Creole were primarily descendants of African-American former slaves, as well as some from Jamaica, and slaves liberated from illegal slave trading in the 19th century. The Oku people primarily reside in the communities of Fourah Bay, Fula Town, and Aberdeen and the official cemetery primarily used by the Oku people is the Aku Mohammedan Cemetery.
Some 99% of the Oku are Muslim, following the Sunni tradition of Islam. They are known for their deeply conservative and distinctly Yoruba traditions including the acceptance of cliterodotomy and polygamy, but some of them have also embraced Western education and other elements of Western culture.
During their rule, the British colonial government provided official recognition to the Oku community as a distinctive community in Sierra Leone. But since independence, the national Sierra Leone government has officially classified the Oku people as non-native ‘Creoles’.
The Strong Connection Between Yorubas And Sierra Leone
The Oku people have an extensive diaspora with Oku communities being established in the Gambia and in Nigeria. The Oku people in Sierra Leone reside mainly in the capital Freetown, particularly in the neighborhoods of Aberdeen Village, Fourah Bay and Fula Town. Most Oku people have Islamic first names and surnames although some have English last names. Most Oku people also have Yoruba middle names.
The following are some of the most well-known Yorubas, and they arise from a number of different countries from around the world. Such notable people of Yoruba ancestry are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, DeLisha Milton-Jones, Hakeem Olajuwon, Safiya Songhai, and Adewale Ogunleye.
Cassandra Wilson, Femi Emiola, Glenda Hatchett, Nas, Wale,
Other talented Yoruba are Hope Adelaide Wilson, Adepero Oduye, David Oyelowo, Richard Ayoade, Adetomiwa Edun, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Donald Faison, Angélique Kidjo, Rockmond Dunbar, Brendon Ayanbadejo,
Jacob Taio Cruz, and Hakeem Kae-Kazim. These talented Yoruba people include among them British actors, Hollywood stars, rappers, singers, and National Basketball Association players, among other professions.
. Not many people are aware that there are living and thriving Yoruba cultures in the two West African countries of Sierra Leone and Gambia, that is apart from the well known Nigerian, Beninese and Togolese Yoruba communities.
This is a thread dedicated to The Yoruba and Creole (krio) peoples, majority of which are of Yoruba descent as well as their cultural practices in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Language, Music, Literature, E.tc.
There are an estimated 800,000 Krios in Sierra Leone, while in Gambia, the Akus make up another estimated 5% of the population and they are very very influential in both countries, and one thing that is quite known about Yorubas and Yoruba descended people is that the culture always follow them wherever they go regardless of location..
Some notable Sierra Leonean Creoles/Yorubas include:
Oloh Israel Olufemi Cole
Adetokumboh McCormack,
Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge
Abioseh Nicol
Ade Renner Thomas
Akiwande Josiah Lasite
Ogunlade Davidson
Rev. Victoria Gladys Abeoseh Wilson-Cole
Walter Balogun Nicol
Winstanley Bankole Johnson
Dr. John Augustus Abayomi-Cole – Medical doctor, politician
Herbert Bankole-Bright – Medical doctor and politician
Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge – Current speaker of parliament
David Omoshola Carew – Current Minister of Trade and Industry
Ogunlade Davidson – Current Minister of Energy and Power
Winstanley Bankole Johnson – Mayor of Freetown from 2004 to 2008
Abioseh Davidson Nicol – Author and diplomat
Ade Renner Thomas – Former Chief Justice of Sierra Leone
Source: www.rhino-news.com