Oku people (Sierra Leone)
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 25,000 (0.5% of population) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Sierra Leone, Gambia, United States, United Kingdom | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Muslim (90%), Christian (10%) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sierra Leone Creole people, Fula people, Mandinka people, Mende people, Yoruba people |
| Part of a series on |
| Yoruba people |
|---|
 |
| Subgroups |
| Religion |
Social / Communal concepts:
|
| Politics/History |
|
Timeline : History of the Yoruba people Titles (Oyè): Olorì · Òjoyè · Baálẹ̀ · Ọmọba · Ọlọ́jà · Ìyálóde · Olú-awo · Olótu · Baṣọ̀run |
| Diaspora |
|
| Festivals and events |
|
West Africa:
Diaspora:
|
| Geography |
| Yorubaland |
| Notable personalities |
| List of Yoruba people |
| Performing Arts |
|
Contemporary: Folk/Traditional: |
The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia. They are the descendants of educated and liberated communities of Torodbe from the Western Sudan, including Hausa, Yoruba, Mandinka and Fulani people from the Sahel. They relocate to Senegambia and Sierra Leone and were responsible for educating people at the Fourah Bay College. They also traded with the Arab and British people of Sierra Leone. Their ideologies was brought by teachings from the Maghreb and people such as Samori Ture, Thomas Peters[disambiguation needed], John Henry Malamah Thomas, John Ezzidio and other educated men who lived in West Africa. A large number of Oku people follow practices of the Maliki jurisprudence throughout West Africa. There are Oku families through intemarriage with Maroons and Creole people who practice Christianity. The older 'Akus' of Yorubaland were born of recaptives from the explicit Atlantic slave trade and became successful in creating Hastings, Maroon Town, and Wellington communties; economic zones for the Freetown colony. According to British documents from the 16th and 17th century the popular imprisonment of men from local tribes was common with the export of timber, palm oil, and bauxite which are all goods sought after at the time of colonialism. Most of these goods arrived from the provinces and affluent communities of Aku were able to trade throughout North and West Africa. These businessmen and women included the Mende, Fulani, Mandinka, Susu people, Temne and Tuareg. When Sierra Leone was an establish colony these local tribes assimilated with Creoles in the mid-19th century at least 150 years before the Sierra Leonean Civil War. The Oku people have intermarried since then to include many British and Arab people. Also belonging to the Oku culture are descendants of former slaves from Brazil and Southeast Asia traded at Gorée and Bunce Island. As a result many of the people in Sierra Leone have linkages to Mauritania, Brazil ,Egypt and Malaysia. Liberated populations from the Atlantic slave trade traversed from the Gulf of Guinea to the Mediterranean as the British Navy were capable of reducing the slave ships belonging to French traders, while Portuguese and Dutch traders later acknowledged a ceasefire marked above the equator. Still naval battles and piracy were evident in the 19th century such as La Amistad.
The Oku people primarily reside in the communities of Fourah Bay or Aberdeen as well as Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey of the United States. There is also a community in the United Kingdom. The official cemetery of Oku People from Fourah Bay is the Aku Mohammedan Cemetery on Kennedy Street as well as Circular Road Cemetery of Magazine. About 90% of the Oku are Muslim. The minority are Christian. They are known for their inquisitive nature, adventurous spirit, and valuable tradition primarily influenced by marabout and tariqah, and to a lesser extent griot folklore. They have not practiced Sub-Saharan passages such as cliterodotomy since the late-19th century. A large number of them embraced Western education and other elements of Western culture prior to the Sierra Leone Civil War. The Oku people were able to translate ideologies recorded in Ajami script that spread throughout the Sahel in the 11th-century. The Atiq Mosque is the central mosque of the Fourah Bay Community, similar to the Conakry Grand Mosque and The Great Mosque of Touba.
During British rule, the colonial government officially recognized various Creole neighborhoods as historical communities in Sierra Leone. During the 20th-century a railway system provided agriculture and consumer goods to a newly independent Freetown. Since independence the national Sierra Leonean government has classified the Oku people as non-native 'Creoles'. Their nation's economy is developing with assistance from the European Union and the African Union. Newer relationships with the government of Korea and Kuwait, specifically various infrastructure supplied to the capital and different provinces. These alliances are providing employment and education while creating opportunities for the growing number of young people.
The Oku people have an extensive diaspora with Oku communities established in The Gambia and in Sierra Leone. The Oku people in Sierra Leone reside mainly in the capital cities of Freetown while the latter are in Banjul. In Sierra Leone the neighborhoods belonging to the Oku People are Aberdeen Village and Fourah Bay. Oku people have English, Arabic, and Nigerian names.
Origin[]
The Oku people are descended mainly from Liberated Africans who were resettled in Sierra Leone during the nineteenth century. These Liberated Africans formed a distinctive community that was settled at Aberdeen village, Fourah Bay, and . As early as the 1840s, there were references to them in documents to 'Aku Mohammedans.'
Prominent Oku families include the Dahniya, Zubairu, Mahdi, Iscandari, Aziz, Mustapha, Rashid, Abdullah, Lawal, Bassir, Deen, Tejan, Othman families. Some Oku Liberated Africans also adopted European surnames such as Savage, Cole, Williams, Carew, Garber, Spilsbury, and Joaque.
Culture[]
The Oku people have a distinctive culture that has strong similarities to that of larger communities of Muslim who adhere to Ajami script. The Oku often have English or Arabic names. Some Oku people later adopted the names of prominent benefactors such as Carew, in addition to Nigerian names, which they thought aided admission into the missionary schools founded by Fula and Mandinka people in Freetown. These schools were built as a result of trade with Portuguese and Temne people. While some elder members of the Oku community continue to speak a traditional language, the majority speak the Krio or English language.
Relationship with the Sierra Leone Creole people[]
Several scholars such as Ramatoulie Onikepo Othman and Olumbe Bassir classify the Oku as distinct from the Creoles because of their ancestry and strong Muslim culture.
In contrast to the Oku people, the Creoles or Krio are Christian and are a mixture of various ethnic groups including African Americans, Caribbeans, and Liberated Africans of Igbo, Fanti, Aja, Nupe, Bacongo, and Yoruba descent in addition to other African ethnic groups and European ancestry. Furthermore, the Creoles also do not practice cliterodotomy, engage in the Bundu society, and are monogamous.[1]
Some scholars consider the Oku to be a sub-ethnic group of the Creoles or Krio, based on their close association with British colonists and their adoption of Western education and other aspects of culture.[2] Those classifying the Oku as part of the Sierra Leone Creole people note their adoption of similar English or European surnames and cultural aspects such as .
Community organisation[]
Oku communities in Sierra Leone are represented by an Alkadi, the community leader and Imam.
Cultural associations[]
The Oku people are represented by cultural associations such as the Ebilleh Cultural Organization. It aims to preserve and enhance Oku Muslim cultural heritage in Sierra Leone and abroad.
Notable Oku in or from Sierra Leone[]
- Olumbe Bassir, scientist
- Ahmed Deen, footballer
- Bill Hamid, footballer
- Isha Johansen (neé Savage), president of Sierra Leonean Football Association
- Haja Afsatu Kabba (neé Savage), politician
- Michael Lahoud, footballer
- Nemata Majeks-Walker (neé Mahdi), women's activist
- Ramatoulie Othman, writer
- Umaru Rahman, footballer
- Mohamed Sanusi Tejan, Muslim scholar
- Madieu Williams, professional football athlete
- Gibril Wilson, professional football athlete
References[]
- ^ 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. JSTOR 1156429.
- ^ Cole, Gibril R. (15 September 2013). The Krio of West Africa: Islam, Culture, Creolization, and Colonialism in ... ISBN 9780821444788. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- Oku people
- Ethnic groups in Sierra Leone
- Ethnic groups in the Gambia
- Sierra Leonean people of Yoruba descent
- Sierra Leonean people
- Gambian people