NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE SIERRA LEONE KRIO - PRESENTATION COPY

The ex-slave, Krio population of Freetown, Sierra Leone – an amalgam of ethnicities drawn from several parts of the African continent – is a fascinating study in hybridity, creolization, European cultural penetration, the retention of African cultural values, and the interface between New World returnees and autochthonous populations of West Africa. Although its Nigerian connections are often acknowledged, insufficient attention has been paid to the indigenous Sierra Leonean roots of this community. This anthology addresses this problem, while celebrating the complexities of Krio identity and Krio interaction with other ethnic groups and nationalities in the British colonial experience.

The Editors: Mac Dixon-Fyle received his Ph.D. in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. He has published articles on the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia/Zambia and is the author of A Saro Community in the Niger Delta, 1912-1984: The Potts-Johnsons of Port Harcourt and Their Heirs and co-author of Sierra Leone at the End of the Twentieth Century: History, Politics, and Society (Peter Lang, 1999). He is Professor of History at DePauw University in Indiana.
Gibril Cole received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches African history. He is also Visiting Associate Professor of History at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. Cole has also taught at the University of California, San Diego, San Diego State University, and California State University, Long Beach. His research interests include the development of Krio society and the Krio diaspora, and the role of Muslims in the making of the Atlantic world.