The Gambia
Creoles or Akus
Updated 8/4/2000
The Creoles or Akus – Liberated African Refugees
After the Abolishing of the Slave Trade in West Africa, many people came to St. Mary Island after 1830. They were mostly displaced people or refugees called "Liberated Africans".
These men, women and children were captured from the interior of West / Central Africa, and marched down to slave sea ports likeElmina near Cape Coast in Ghana West Africa.
When "Freed" from the slave ships carrying them across the Atlantic by ships of the British Navy, the usual practice was for these refugees to be delivered to the Governor of Sierra Leone to be disposed of.
The few healthy surviving ones were enlisted in the West India Regiments. Formed Black troops to defend the British protectorate in The Gambia and West Africa.
The rest were either apprenticed to merchants or settlers of Freetown Sierra Leone or to other villages along the River Gambia.
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