# Krio movements  
Whether as a political project or a historiographical category, the stability of Creole unity in Sierra Leone could not last. The first settlers were Wilberforceworthy 'Africans'; they signed their petitions 'free British subject', 'American' or 'Nova Scotia Black'. It was the British Parliament which, in 1853, granting the status of British subjects to the liberated, encouraged all the residents of the peninsula who identified as being of non-local African descent to regroup. The name of Creole spread, with positive connotations (Africanus Horton) or negative connotations (Edward Wilmot Blyden), and with people labelled in the press as '(real) Sierra Leoneans', 'colony-born, (peninsula) natives', then  
[^0]
[^0]:    6 Chapter by Cole.
7 Chapter by Cole.
8 Chapter by Cole.
9 Chapter by Blyden.  
'non-natives' from 1898. This census category appeared for the last time in 1921 and was replaced in 1931 by 'colony Africans'. ${ }^{10}$  
Independence, however, brought about the need for a new policy for representation of the populations making up the nation (Ojukutu-Macauley and Rashid, 2013, p. 205). ${ }^{11}$ It is the historian Akintola Wyse who first worked towards the re-Africanization of the Krios, highlighting their contributions to and rights in the region. The neologism 'Krio' did indeed replace 'Creole' (Wyse, 1989, pp. 6-7) and the harmful westernization of the group was minimized (Alie, 1990, p. 78) or presented as emblematic of the post-colonial condition. For 'Kriodom', 1870 remained a pivotal date with the end of the mass arrivals of Yoruba, whose language, secret societies such as the Oje, and even urbanism would have transformed the Sierra Leonean culture. As many of these liberated Yoruba were Muslim ${ }^{12}$ (the Aku), the Christian identity associated with the Creoles was challenged (Dixon-Fyle and Cole, 2006, p. 224). ${ }^{13}$