The Aku or Krio or Creole are a minority ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 of Gambia with roots among the Sierra Leone Creole. In Sierra Leone, Muslim Creoles are known as Akus (Aku Muslims) or Marabouts, while in the Gambia, the term Aku refers to the entire Creole population. In the Gambia, 'Aku Marabout' is the term used for Muslim Creoles

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 although many Aku Krio in and around Banjul are Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

.

In Gambia the Akus account for about 1% of the population. Some estimates put the figure higher. Gambian Akus are descendants of Sierra Leone Liberated Africans

Sierra Leone Liberated Africans

The Sierra Leone Liberated Africans were slaves freed by the British Royal Navy from slave ships on the high seas and brought to Freetown, now Sierra Leone's capital city. The Sierra Leone Creole Settlers and West Indian immigrants called the liberated Africans "Willyfoss niggers"....

, Settlers, transatlantic immigrants to the Gambia, and liberated Africans dropped off in the Gambia. Gambian Krios are an extension of the Freetown community of Creoles, and they have roots in the West Indies, North America, England, and the various African communities of Liberated African slaves. Gambian Akus also have some European heritage through intermarriage and through their connections to Freetown Creoles.
Many speak Aku

Aku language

Aku is a variety of Sierra Leone Krio, an English-based Creole language of Western Africa. Aku is spoken primarily in Gambia, mainly by the Aku people, who are descendants of the Sierra Leone Creole people. In many ways the Akus are an extension of the Sierra Leone Creole community....

, an English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-based creole language

Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

 similar to the Krio language

Krio language

Sierra Leone Krio is the lingua franca and the de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 97% of Sierra Leone's population and unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each...

of Sierra Leone.

Sources

• http://today.gm/hi/arts/the_aku.html
• http://www.accessgambia.com/information/aku.html