Sierra Leone Krio - by Selase W Williams & Tom Spencer-Walters (Paperback)

About the Book

This book fills the void in the literature about the Sierra Leone Krio people by delineating the connective tissue between their history, language, culture, traditions, and contemporary poetry. This work demonstrates how deeply rooted Krio is in West African behaviors, practic...

Book Synopsis

This book offers a comprehensive, holistic, and systematic description and analysis of the language, culture, and traditions of the Sierra Leone Krio people. The authors bring significant new insights into the establishment of Krio society, a better understanding of the linguistic elements in the Krio language, and greater recognition, use, and role of oral traditions in the everyday lives of the people.
The authors celebrate Krio creativity as reflected in their fashion, music, and poetry. Featured here are some previously unpublished Krio poems, as well as Jamaican Patois poems that have been translated for the first time in Krio and English. These latter poems reveal the similarities in the themes, social commentary, and African continuities witnessed across the diaspora.
The authors provide concrete evidence that the underlying structure of Krio is based in languages belonging to the Kwa language family. Unique in their analysis of Krio language is the demonstration of substantive linguistic contributions from at least one indigenous local language, Temne, and opens up a whole new area for future research.

Review Quotes

"Inspired by a wide range of historical literature of the foundation of colonial Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Krio sheds new light on the diverse demographic ecology in which the language emerged. Underscoring the significance of substrate influence on its grammar, Selase W. Williams and Tom Spencer-Walters' interpretation of Krio's genesis is provocative, inviting the informed reader to find solid arguments if they should disagree. Their discussion is comprehensive, lucid, and engaging. This is a must-read for anybody working on the emergence of creoles." --Salikoko Mufwene, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, University of Chicago

Inspired by a wide range of historical literature of the foundation of colonial Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Krio sheds new light on the diverse demographic ecology in which the language emerged. Underscoring the significance of substrate influence on its grammar, Selase W. Williams and Tom Spencer-Walters' interpretation of Krio's genesis is provocative, inviting the informed reader to find solid arguments if they should disagree. Their discussion is comprehensive, lucid, and engaging. This is a must-read for anybody working on the emergence of creoles.

About the Author

Selase W. Williams was director of African American Studies at the University of Washington, where he taught Krio for a decade. He chaired the Pan African Studies Department at California State University, Northridge, while president of the National Council for Black Studies, and served as dean of Arts and Sciences at CSU Dominguez Hills before becoming provost at Southern Connecticut State and Lesley University.
Tom Spencer-Walters is professor emeritus and former chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) where he taught writing and African and Caribbean literatures. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa and a Visiting Professor at the University of Zimbabwe.