On 23 February 2023, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, awarded nearly £500,000 to support 28 projects across the capital as part of ‘Untold Stories’, a £1m fund to help communities test, develop, create and grow projects that share their community’s stories with the city.
The fund is part of the Mayor’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, which champions diversity in the capital’s public spaces and works towards London’s landmarks and monuments reflecting the achievements of all who have contributed to the success of our city. The grants offer Londoners the opportunity to develop ideas and share their stories which will be represented within the public realm.
The Krio Descendants Union United Kingdom & Ireland (KDU-UKI) were amongst the organisations funded for a ‘test and nurture’ grant. Our project entitled ‘Untold Stories of London’s Unique, Historical Links to the Krio People of Sierra Leone’ will see KDU-UKI conduct a consultation among the UK Krio Diaspora on how they wish the story of ‘Krios’ to be represented, most likely as a public mural for which KDU-UKI will need to seek additional funding.
Who are the ‘Krios’?
The ‘Krios’ are the descendants of various African-American, African and Caribbean previously enslaved and free peoples who British abolitionists such as William Wilberforce and Granville Sharp resettled in the modern day West African country of Sierra Leone from 1787 onwards, in what they called the ‘Province of Freedom’.
The Krio story is a unique one as it’s not just of Sierra Leone but of other African countries: Nigeria (particularly as the majority of those resettled were Yoruba and Igbo), Ghana, Gambia, Cameroon, Congo, as well as Jamaica, the United States, Britain and Canada. This melting pot of different cultures is reflected in the Krio language, lifestyle, architecture, dress and traditions that evolved in the settlement subsequently called ‘Freetown’. Notable historic Krios include Bishop Adjayi Crowther (first West African Anglican bishop and who also translated the Bible into Yoruba), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (famous composer and conductor), Dr Africanus Horton (graduate of London King’s College and first African graduate of Edinburgh University, who first wrote about sickle cell in 1874 long before it’s Western ‘discovery’ in 1910), Lati Hyde-Forster (first West African female graduate) and Dr Irene Ighodaro, (first Sierra Leonean woman to qualify as a medical doctor in the UK).
The Project and its Launch
Our project -‘Untold Stories of London’s Unique, Historical Links to the Krio People of Sierra Leone’ – will through a series of consultation workshops with the UK Krio Diaspora and other stakeholders, gather ideas on how we can tell the inspiring story of the Krio presence in the UK, particularly London. The current proposal is for a mural tracing the timeline from the abolition of slavery and the ‘Black Poor’ of London who were shipped to a ‘Province of Freedom’ in Sierra Leone, to Krio descendants who made (and are still making) significant positive impact in Sierra Leone, other West African countries and London. This mural will be both in the public realm and online, creating a long term legacy of Krios in London.
On Friday, 21st April 2023, KDU-UKI hosted a successful online launch of the project attended by 148 people. The majority were from UK but some participants also joined from Gambia, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and the USA. The interesting launch programme included an introduction to KDU-UKI by the organisation’s president Ellen Samuels, followed by presentations on ‘The Krios of Sierra Leone’ (Iyamide Thomas) an overview of the Untold Stories Programme (Kayode Robbin-Coker), an overview of the KDU-UKI Untold Stories project (Khadiru Mahdi). Krio descendants Eddy Smythe and Patrice Wellesley-Cole spoke respectively of their ‘Notable Krio’ ancestors – John Henry Smythe (Pilot Navigator in the Royal Air Force who fought for Britain in the Second World War), Dr. Robert Wellesley-Cole (first Black African elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and famous author of ‘Kossoh Town Boy’) and his sister Dr. Irene Ighodaro (nee Wellesley-Cole). The programme also included two relevant poems by Krio descendants: ‘I am the Black Poor’ by Joe Faulkner and ‘A Lesson in Black History’ by Toyah Demi Panton.
Feedback on the event was good:
“Very good presentations. My daughter who doesn’t usually engage on Zoom found it very interesting.”
“Friday was super. Can’t wait for the next one!”
“It’s a really exciting project that will definitely benefit generations of Krios, so thank-you for spearheading the initiative on our behalf.”
Much interest has been shown in the project and the next stage will be to start consulting the UK Diaspora in several workshops, starting from June. You can watch the launch event here: https://tinyurl.com/ntvfxvcn
Who are Krio Descendants Union United Kingdom & Ireland?
The Krio Descendants Union-United Kingdom & Ireland (KDU-UK&I) is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO number 1189037) which was formed in 2019 by Krios in the United Kingdom who had a desire to establish a member-led, non-profit organization that would promote Krio heritage, culture and legacy and show the unique links to British history.
One current goal of the organization is to support (through fundraising) the work of the parent body “Krio Disendant Yunion (KDY) Fritoŋ” with particular regard to the construction in Freetown of a Krio Museum and Cultural Centre.
Thanks to the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm for giving us the chance to tell our untold Krio stories which are so uniquely linked to British history!
Some Useful Websites
www.kdu-uk.org
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/meet-krios-sierra-leone-docklands
https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/city-hall-blog/doing-clapham-walk
https://www.london.gov.uk/untoldstories
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