Saint John Maroon Church

The Krio people of Sierra

Leone are an ethnic group descended from liberated English enslaved peoples and free Blacks who settled in the country.

One ethnic group responsible for cultural creations in Krio society were the Maroons. Maroons were descendants of the Kingdom of Ashanti peoples and were enslaved in

Jamaica.

Many escaped the plantations and rioted against the British. They were deported first to

Nova Scotia

, then onto Sierra Leone where they rapidly became an influential group in politics and economics.

Maroons built one of the first and most iconic Krio cultural heritage sites in the country, the Saint John Maroon Church. The church was built in 1822 and is one of the first significant examples of Krio contribution to the new city of Freetown.

Saint John Maroon Church is a small, humble white building. Part of the timbers and two of the surviving pews were taken from ships that brought Maroons to Sierra Leone.