Ethnic groups in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, membership of an ethnic group often overlaps with a shared religious identity.
Sierra Leone's former president Ernest Bai Koroma is the first ethnic Temne to be elected to the office.
[2] The Mende predominate in the Southern Province and Eastern Sierra Leone (with the exception of Kono District).
During Sierra Leone's colonial era thousands of Limbas migrated to the capital city of Freetown and its Western Area.
Many of the large shopping centers in Sierra Leone are owned and run by the Fula community.
Sierra Leone’s current Vice President, Dr. Juldeh Jalloh, is a Fula by tribe.
They are descendants of traders from Guinea who migrated to Sierra Leone during the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.
The Krio have traditionally dominated Sierra Leone's judiciary and Freetown's elected city council.
The Oku people primarily reside in the communities of Fourah Bay, Fula Town, and Aberdeen in Freetown.
The Kuranko are believed to have begun arriving in Sierra Leone from Guinea in about 1600 and settled in the north, particularly in Koinadugu District.
Sierra Leone current Finance Minister Kaifala Marah is an ethnic Kuranko.
The Yalunka, also spelled Jallonke, Yalonga, Djallonké, Djallonka or Dialonké, are a Mande people who have lived in the Djallon, a mountainous region in Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry West Africa over 520 years ago.
Manga Sewa was born in Falaba, Solima chiefdom, in the Northern Province of British Sierra Leone to Yalunka parents.
The Sherbro are virtually all Christians, and their paramount chiefs had a history of intermarriage with British colonists and traders.
The current president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio is an ethnic Sherbro.
A small number of Sierra Leoneans are of partial or full Lebanese ancestry, descendants of traders who first came to the nation in the 19th century.
