During British rule, the colonial government officially recognized various Oku neighborhoods as historical communities in Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone the neighborhoods belonging to the Oku people are Fula Town, Fourah Bay, and some parts of Aberdeen Village (which has other areas occupied by Creoles).

[1] The Yoruba Muslim elements among the general Liberated African population, formed a distinctive community and as early as the 1840s, there were references in documents and journals.

Prominent Oku families include the Dahniya, Zubairu, Mahdi, Iscandari, Aziz, Mustapha, Rashid, Abdullah, Ibrahim, Lewally, Bassir, Deen, Tejan, Savage, Alghali, and some adopted Oku families acquired Creole surnames such as Cole, Williams, Carew, Gerber, Spilsbury, and Joaque.

Several scholars such as Ramatoulie Onikepo Othman and Olumbe Bassir classify the Oku people as distinct from the Creoles because of their ancestry and strong Muslim culture.

[5] More recently, some scholars consider the Oku people to be a sub-ethnic group of the Creoles, based on their close association with British colonists and their adoption of Western education and other aspects of culture.