Krio Salad

Daphne Pratt presents a medley of Krio folktales, original poems, proverbs and other features of the language, as well as a teaching manual on how to read and write Sierra Leone Krio. From the last quarter of the 18th century, for about 150 years, Krio was mostly only a spoken language, and when attempts were made at writing it, there was no standardised orthography, so writers wrote it differently, each one making up his or her own method. However, since 1984, there has been a standardised Krio orthography recognised and recommended by Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Education. A Krio-English dictionary compiled by Clifford N. Fyle and Eldred D. Jones was published by the Oxford University Press in 1980. The new testament of the Bible had been published in the 1980’s, and the complete Bible in Krio was published in 2013. Krio has been taught in all government secondary schools since 1996 when the Lekon secondary text books in Krio were published. The Krio dictionary, the Krio text books used in schools, and the Krio Bible are all written in the standardised Krio approved by the Ministry of Education. A guide to reading and writing Krio is included in this publication for those who already understand and speak Krio fairly well, but are not confident in reading or writing the standardised Krio. It is hoped that all who wish to write Krio, will learn and strive to use the approved standardised Krio, to maintain the uniformity which prevails in written languages.