The official language spoken in Sierra Leone is English, but many people speak Krio as well. Some Krio words are used in the story, being italicized and some of their definitions provided on the bottom of each page.
Here are several Krio terms:
Crapes - Sneakers
Nya Nje - My Mother
Nya Keke - My Father
Kamor - Teacher. People refer to Ishmael's Grandfather as Kamor
Ngor - A title to show respect to adults before their first names.
Palampo - Single
Wahlee - Area outside a city, where coffee and other crops are processed.
Waleh - Slate on which a special Arabic prayer is written on with ink made from medicine.
Nessie - Holy water used to wash off the ink from the waleh, and put into a bottle. Waleh and Nessie are used by Ishmael's grandfather to make a medicine.
Soukous - A style of music originating in Congo.
Gari - A type of flour made from mashed cassava root.
Leweh - A type of rice paste.
Tafe - Marijuana
Brown-Brown - A drug fed to the child soldiers, which is a mix of
Kalo kalo - A tactic used by the army, where one solder "hit and runs" and another kills the people
Poda podas - Vehicles
Leones - The currency of Sierra Leone
Temne, Mende and Sherbro are three ethnic groups found in Sierre Leone. The Krio or Creole people are descendants of slaves from the Americas, their language is widely spoken in Sierre Leone, despite only being 5% of the population.
Upline - Used especially in Freetown to refer to the people of the inner country and their lifestyles.
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