 The Loko were among the slaves shipped to North America while slavery still existed.The Loko were one of the largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone during the colonial era, but their linguistic identity has declined since then, as many Loko children use Temne and Krio and those in the south use Mende in place of their language.The Loko and other Southwestern Mande groups are thought to have derived from the Mane, dispersing around 300 AD from around the region of present-day Mali.