Samuel
Ajayi Crowther
Samuel
Ajayi Crowther
(c. 1809–31 December 1891) was a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun (in what
is now Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria), Crowther was a Yoruba who also identified with
Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group.
Biography
Ajayi
was 12 years old when he was captured, along with his mother and toddler
brother and other family members, along with his entire village, by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. However, before his
slave-ship left port, it was boarded by a British Royal
Navy
ship under the command of Captain
Henry Leeke,
and Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was released.
Ajayi's mother was a descendant of King Abiodun.[2] [3]
While
in Sierra Leone Crowther was cared for by the Anglican Church
Missionary Society
and was taught English. He converted to Christianity. On the 11th of December
1825 he had a rebirth by baptism and he named himself after the vicar of Christ
Church, Newgate,
London - Samuel Crowther, who was one of the pioneers of the CMS.[1] Ajayi was
baptized by John Raban.
While
in Freetown, Crowther became interested in languages. In 1826 he was taken to England to attend St
Mary's Church in
Islington and the church's school. He returned to Freetown in 1827 and
attended, as the first student,[4] the newly opened Fourah
Bay College,
an Anglican missionary school, where
his interest in language found him studying Latin and Greek but also Temne. After completing his
studies he began teaching at the school.
He
married a schoolmistress, Asano (i.e. Hassana; she was formerly Muslim),
baptised Susan. She was also rescued from the Portuguese slave ship that originally brought
Crowther to Sierra Leone, and had also converted to Christianity. Their several
children included Dandeson
Coates Crowther,[5]
archdeacon of the Niger Delta.[6] Crowther was father-in-law
to Thomas Babington Macaulay, a junior associate, who
married Crowther's 2nd daughter (Abigail Crowther).[7] Crowther's
grandson Herbert
Macaulay (Thomas Babington Macaulay and Abigail Crowther's
son) became one of the first Nigerian
nationalists
and played an important role in ending British colonial rule in Nigeria.
Crowther
was also a close associate and friend of Captain James
Pinson Labulo Davies,
an influential politician, mariner, philanthropist and industrialist in
colonial Lagos.[8] Both men collaborated on a couple of Lagos social
initiatives such as the opening of The Academy (a social and cultural center
for public enlightenment) on October 24, 1866 with Crowther as the 1st patron
and Captain J.P.L Davies as 1st president.[9]
Mission
Crowther
was selected to accompany the missionary James Schön on the Niger
expedition of 1841.[10]
Together with Schön, he was expected to learn Hausa for use on the expedition.
The goal of the expedition was to spread commerce, teach agricultural
techniques, spread Christianity, and help end the slave trade. Following the
expedition, Crowther was recalled to England, where he was trained as a
minister and ordained by the Bishop
of London.
This after Schön had written to the Church Missionary Society noting Crowther's
usefulness and ability on the expedition, recommending them to prepare him for ordination.[11] He returned
to Africa in 1843 and with Henry
Townsend,
opened a mission in Abeokuta, in today's Ogun State, Nigeria.[5]
Crowther
began translating the Bible into the Yoruba
language
and compiling a Yoruba dictionary. In 1843, a grammar book which he started
working on during the Niger expedition was published; and a Yoruba version of
the Anglican Book
of Common Prayer
followed later. Crowther also compiled A vocabulary of the Yoruba language,[12]
including a large number of local proverbs, published in London in
1852. He also began codifying other languages. Following the British Niger
Expeditions of 1854 and 1857, Crowther produced a primer for the Igbo language in 1857, another for the Nupe language in 1860, and a full
grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864.
Merits
In
1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church;
he was consecrated a bishop on St Peter's day 1864, by Charles
Longley, Archbishop
of Canterbury at
Canterbury
Cathedral.[13]
He later received the degree of Doctor
of Divinity
from the University
of Oxford.[14]
Crowther
was on the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean west
of Morocco for a conference. He was accompanied by his son, Dandeson, an
archdeacon, on church business in March 1881.
Crowther's
attention was directed more and more to languages other than Yoruba, but he
continued to supervise the translation of the Yoruba Bible (Bibeli Mimọ),[15]
which was completed in the mid-1880s, a few years before his death.
Crowther
is celebrated with a feast on the liturgical calendar of some Anglican
churches, including the Episcopal Church (United States) and the Church
of Nigeria,
on December 31.
Death,
Burial, and Exhumation/Reburial
Crowther
died of a stroke, in Lagos, on 31 December 1891[5]
[16] and was buried at Ajele
Cemetery in
Lagos. In 1971 the Lagos
State Government
under Mobolaji
Johnson
desired to use the site of Ajele
Cemetery
for new government offices and issued notices to families of the deceased. Seth
Kale, Anglican Bishop of Lagos, representing the Anglican community[17] and
Crowther's family delayed exhumation and reburial until 1976 when an elaborate
ceremony was held at a new burial site along with a cenotaph at Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.[18]
See
also
References
- DACB.
- Jacob Oluwatayo Adeuyan (2011). The Journey of the First Black Bishop: Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther 1806-1891. AuthorHouse. p. 70. ISBN 9781463407322.
- Toyin Falola; Aribidesi Adisa Usman (2009). Movements, Borders and Identities in Africa (Volume 40 of Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora). University Rochester Press. p. 67. ISBN 9781580462969. ISSN 1092-5228.
- Herskovits Kopytoff, Jean. A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The "Sierra Leonians" in Yoruba, 1830-1890. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 35.
- Buckland 1901.
- Ecclesiastical Intelligence The Times (London, England), Tuesday, Jan 27, 1891; pg. 12; Issue 33232
- "Macaulay, Thomas Babington 1826 to 1878 Anglican Nigeria". Dictionary for African Christian Biography. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
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