Fourah Bay College

Last updated
Fourah Bay College
FBC shield.svg
Type Public
EstablishedFebruary 18, 1827;197 years ago (1827-02-18)
Students3,465 total
Location,
8°28′37.9″N13°13′16.3″W / 8.477194°N 13.221194°W / 8.477194; -13.221194
CampusFreetown campus (urban)
LanguageEnglish
Affiliations University of Sierra Leone
Website fourahbaycollege.net

Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-level institution in Africa. It is a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone (USL) and was formerly affiliated with Durham University (1876–1967). [1]

Contents

History

Foundation

The college was established in February 1827 as an Anglican missionary school by the Church Missionary Society with support from Charles MacCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first student to be enrolled at Fourah Bay. [2] Fourah Bay College soon became a magnet for Sierra Leone Creoles and other Africans seeking higher education in British West Africa. These included Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ivorians and many more, especially in the fields of theology and education. It was the first western-style university in West Africa. Under colonialism, Freetown was known as the "Athens of Africa" due to the large number of excellent schools in Freetown and surrounding areas.

The first black principal of the university was an African-American missionary, Reverend Edward Jones from South Carolina, United States. Lamina Sankoh was a prominent early academic; Francis Heiser was principal from 1920 to 1922. Davidson Nicol was the first Sierra Leonean principal in 1966. In 1985 unrest broke out in Fourah Bay College following a purge of those suspected of militancy inspired by Gaddafi's Green Book, and retaliatory violence and arrests ensued. [3]

Old Fourah Bay College Building

SierraLeoneHofstra2.2.jpg
Fourah Bay College (Old building, 1930s)
Old building of Fourah Bay College. Cline Town, Freetown, Sierra Leone.jpg
The old building of Fourah Bay College

Governor William Fergusson laid the foundation stone of the original Fourah Bay College building when construction started in 1845, with construction supervised by Edward Jones, who became the institution's first principal. The original Fourah Bay College building remained in regular use until World War II when the college was temporarily moved outside Freetown. After the war it became the headquarters of Sierra Leone Government Railway and later as a Magistrate court. The building was proclaimed a National Monument in 1955. The building ceased to be in use in early 1990, and caught fire in 1999. [4]

Administration

Faculties

Institutes

Institute of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies

Institute of African Studies

Work began on the building of the Institute of African Studies in 1966 with half the £40,000 being provided by the UK Technical Assistance Programme. The first Director was Michael Crowder with J. G. Edowu-Hyde as secretary. The journal Sierra Leone Studies was also relaunched at this time. [5]

Institute of Marine Biology and Oceanography

Institute of Population Studies

Institute of Library, Information and Communication Studies

Students

As of 1998/1999, the student enrollment was around 2,000 in four faculties and five institutes. It had consistently expanded in the 10 previous years.

Notable alumni

See also Category:Fourah Bay College alumni

Related Research Articles

Lamina Sankoh, born Etheldred Nathaniel Jones, was a Sierra Leone Creole pre-independence politician, educator, banker and cleric. Sankoh is known most prominently for helping to found the Peoples Party in 1948, one of the first political parties in Sierra Leone. It eventually became the Sierra Leone People's Party.

Herbert Christian Bankole-Bright was a well-known political activist in Sierra Leone.

Dr. Henry M. Joko-Smart Bonthe, British Sierra Leone) is a former Sierra Leonean law professor, educator and Supreme Court justice.

Clifford Nelson Fyle was a Sierra Leonean academic and author, known for writing the lyrics to the Sierra Leone National Anthem.

Professor Akintola Josephus Gustavus Wyse was an ethnic Sierra Leone Creole and Professor of History at Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone, until his death in October 2002. Wyse was the author of H.C. Bankole-Bright and Politics in Colonial Sierra Leone 1919-1958 and The Krio of Sierra Leone: An Interpretive History. He also chaired the Public Services Commission of Sierra Leone until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone Grammar School</span> Secondary school in Freetown, Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leone Grammar School was founded on 25 March 1845 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by the Church Mission Society (CMS), and at first was called the CMS Grammar School. It was the first secondary educational institution for West Africans with a European curriculum. Many of the administrators and professionals of British West Africa were educated at the school.

Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyerr MBE was a Sierra Leonean Anglican theologian and writer on African religion. He became principal of Fourah Bay College and Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Smith (surgeon)</span> Sierra Leonean medical doctor

Robert Smith FRCSE (1840–1885) was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor who served as an Assistant Colonial Surgeon in Sierra Leone during the late nineteenth century. Smith was the first African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh after completing his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sierra Leone Creole people</span> Ethnic group of Sierra Leone

The Sierra Leone Creole people are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885. The colony was established by the British, supported by abolitionists, under the Sierra Leone Company as a place for freedmen. The settlers called their new settlement Freetown. Today, the Sierra Leone Creoles are 1.2 percent of the population of Sierra Leone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Porter (historian)</span> Creole professor, historian, and author (1924–2019)

Arthur Thomas Daniel Porter III was a Creole professor, historian, and author. His book on the Sierra Leone Creole people, Creoledom: A study of the development of Freetown society, examines their society in a way in which few books of their time period had, and it is one of the most quoted books on the Creoles. He was published in East Africa and the UK.

George Gurney Mather Nicol (1856-1888) was a Sierra Leonean clergyman. He was the first African from a British colony to be educated at Cambridge University.

Aderemi Raymond Desmond Renner-Thomas was a former Chief Justice of Sierra Leone.

John Rosolu Bankole Thompson was a Sierra Leonean judge and jurist who published several studies on the law of Sierra Leone. Bankole Thompson served on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and headed the Commission of Inquiry for the Government of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Anti-corruption Commission from 2018.

Thomas Sylvester Johnson was a Sierra Leonean Anglican bishop and theologian born in Freetown to a Krio farming and trading family of Liberated African stock.

Samuel Benjamin (Akube) Thomas, was a Sierra Leonean entrepreneur and philanthropist who amassed a large fortune from which he left a substantial endowment for the establishment of an agricultural college.

Sir Samuel Bankole-Jones was a Sierra Leonean judge of the Supreme Court and later Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone. He was awarded a Knighthood of the British Empire in 1965.

Sir Salako Ambrosius Benka-Coker (1900–1965) was a Sierra Leonean judge of the Supreme Court and the first African to hold the position of Chief Justice of the newly independent state. He was awarded a Knighthood of the British Empire in 1961.

References

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