University of Sierra Leone

Last updated August 29, 2022

The University of Sierra Leone is the name of the former unitary public university system in Sierra Leone. Established in February 1827, it is the oldest university in Africa.^[1]

As of May 2005, the University of Sierra Leone was reconstituted into the individual colleges of Fourah Bay College and Njala University college.

History

It has its origins in the Fourah Bay College, which was established 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 enroll at Fouray Bay.^[2] Fourah Bay College soon became a magnet for Krio 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 West Africa" as an homage to the college.^[3]

Related Research Articles

Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and political centre, as it is the seat of the Government of Sierra Leone. The population of Freetown was 1,055,964 at the 2015 census.

Africanus Horton (1835–1883), also known as James Beale, was a Krio African nationalist writer and an esteemed medical surgeon in the British Army from Freetown, Sierra Leone.

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).

Njala University (NU) is a public university located in Njala and Bo, Sierra Leone. It is the second largest university in Sierra Leone and is also part of the University of Sierra Leone. The largest and main campus of Njala University is in Njala, Moyamba District; the other campus is Bo, the second largest city in Sierra Leone.

Lamina Sankoh, born as Etheldred Nathaniel Jones, was a Sierra Leonean 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.

Edward Jones (1807–1865) was an African American missionary to the colony of Sierra Leone. Jones was a prominent missionary and figure in the colony of Sierra Leone; he was the first naturalized citizen of Sierra Leone. Jones was the first black principal of Fourah Bay College. He was the first Black American to graduate from Amherst College in Massachusetts. Edward Jones was the brother of Jehu Jones, a prominent African-American preacher.

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

Dr. John Augustus Abayomi-Cole (1848–1943) was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor and herbalist.

Eldred D. Jones Sierra Leonean academic (1925–2020)

Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones was a Sierra Leonean academic and literary critic, known for his book Othello's Countrymen: A Study of Africa in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. He was a principal of Fourah Bay College. Jones died in Freetown, Sierra Leone, around 1am on Saturday 21 March 2020.

Edward Wilmot Blyden III Sierra Leonean diplomat

Edward Wilmot Blyden III was a diplomat, political scientist and educator born in Freetown Sierra Leone Protectorate. He distinguished himself as an educator and contributor to post-colonial discourse on African self-government, and Third World non-alignment. He was the grandson of Edward Wilmot Blyden.

Sierra Leone Grammar School 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.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the second-largest sect of Islam in Sierra Leone, behind only Sunni Islam. The earliest history of the Community in Sierra Leone dates back to the early period of the Second Caliphate, when at least six people are said to have conveyed their adherence to the faith. The sect attained rapid growth in the country after the 1937 arrival of Nazir Ahmad Ali, the first permanent Ahmadi missionary in Sierra Leone. Recent estimates by Ahmadi community suggest that there are approximately 560,000 Ahmadi Muslims in Sierra Leone, which is about 9% of the country's total population. Sierra Leone has the largest percentage of Ahmadi Muslims by share of total population in the world.

Robert Smith FRCSE (1840–1885), also known as Bob Smith, was a Sierra Leonean medical doctor who served as Assistant Colonial Surgeon of 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.

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.

Arthur Porter (historian) Creole professor, historian, and author

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.

The Oku people or the Aku Marabout or Aku Mohammedans are an ethnic group in Sierra Leone and the Gambia, primarily the descendants of educated, liberated Muslim people who were released from slave ships and resettled in Sierra Leone as Liberated Africans or came as settlers in the mid-19th century.

Orishatukeh Faduma was an African-American Christian missionary and educator who was also an advocate for African culture. He contributed to laying the foundation for the future development of African studies.

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.

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.

References

↑ "Best universities in Africa". Times Higher Education (THE). 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
↑ Kopytoff, Jean Herskovits. A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The "Sierra Leonians" in Yoruba, 1830–1890. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 35.
↑ Paracka Jr., Daniel J. (March 2004). The Athens of West Africa: A History of International Education at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone. p. Introduction. ISBN 9781135935993.

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[1] "Best universities in Africa". Times Higher Education (THE). 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2020-12-14.

[JHK-2] Kopytoff, Jean Herskovits. A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The "Sierra Leonians" in Yoruba, 1830–1890. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 35.

[3] Paracka Jr., Daniel J. (March 2004). The Athens of West Africa: A History of International Education at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone. p. Introduction. ISBN 9781135935993.

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