Walter R. Miller

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Walter Miller (r) with Emir of Zaria Aliyu (reigned: 1903-1920) Emir Aliyu dan Sidi of Zaria with Dr Walter Miller.png
Walter Miller (r) with Emir of Zaria Aliyu (reigned: 1903–1920)

Walter Richard Samuel Miller (22 March 1872 - 17 August 1952) [1] was a British missionary active in Nigeria during the first half of the 20th century. He was the main author of the first complete translation of the Bible into Hausa.

Contents

Biography

Walter Richard Samuel Miller was born in 1872 in Devonshire, United Kingdom. [2]

He studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital medical school and graduated MRCS and LRCP in 1896. [1]

His Christianity was influenced by the Plymouth Brethren and the Society of Friends. [1] He set his sights on a life as a missionary from an early age, studying Arabic and Hausa in Cairo and then Tripoli with a view to evangelising northern Nigeria. A member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), he arrived in Lagos at Christmas 1899 and travelled to Kano, but the emir of that city would not allow Christian missionaries to settle there. [3] He finally settled in Zaria in 1902 with another missionary, George Bargery. His sister Ethel Miller joined him some time later. He opened a dispensary and a school.

In 1929, the new emir asked the Christian mission to leave Zaria for Wusasa. Miller gradually translated the Bible into Hausa, which was published in full in that language for the first time in 1932. He left the CMS afterward and returned to England in 1935; however, he returned to Nigeria four years later. [1] [3] He settled permanently in Bukuru, a tin-mining city south of Jos in Plateau Province (now Plateau State). There, he devoted himself to teaching Hausa and writing until his death on 27 August 1952 at the age of 80. [2] [4] [5] He was buried at St Piran's Cemetery in Jos. [2]

Miller was fondly remembered in Northern Nigeria, even among Muslim elites. One of them, the Hausa writer Abubakar Imam, wrote a tribute titled Likita Mila ("Dr. Miller"). [2]

Family

Miller had a sister named Ethel, who was also an outspoken Christian missionary in colonial Northern Nigeria. [6]

Miller married in 1935; his wife died in 1939. [1]

Works

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Miller, Walter Richard Samuel - (1872–1952)"". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Gaiya, Musa Ahmadu Barnabas, Walter Miller , Brill, doi:10.1163/2451-9537_cmrii_COM_31131 , retrieved 2025-07-23
  3. 1 2 Hulmes, Edward. "Walter Miller and the Isawa: An Experiment in Christian-Muslim relationships" (PDF). Cambridge University Press. Scottish Journal of Theology, Volume 41, page 233. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Dictionary of African Christian Biography". dacb.org. 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2025.
  5. ↑ Linden, Ian. Emirs, Evangelicals & Empire (PDF). p. 216.
  6. ↑ Barnes, Andrew E. (2004). "'Religious Insults': Christian Critiques of Islam and the Government in Colonial Northern Nigeria". Journal of Religion in Africa. 34 (1/2): 62–81. ISSN   0022-4200.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Miller, Walter Richard Samuel". Open Library. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  8. ↑ "'Success in Nigeria?: assets and possibilities', by Walter R. Miller, with a foreword by L. J. Lewis". National Library of Australia. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Miller, Walter Richard Samuel (1872–1952)". Amazon. Retrieved October 22, 2025.
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