Samuel Crowther
*Samuel Crowther's birth is celebrated on this date in 1809. He was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first Black African Anglican bishop of West Africa.
Samuel Crowther was born in Nigeria, the grandson of King Abiodun, through his mother, Afala; Ajayi was around 12 years old when he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. His mother, Afala, later baptized with the name Hannah, toddler brother, and other family members were among the captives. His father, Ayemi, was killed in the raid on his village. After the British outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, they used the British Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron ship to free Ajayi and his family to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
While in Sierra Leone, Crowther was taught English and sent to school, and within a short time, he could easily read the Bible. He converted to Christianity. On December 11, 1825, he was baptized by John Raban, naming himself after Samuel Crowther, vicar of Christ Church, Newgate, London, and one of the pioneers of the CMS. He adopted Christianity and identified with Sierra Leone's then-ascendant Krio ethnic group. He studied languages and was ordained as a minister. In England, he received a doctoral degree from Oxford University. In 1826, he attended the school of St Mary's Church in Islington, which had established a connection with free Africans in the 18th century.
He returned to Freetown in 1827. He was the first student admitted to the newly opened Fourah Bay College, an Anglican missionary school. Because of his interest in language, he studied Latin and Greek in the classical curriculum and Temne of West Africa. After completing his studies, Crowther began teaching at the school. He prepared a Yoruba grammar and translation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into Yoruba, and he is also working on a Yoruba version of the Bible and other language projects. Crowther's missionary journey to Nigeria began in 1841. He represented the missionary arm of the Niger Expedition.
In 1846, Crowther and Rev. Townsend opened the CMS mission in Abeokuta. During the 1854 Niger Expedition, Crowther had a hand in the founding of the missions in Niger. Crowther married a schoolmistress, Asano, who baptized Susan. She had also been liberated from a Portuguese slave ship and had also converted to Christianity. Several children entered the ministry, and another became one of the first Nigerian nationalists. Samuel Crowther died of a stroke in Lagos on December 31, 1891, aged 82.
