Fourah Bay College

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).

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. 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.

Old Fourah Bay College Building

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.

Administration

Faculties

• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Applied Accounting

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.

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
• Samuel Ajayi Crowther, one-time Anglican bishop of West Africa and first graduate of Fourah Bay College
• Lati Hyde-Forster, first African principal of Annie Walsh Memorial School and first female graduate of Fourah Bay College
• Sir Ernest Dunstan Morgan, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and philanthropist
• Sir Samuel Bankole-Jones (1911– 1981), former chief justice and first Sierra Leonean president of the Court of Appeal
• Sir Salako Benka-Coker (1900–1965), first Sierra Leonean chief justice of the Supreme Court
• Sir Ernest Beoku-Betts (1895–1957), jurist and one-time mayor of Freetown
• Sir Henry Lightfoot Boston (1898–1969), first African Governor-General of Sierra Leone
• Sir Samuel Lewis (1843–1903), first mayor of Freetown and first West African to receive a knighthood
• Sir Emile Fashole-Luke (1895–1980), former chief justice and Speaker of Parliament
• Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, economist and current mayor of Freetown
• Thomas Decker, writer, poet, journalist, and linguist
• Henry Rawlingson Carr, educator and administrator
• Christian Frederick Cole, first black graduate of Oxford and first African barrister to practice in the English courts
• Enid Ayodele Forde (born 1932), geospatial analyst, chair of the geography department at Fourah Bay College and first Sierra Leonean woman to gain a PhD
• Harry Alphonso Sawyerr (1909–1986), writer and Anglican theologian
• Hillary Sao Kanu, commissioner of Police of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS)
• Ade Renner Thomas (born 1945), barrister and one-time Chief Justice of Sierra Leone
• Michael Adekunle Ajasin
• Edward Fasholé-Luke (born 1934) academic and Anglican theologian
• David Omashola Carew, economist and former cabinet minister
• Victor Chukuma Johnson (1944–2012), former chairman and deputy leader of the All People's Congress
• Robert Wellesley Cole, general surgeon and first West African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
• Henry Olufemi Macauley (born 1962), businessman with expertise in the oil industries and former minister of energy
• Violet Showers Johnson, professor of history and director of Africana studies at Texas A&M University
• Clifford Nelson Fyle, academic and author, known for writing the lyrics to the Sierra Leone National Anthem

Thomas Josiah Thompson (1867–1941), lawyer, one-time mayor of Freetown and newspaper proprietor.

Gershon Beresford Collier (1927–1994), former chief justice of Sierra Leone, educator and diplomat

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