Ajayi Crowther

Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809–31 December 1891), was a Yoruba linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun (in what is now Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria), he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders when he was twelve.

They were freed from slavery at a coastal port by the Royal Navy, which was enforcing the ban against the Atlantic slave trade. The liberated peoples were resettled in Sierra Leone. There Ajayi adopted an English name of Samuel Crowther, and began his education in English. He adopted Christianity and also identified with Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group. He studied languages and was ordained as a minister in England, where he later received a doctoral degree from Oxford University. He prepared a Yoruba grammar and translation of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer into Yoruba, also working on a Yoruba version of the Bible, as well as other language projects.

A direct descendant of King Abiodun, Ajayi was 12 years old when he and his family were captured, along with his entire village, by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. (His mother, toddler brother, and other family members were among the captives.) The British had outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in the early 19th century and used its navy to patrol the coast of Africa.Before the slave ship left port for the Americas (where Spain and Portugal still had slavery in their colonies), it was boarded by crew from a British Royal Navy ship under the command of Captain Henry Leeke.

They freed the captives, and took Ajayi and his family to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they were resettled by local authorities.

While in Sierra Leone, Crowther was cared for by the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was taught English. He converted to Christianity. On 11 December 1825 he was baptized. He named himself after Samuel Crowther, vicar of Christ Church, Newgate, London, and one of the pioneers of the CMS. Ajayi was baptized by John Raban.

In Niger Territory, 1888

While in Freetown, Crowther became interested in languages. In 1826 he was taken to England to attend 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 of the classical curriculum, but also Temne of West Africa. After completing his studies, Crowther began teaching at the school.

Crowther married a schoolmistress, Asano (i.e. Hassana; she was formerly Muslim), baptised Susan.She had been liberated from the same Portuguese slave ship as Ajayi, and was among the captives resettled in Sierra Leone. She had also converted to Christianity.Their several children included Dandeson Coates Crowther,, who later entered the ministry and in 1891 became archdeacon of the Niger Delta.

Susan and Crowther's second daughter, Abigail, married Thomas Babington Macaulay, a junior associate. Their son and Crowther's grandson, Herbert Macaulay, became one of the first Nigerian nationalists. He played an important role in ending British colonial rule in Nigeria.

Crowther was selected to accompany the missionary James Schön on the Niger expedition of 1841. Together with Schön, he was expected to learn Hausa for use on the expedition. Its goal was to stimulate commerce, teach agricultural techniques, encourage Christianity, and help end the slave trade. Following the expedition, Crowther was recalled to England, where he was trained as a minister and ordained by the Bishop of London. Schön wrote to the Church Missionary Society noting Crowther's usefulness and ability on the expedition, recommending that he be prepared for ordination.

Crowther returned to Africa in 1843 and, with Henry Townsend, opened a mission in Abeokuta, in today's Ogun State, Nigeria.

Crowther began translating the Bible into Yoruba and compiling a Yoruba dictionary. In 1843, his grammar book was published, which he had begun working on during the Niger expedition. A Yoruba version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer followed later. Crowther also compiled A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language, including a large number of local proverbs, published in London in 1852.

He also began codifying other languages. Following the British Niger Expeditions of 1854 and 1857, Crowther, assisted by a young Igbo interpreter named Simon Jonas, produced a primer for the Igbo language in 1857. He published one for the Nupe language in 1860, and a full grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864.

Crowther had become a close associate and friend of Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, an influential politician, mariner, philanthropist and industrialist in colonial Lagos. The two men collaborated on social initiatives in Lagos, such as the founding of The Academy (a social and cultural center for public enlightenment) on 24 October 1866. Crowther was the first patron and Captain J.P.L Davies was the first president.

In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church; he was consecrated a bishop on St Peter's day 1864, by Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral. He had continued his studies and later received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford.

He later met Queen Victoria and read the Lord's prayer to her in the Nigerian language of Yoruba, which she described as soft and melodious.

In March 1881, he and his son Dandeson attended a conference on the island of Madeira, in the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco. Crowther had begun to work in languages other than Yoruba, but he continued to supervise the translation of the Yoruba Bible (Bibeli Mimọ), which was completed in the mid-1880s, a few years before his death.

Crowther is celebrated with a feast on the liturgical calendar of some Anglican churches, including the Episcopal Church (United States) and the Church of Nigeria, on 31 December.

Crowther died of a stroke in Lagos on 31 December 1891. He was buried at Ajele Cemetery in Lagos.

In 1971 the Lagos State Government under Mobolaji Johnson wanted to redevelop the site of the cemetery for new government offices and issued notices to families of the deceased. Seth Kale, Anglican Bishop of Lagos, representing the Anglican community and Crowther's family, delayed exhumation and reburial until 1976. An elaborate ceremony was held at a new burial site and a cenotaph was installed at Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.