Samuel Adjai Crowther (1809-1891)
Bishop on the Niger and first African Anglican Bishop
Born in Osogun, Yorubaland (today's Oyo State), Nigeria, Samuel Adjai Crowther was an energetic missionary, a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop.
A member of the Creole ethnic group, Samuel Crowther was twelve years old when he was captured, along with his mother, younger brother, other family members, and his entire village, by Muslim Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to Portuguese slave traders. Before leaving port, his ship was boarded by a British Navy ship under the command of Captain Henry Leeke, and Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone and released. While there, Crowther was cared for by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who taught him English. He converted to Christianity, was baptized by Rev. John Raban, and took the name Samuel Crowther in 1825. While in Freetown, Crowther became interested in languages and in 1826 was taken to England to attend Islington Parish School. He returned to Freetown in 1827 and attended the newly-opened Fourah Bay College, the CMS missionary school. After completing his studies he began teaching at the school. At this time he married Susan (previously Asano), a former Muslim, a schoolmistress, who had been on the same slave ship as he was.
In 1841 Crowther was selected to accompany the CMS missionary J.F.Schön on an expedition along the Niger River. Both Crowther and Schön had to learn Hausa for this expedition which aimed to spread commerce, teach agricultural techniques, spread Christianity, and help end the slave trade. Following this difficult expedition, Crowther was recalled to England, where he was trained and ordained by the bishop of London. He returned to Africa in 1843 and with Henry Townsend opened a mission in Abeokuta, Nigeria. There, by accident, he recognized his mother after 25 years of separation and baptized her in 1848.
Crowther began translating the Bible into the Yoruba language and compiling a Yoruba dictionary. In 1843, a grammar book which he started working on during the Niger expedition was published; and a Yoruba version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer followed later. He also began codifying other languages. After participating in the British Niger Expeditions of 1854 and 1857 (suffering shipwreck in 1857), Crowther produced a primer for the Igbo language in 1857, another for the Nupe language in 1860, and a full grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864.
Crowther did not return to Lagos until 1859. In 1855 he published Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers, and in 1859, with J. C. Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger, 1857-1859. During this period he made frequent visits to England. In 1857 he was made head of the Niger Mission and in 1864, was consecrated as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. That same year he also received a Doctor of Divinity from Oxford Uiversity.
As a bishop, Crowther faced many difficulties. There was local opposition, both African and European; his duties and rights were not easily defined, and he was short of African helpers. Many of his African staff came from Sierra Leone and found it difficult to live in Nigeria. But the work prospered, and soon there were more than 600 Christians, with 10 priests and 14 teachers and catechists. His task was hard, but the fact that he was an African bishop inspired many African Christians in the years that followed. Crowther suffered a stroke and died on 31 December 1891. He was buried in Lagos.