Bishop ajayi crowther biography of william hill

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They had no regard for natives’ cultural background. But Crowther, in his own case, cared less for the post, honour, responsibility and power that Venn had in mind for him. Crowther was especially invited to join the expedition which was led by Captain Beecroft up the River Niger and River Nun to explore the Lake Chad and to find the two explorers, Barth and Vogel.

cit., p. They condemned the rank and file of African Christians from Sierra Leone to Nigeria.

As Professor E. A. Ayandele puts it, to these young evangelists, the people of Sierra Leone were “swarms of ragamuffins” and their mission was a “charnel house” while they termed the “converts in Lokoja adulterers and harlots” who deserved nothing short of dismissal from the church membership.[41] Their purpose was to change every pattern of Christian life already laid down in Nigeria including the message preached.

In Freetown, Ajayi entered a school run by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and was baptized a Christian in 1825, taking the name Samwel (Samuel) Crowther.

He was sent to England for a year’s further schooling and then became the first African to graduate form the CMS’s new college, Fourah Bay Institute.

In the Delta, work was flourishing and there was a cathedral at Bonny. The obstacles that beset Bishop Crowther and his mission ranged from personal animosity to dark and superstitious customs of the people.

It was also a tragic irony of history that at the time Crowther was performing his first ordination service at Onitsha, there was still human sacrifice going on.

In a way, it could be observed that his agents were mostly left to their own devices. Their similarities didn’t end there.

He was also vindictive, cruel and treacherous.[24] Bishop Crowther, Dandeson (his son, age twenty-four) and the other boatmen were thus detained for days. This was however not the case in the Niger area. At this time Europeans were making claims and securing territorial possessions in Africa. It was called the Ifole War.

The missionaries fled the town and moved to Lagos.

This wave of persecution soon spread to Bonny. Wood made his investigation and forwarded his recommendations to Hutchinson without making his findings known to the bishop, nor even calling on the accused to defend themselves. This journey proved that Crowther’s episcopate was accepted everywhere.

In the midst of his travels, Bishop Crowther did not allow his literary work to suffer.

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