Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809–December 31, 1891), is a Yoruba linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria.

Born in Osoogun (in what is in lanlate, Oyo State, Nigeria), he and his family are captured by Fulani slave raiders when he is about twelve years old.

Crowther is freed from slavery at a coastal port by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, which is enforcing the ban against the Atlantic slave trade.

The liberated peoples are resettled in Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, Ajayi adopts an English name of Samuel Crowther, and begins his education in English.

He adopts Christianity and also identifies with Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group.

He studies languages and is ordained as a minister in England, where he later receives a doctoral degree from Oxford University.

He prepares 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.

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