Old Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College is a public university in the Mount Aureol neighborhood of Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was established on 18 February 1827 as the first western-style university in Sub-Saharan Africa and the first university-level institution in Africa. It was once associated with Durham University (1876–1967) and is now a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone (USL).
The Church Missionary Society founded the college in February 1827 as an Anglican missionary school with the help of Sierra Leone's governor, Charles MacCarthy. The first student to enroll in Fourah Bay was Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Fourah Bay College quickly became a magnet for Sierra Leone Creoles and other Africans looking to further their studies in British West Africa. Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ivorians, and others were among them, particularly in religion and education. It was West Africa's first western-style university. Because of the great number of quality schools in Freetown and neighboring areas, Freetown was dubbed as the "Athens of Africa" during colonialism.
Reverend Edward Jones, an African-American missionary from South Carolina, was the university's first black principal. Lamina Sankoh was a well-known early academic, and Francis Heiser served as principal from 1920 to 1922. In 1966, Davidson Nicol became the first Sierra Leonean principal.
