“May I ever have a fresh desire to be engaged in the service of Christ, for it is perfect freedom! … Thus, the day of my captivity was to me a blessed day, when considered in this respect; though certainly, it must be unhappy also, in my being deprived on it of my father, mother, sister and all other relations” – Bishop Ajayi Samuel Crowther.

The formation of the Anglican Church in 1532 under the guide of King Henry VIII recalls the first-ever consecrated Bishop of the Church of England in West Africa, the Niger Territories, on June 29, 1864, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther’s (1809-1891) life reminds us of a slave turned bishop and a reflection of ‘the experiences of a larger group of Africans whose life had been changed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade.’ It is important to note that Bishop Crowther was consecrated as “Bishop for West Africa beyond British Jurisdiction.” The election of Bishop Crowther was celebrated as the “full development of the native African church,” Sadly, the enthusiasm about Bishop Crowther’s election and jurisdiction was not shared by the other white missionaries on the field. Bishop Crowther’s jurisdiction was delineated as “the countries of Western Africa beyond the limits of our dominions.” Professor Ade-Ajayi described Bishop Crowther’s jurisdiction as “West Africa from the Equator to Senegal, with the exception of the British colonies of Lagos, the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone”.

Bishop Crowther, a linguist, was born in 1808 at Osogun, Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University. The British Preventive Squadron freed Bishop Crowther from slave ships on the way to the Americas. Some of the enslaved people were ‘resettled in Sierra Leone, converted to Christianity, and underwent formal school education. It was from among this group of Africans and their descendants that many missionaries were recruited.’ The episcopal ministry of Bishop Crowther provides a reference point for the missional roles played by Africans beyond the mission founded by the Europeans. Ted Olsen tightly summarised Bishop Crowther’s episcopal consecration as the first African Anglican bishop, which looked like a ‘great leap forward for the Church. But the talented ex-slave collided with the roadblock of racism.’

Captured in Nigeria by the Muslim Fulani slave raiders, Bishop Crowther, at age 12, was sold off to Portuguese slave traders later in the year 1821. The British Royal Navy boarded the slave ship, and Bishop Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was rescued and released in 1822. He became a mission schoolboy in 1823, baptised as a baptised Christian in 1825, a clergyman in 1843, a missionary to the country whence he had been stolen in 1845, the founder of a new mission in 1857, the first negro (indigenous) bishop in 1864 and had his first synod in 1866. Bishop Crowther was converted to the Christian faith and was baptised into the Anglican Church in December 1825, and took the name Samuel Crowther at baptism in honour of a CMS clergyman in England.

Bishop Crowther travelled to England in 1826 to attend Islington Parish School. He returned to Africa in 1827 and attended the new Fourah Bay College. Bishop Crowther trained at the Church Missionary Society Missionary College in Islington and was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1843. Bishop Crowther’s scholarly work included the publication of his dictionary and grammar of Yoruba in 1843 and his translations of the Book of Common Prayer and Bible into Yoruba. Bishop Crowther married a woman he had met on the slave ship, who was baptised Susanna; one of their children later became archdeacon of the Delta Mission Bishop Crowther founded.

Bishop Crowther’s episcopal role was more missional than ceremonial or hierarchical. Bishop Crowther’s missional episcopal roles placed him not just as the indigenous spiritual overseer throughout the Western region of Africa. However, his leadership played a pivotal role in mentoring, discipleship, evangelism, worship, church growth and planting in the region, laying a robust groundwork for subsequent missions and the evolution of the Church in the area. Bishop Crowther ‘pioneered an early form of Christian-Muslim dialogue for Africa. He oversaw J.C. Taylor’s groundbreaking work in Igboland and directed the evangelisation of the Niger Delta, with notable results at different centres, including Bonny.’

Bishop Crowther’s episcopal legacy was ‘shaped by an increase in new converts, expansion of mission branches, and a need for leadership. This situation necessitated the evolution from missions to churches, leading to the creation of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion.’ The CMS’s aim to establish a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating church, a mission strategy championed in London by Henry Venn, the CMS Secretary in 1846, enhanced Bishop Crowther’s episcopal roles. Bishop Crowther, as an African clergyman, was found to be entrusted with episcopal responsibility beyond European superintendence, having ‘realised the presence of God and walked conscientiously and in the fear of God.’ The Church Missionary Intelligencer, in an article in the 65th-anniversary report concerning the positive testimony of CMS about Bishop Crowther, agreed that Bishop Crowther has been found to be entrusted with the episcopal responsibility after nearly 21st fruitful years of ordained ministry and “To delay any longer the native Episcopate would be unduly to retard the development of the native church.’

Bishop Crowther’s mission and consecration were not without opposition, ‘difficulties, and escalating tensions with European missionaries under his supervision.’ Archbishop Emmanuel Egbunu of Lokoja diocese explained that the location of Bishop Crowther’s base in Lagos for administrative convenience without Lagos as part of the diocese because of the presence of the whites was considered not ‘good idea that white men should be seen to be under the authority of a black man.’ Bishop Crowther’s administrative responsibility to Igboland faced transportation problems and a lack of cooperation from British traders and white colleagues like Henry Townsend and others in the Yoruba Mission. 

The appeal by Henry Venn to each of the European missionaries, “Be you a brother to Bishop Crowther. You will be abundantly repaid. God destines him for a great work. I should rejoice to be a helper; however, to him,” fell on deaf ears. With the death of Venn in 1873, ‘dark clouds’ gathered over the Niger Mission was too much for Bishop Crowther to overcome. Professor Andrew Walls explained that the ‘morality and efficiency of Crowther’s staff, largely made up of native Africans, were increasingly questioned by the British missionaries. 

Consequently, ‘changes in mission policy, shifts in racial attitudes, alterations in evangelical spirituality, and the availability of new sources of European missionaries combined to slowly dismantle Crowther’s mission.’ It must be noted that the European clergy that refused to serve under Bishop Crowther in the Niger Mission remained under the white bishop of Sierra Leone. Bishop Crowther was the victim of the twin thrusts of colonialism and Western missionary zeal, both underpinned by racism. 

Bishop Crowther’s episcopacy points to the bishop as a symbol of many responsibilities, especially a symbol of African scholarship and Christian faith. While the CMS depended on him to evangelise Africa, the natives relied on him for leadership and looked up to him to carry civilisation to the interior.

The systemic undermining of Bishop Crowther’s authority, tightened financial controls, young Europeans taking over key roles, and dismissal and transfer of African staff affected Bishop Crowther’s bishopric authority. Bishop Crowther was humiliated in several ways. His missionary ship, the Henry Venn, was taken from him and ‘turned into a merchant’s vessel …Anonymous and unproven accusations were made to the CMS about the management of the mission, and Anglican church law was flouted in the conduct of the investigation. Crowther neither saw the report nor had any opportunity to reply to it. Bishop Crowther’s humiliations not only thwarted African control, it produced a foreign church that, in protest, fostered the growth of new African Indigenous and Pentecostal churches that were free of white monopoly and control.

The suspension of African clergy, including Bishop Crowther’s son, Dandeson Coates Crowther, added to Bishop Crowther’s sorrow. Bishop Crowther’s episcopal mission’s tragic and depressing final part climaxed in a stroke, and he died on December 31, 1891. Bishop Crowther’s mission platform was dismantled, and a European bishop, Joseph Sydney Hill, succeeded Bishop Crowther in 1893 with the new title of the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa. Bishop Hill died in 1894, and Bishop Herbert Tugwell was consecrated and took over. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has acknowledged and apologised for the Church’s mistreatment of Crowther ‘during a ‘thanksgiving and repentance’ service marking the 150th anniversary of Bishop Crowther’s consecration. Archbishop Welby expressed shame over the betrayal and undermining of a rightfully consecrated bishop, stating, “It was wrong.” Using the words of Prof Ade-Ajayi, Bishop Crowther at 80 years, “for a pioneer he was too reasonable, too soft a disciplinarian,” but the insolence of the young European missionaries – ‘able, young, zealous, impetuous, uncharitable and opinionated,’ the oldest of them, the Revd J. A, Johnson, was only 29 who came to discredit Bishop Crowther’s longstanding achievements was inexcusable.

The mistreatment and humiliations of Bishop Crowther were not just wrong. A missional theme that is regrettably prevalent throughout humans, the Christian mission and the Church that must be avoided is the shadow of power. It is so sad that ‘on the eve of Nigerian independence (1 October 1960), the parish where the governor general worshipped, then known as “St Saviour’s Church,” amended their constitution to ensure they were not under the episcopal oversight of a black bishop. By the inauguration of the Church of Nigeria as an autonomous province on 24 February 1979, they were still hiring and firing their clergy without reference to the bishop. The Nigerian military government’s Decree 26, 1991, put all Anglican churches under the authority of the Nigerian bishop enthroned.

As we welcome and send missionaries and plant churches worldwide, we must be aware of the destruction our love for power can cause. As a victim of politics, Bishop Crowther warns us about man’s seeming inability to surrender power, bearing in mind that ‘power and politics tend to go hand in hand.’ What continues to play itself out to date throughout our continent and history resonates with the ‘difficulty of seeing the audit and ultimate dissolution of Crowther’s mission as little more than British Christians insecurely seeking to retain power over the African Church and mission.’ In mission work and church planting, ‘we must be aware of the destruction our love for power can cause.’

Bishop Crowther’s mistreatment is wrong and an obstacle against God’s mission globally. Language is fundamental in successful missions and evangelism, just as a successful evangelisation of inland Africa must be carried out by Africans speaking African languages.

Bishop Crowther’s humiliations and mistreatment were not just wrong; it was an opportunity lost that calls for genuine repentance and humility for collaborative mission partnership between black and white church relations to step the decline of Christianity globally. Bishop Crowther lives on, and his legacy is pioneering a new and faithful missionary vision.

Indeed, a prophet, the first African Anglican Bishop, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, even in his grave, received honour bestowed on him by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on Wednesday, 20, January 2021, when the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Henry Ndukuba, led other top officials of the church, dignitaries and members to the country home of Ajayi Crowther, Osoogun, to dedicate the Diocese of Ajayi Crowther close to his residence and in his honour.

Ajayi Crowther University was earlier established by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on the premises of the former St. Andrews College, Oyo. The university obtained its license on January 7, 2005.

Bishop Crowther lives on.