LIKE the proverbial cat with nine
lives, Samuel Ajai Crowther went
through the vicissitudes of life to attain greatness. The first African Bishop of the Anglican Communion, whose time
and life is currently being re-enacted in a stage play titled, Ajai, The Boy Slave. The play gives a photographic reminiscence of
how the boy-slave from his teen years — when he was taken into
slavery — rose to be an icon of the Christian faith, a scholar and a historian.
Staged
recently at Agip Hall of the Music
Society Of Nigeria (MUSON), Onikan, Lagos, the play written and directed by Wole Oguntokun based on the original
concept by Gbemi Shasore ( a descendant
of the Crowther family) gives a high quality dramatisation of an African
story with cast drawn from Nigeria and Europe.
Captured with several
other family members at his teen, when his
community, Osogun in Nigeria was raided by the slave
merchants, the boy, began the adventure that would later transform his life in
a dramatic note. He passed from one master to another before getting
to the Portuguese slave traders, who after several weeks of keeping
him in the slave market put him alongside about 187 others in a ship en route Portugal.
The Portuguese slave ship set off, but was later intercepted on the sea by
two British Man O’ War ships positioned to enforce the abolition of
slavery already adopted by the United Kingdom. With the interception, the
British ships led the slave ship to Sierra Leone where all the slaves on board
were set free. By virtue of this, the freed slaves began a new life in the
country.
While Sierra Leone, Ajai under the tutelage
of missionaries attached to the Anglican
Church Missionary Society (CMS) learnt to read and write and as
well as developed carpentry skills. He also became a Christian and
was baptized Samuel Crowther; a name of
his Christian mentor.
In 1826, he was sent to the Islington Parish School, England,
and returned a year later to attend Fourah
Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Upon graduation, he began to teach at
the college and married a schoolmistress, Asano who was baptised
Susan. Asano had been one of the slaves bound for Portugal alongside
Ajai.
In 1841, Ajai was selected by the
Anglican Church to accompany James Schön, a missionary on an
expedition along the Niger River. The expedition aimed at carrying out the
colonial master’s 3C’s policy — Christianity, commerce and civilization —
on the Niger River province.
Following the expedition, Crowther
was recalled to England where he was trained as a Priest and ordained
by the Bishop of London. He returned to Africa in 1843, opening a
mission in Abeokuta with Henry Townsend
under the supervision of Henry Venn. The relationship with Henry Townsend was
a rocky one, lasting all their lives.
Crowther began to translate the Bible
into the Yoruba language and also began a compilation of a Yoruba
dictionary. A Yoruba version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
was to follow as well as a codification of other local languages.
Following the British Niger expeditions
of 1854 and 1857, he produced a primer
for the Igbo language and another for the Nupe in 1860 as well as a full grammar and dictionary of the Nupe in1864.
SAMUEL
Crowther’s life was marked by stand-offs with Church establishment, which
had factions that believed native African was incapable of leading an
African Church. His pursuance of a truly native church met with
resistance form Henry Townsend and those of Townsend’s school of thought.
He sought to use his acceleration within the church hierarchy not only as
a tool to spread Christianity, but also as one that would set his
people free from the shackles of colonialism and ignorance.
Ajai understood that head-on collisions
with the colonialists would not achieve the desired results and, so,
made himself indispensable to a system that in turn allowed him
continue his work in enlightening the natives.
In 1864, he was ordained the first African
Bishop of the Anglican Church, and in 1891
suffered a stroke, dying on the last day of that year.
THE
well-designed play, which is on tour of European countries features an all-new
and first time cast that showcase deep understanding of the Nigerian culture
with a mix of Anglo-African music. This background sound rightly depicts the historical
context on which the play is set.
Aside from passing on the message of morals,
commitment, heroism and patriotism, the emotion-laden play highlights the role
of providence in Ajai being able to reconnect with his roots and family
members.
Speaking on the production Oguntokun, avers, “the research for the play was massive. I
had access to materials form quite a number of sources. It is probably the lengthiest
script I have ever written. We had to really trim it down. The first
performance, we had was well over two and a half hours. For this performance it
is one and a half.”
No comments:
Post a Comment