ABSTRACT

Between 1938 and 1960, British colonial policy towards higher education in West Africa tried to direct social change in patterns that were politically and economically congruent with Great Britain.1 The period saw substantial investments by the colonial government to establish new universities in West Africa. Eric Ashby credited the many education reports of the period for the “Evolution of a Policy” that emphasized certain standards of quality and the training of “carefully chosen young Africans for public service and positions of leadership.”2 The “Colonial Colleges” were major beneficiaries but delays in establishing FBC as a Colonial College slowed its development. The PickardCambridge Commission (1938) marked the first substantial effort by the colonial government to take responsibility for the development of higher education in British West Africa. The Pickard-Cambridge Commission, the Asquith Commission (1944), and the Elliot Commission (1945) established policies that culminated in the financing and development of the Colonial University Colleges. The Advisory Committee on Welfare of Colonial People was established in 1943 and immediately recommended big investments in education for Sierra Leone and the other West African colonies.3 In all, ten Education Commissions visited FBC between 1938 and 1960.4

Because British-oriented colonial governments regarded educated Africans as a challenge to their authority, they had consciously withheld the provision of higher education in the colonies. They also limited African advancement in the Civil Service. However, beginning around 1938, the pattern of decline in the number of Sierra Leoneans holding government jobs, which had begun in the late 1800s, reversed. In 1937, there were thirty-six Sierra Leoneans in senior government positions but by 1955, there were 206. In 1937 the colonial government employed 340 Sierra Leoneans in clerical positions compared with 800 in 1955. Government growth in this period also provided many more senior level jobs for Europeans. There were 166 expatriate civil servants in Sierra Leone in 1937 compared with 475 in 1955.5 There also was a dramatic rise in the number of British lecturers at FBC following World War II. In 1939, there were three Sierra Leoneans and three Europeans, including the principal, on the teaching staff at FBC. In 1959, there were ten Sierra Leoneans and thirty-

nine British lecturers at FBC. Being a lecturer at the College was one of the most prestigious and well-paid occupations available in Sierra Leone. The rewards of the colonial occupational structure thus helped narrow African aspirations.6