ABSTRACT
IN the last seventeen years of his life. when he was achieving so much as "Half Bishop" of the Niger Delta Pastorate and President of the Lagos Auxiliary of the Aborigines Protection Society1 James Johnson was expending much energy and all his resourcefulness in the pursuit of a shadow-an independent African episcopate for all West Africa. For when he was being consecrated on 18 February 1900 he was in very high spirits; his joyful mood emanated from the conviction that the golden fieece---complete independence from European religious imperialism-was not only within reach but also within sight. As he believed. there already existed a firm arrangement. a contract. solemnly entered into by the C.M.S .• Lambeth Palace and himself. that as soon as he could obtain the sum of £10.000 the Niger Delta would be constituted into an independent African Bishopric. In his judgment the existence of such an ecclesiastical institution was the noblest. the most sublime and the grandest achievement for Africa. For. as he believed. it would prove to be the harbinger of political freedom and the key to the realisation of all the aspirations of the Negro Race.
