ABSTRACT
HARDLY had James Johnson expired in May 1917 than the hope was expressed that a biography of this pioneer of African nationalism would not be delayed. From all account and as the uniquely profuse tributes that accompanied his death clearly testify, he was a rare but popular personality who occupied an olympian height in matters of morality and patriotism. For half a century this idealist of British West Africa commanded undiminished universal respect among Africans and Europeans even when they disapproved of his irrepressible passion, his puritanical outlook, his dogmatism, his sphinx-like resoluteness, his anti-white vituperations and his quixotism. For the Sierra Leonians he was "Wonderful Johnson", for Nigerians "Holy Johnson", for the authorities of the Church Missionary Society the "Pope" of Nigeria, for those who knew him in Britain a "saint".
