ABSTRACT
The controversy over the need for a West African university had its first impetus during the period of the College’s closure in the early 1860s. It achieved greater momentum with support from returned diasporan educators. According to one African scholar, “the ideas which in the twentieth century led to the creation of the African universities were articulated, in their essentials, by Africans between 1865 and 1874.”1 As noted in the previous chapter, two of the most influential and outspoken advocates of the development of a fullfledged West African university were former students of Edward Jones. Following in the footsteps of Africanus Horton and James Johnson, Dr. E.W.Blyden (1832-1912) took up the call for a university of Western Africa. He had widespread community support. Metcalfe Sunter, the British Principal of FBC who later became the Director of Education for all of British West Africa, along with Bishop Henry Cheetham, faced the Africans’ demands for the development of a secular institution of higher learning. In the end, a compromise was reached whereby Fourah Bay College gained university status through affiliation with Durham University, England. The colonial government thus did not support the immediate development of an autonomous West African university. The FBC curriculum maintained its predominantly European and Christian nature, while the CMS agreed to admit to FBC, without denominational test, any student of good character who had fulfilled entry requirements.2
