Jos & Kaduna – 1926
The mission had moved beyond the humid forests of the south. The "Yoruba Educational Engine," fueled by the zeal of the Saro and the Ogbomosho Baptists, was now steaming into the dry, sun-drenched plains of the North.
Adebayo’s youngest son, David, was a product of the Ogbomosho lineage—a family that had embraced the Baptist faith with a particular kind of ferocity. In 1926, David arrived in Jos to support Rev. T.A. Taiwo, who had just opened the first Baptist Day School in the city.
"They say the North is a closed door," David wrote in his journal. "But the door opens for those who carry the slate. We are not just Ogbomosho men here; we are the bridge."
Indeed, the Ogbomosho missionaries were the silent giants of Northern expansion. While colonial authorities were often hesitant to upset the Northern Caliphates, these black missionaries—Yoruba traders, civil servants, and teachers—established schools in Kaduna (1926), Minna and Zungeru (1927), and Kano (1929). They provided education to the children of converts and southern migrants who were often excluded from government-controlled schools.
Chapter Nine: The Academic Pedigree
The novel traces the lineage of this "Educational Dominance" through a sequence of institutions that defined the African mind:
Image of Saint Thomas Anglican Primary School
Saint Thomas Anglican Primary School
Religious school
CV9M+FQP, Market Rd
The seed planted by Birch Freeman.
Image of CMS Grammar School, Lagos
CMS Grammar School, Lagos
Grammar school
OpenSt Finbarr's College Rd
The oldest secondary school in Nigeria, the "Mother of Schools" that birthed the first generation of African clergy and administrators.
Image of Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary
Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary
The first degree-awarding institution in Nigeria. It was here that the white missionaries, seeing the profound intellectual hunger of the Yoruba, "reciprocated" by formalizing the first higher-education seminary on the soil.
Image of Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College
University
OpenBarham Road, Southern Central
While founded in Freetown, it became the "Athens of West Africa" largely due to the influx of Yoruba scholars and the leadership of Samuel Ajayi Crowther. It was the training ground for the elites who would later return to found universities across the continent.
Image of Prestigious University of Ibadan
Prestigious University of Ibadan.
OpenBox 4078, University of Ibadan Post
The crown jewel, born from the legacy of the CMS and Baptist schools. It was the realization of a century of Yoruba educational pressure, eventually evolving into the University of Ibadan.
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