Blyden of Liberia

Some prophets reach contemporaries only, others increase their influence after death. Edward Wilmot Blyden, who was born of Negro parents in the Virgin Islands in 1832 and died in Sierra Leone in 1912, was during his lifetime a considerable celebrity within the coastal colonies of West Africa, and among a few overseas specialists in their affairs; but for three or four decades thereafter his name was little known outside a small Afro-American intelligentsia of restricted influence.

The accelerated arrival of African independence in the 1950’s and 1960’s has, however, greatly extended his reputation; hailed as interpreter of the ‘African personality’, pioneer of pan-Africanism and négritude, a possible originator of the potent slogan ‘Africa for the Africans’, Blyden may now be in danger of receiving greater posthumous acclaim than most reputations can easily bear.