Anton Wilhelm Amo

Anton Wilhelm Amo or Anthony William Amo (c. 1703 – c. 1759) was an African from what is now Ghana, who became a respected philosopher and teacher at the universities of Halle and Jena in Germany after studying there. Brought to Germany by the Dutch West India Company in 1707 as a child, and given as a gift to the Dukes of August Wilhelm and Ludwig Rudolf von Wolfenbuttel, he was treated as a member of the family of Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, he was the first African known to have attended a European university.

Amo was a Nzema (an Akan people). He was born in Awukena in the Axim region of present-day Ghana, but at the age of about four he was taken to Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company. Some accounts say that he was taken as a slave, others that he was sent to Amsterdam by a preacher working in Ghana. Whatever the truth of the matter, he was given as a "present" to Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, to whose palace in Wolfenbüttel he was taken.

Amo was baptised (and later confirmed) in the palace's chapel. He was treated as a member of the Duke's family, and was educated at the Wolfenbüttel Ritter-Akademie (1717–1721) and at the University of Helmstedt (1721–1727).

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