Constance Cummings-John

Constance Cummings-John (1918 – 21 February 2000) was a Sierra Leonean educationist and politician. She was the first woman in Africa to join a municipal council and in 1966 became the first woman to serve as mayor of Freetown. She was based in London, England, for the latter part of her life.

She was born Constance Agatha Horton into an influential Krio family, black migrants to West Africa from the Americas in the 18th century who by the 20th century had become intellectuals, business people, and members of the professions. Her father, John Warner M. Horton, was city treasurer of Freetown, while her mother was a concert pianist.

Constance herself went to London in 1935, aged 17, at to train as a schoolteacher. While there she joined the West African Students' Union and the League of Coloured Peoples. Having gained her teaching certificate, she took up further studies in the United States at Cornell University.

When she returned to London she joined the International African Service Bureau, under the leadership of George Padmore, and married Ethnan Cummings-John, a radical lawyer. In 1937 she returned to Freetown as principal of the African Methodist Episcopal Girls' Industrial School, but her political activities caused her great problems with the British Colonial Office. During the Second World War she established a mining company, which later became an important source of funds for her educational projects.

Between 1946 and 1951 she lived in New York City, where her brother Asadata Dafora Horton was a successful musician and dancer. While living in the US, she worked in hospitals and served on the executives of the American Council for African Education and the Council on African Affairs, the second of which was chaired by Paul Robeson.

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