Fourah Bay College

Fourah Bay College

Fourah Bay College (Old building, 1930s)
Type	Public
Established	February 18, 1827 [1]
Students	3,465 total
Location	PO Box 87 Mount Aureol, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Campus	Freetown campus (urban)
Affiliations	University of Sierra Leone
Website	http://www.fbc.usl.edu.sl/

Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighborhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, is the oldest university in West Africa and the first western-style university built in West Africa.[2] It is a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone (USL) and was formerly affiliated with Durham University (1876-1967).

The college was established in February 1827 as an Anglican missionary school by the Church Missionary Society with support from Charles MacCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first student to enroll at Fouray Bay. Fourah Bay College soon became a magnet for Krio and other Africans seeking higher education in British West Africa. These included Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ivorians and many more, especially in the fields of theology and education. It was the first western-style university in West Africa. Under colonialism, Freetown was known as the "Athens of Africa" as an homage to the college.

The first black principal of the university was an African-American missionary, Reverend Edward Jones from South Carolina in the United States. Lamina Sankoh was a prominent early academic; Francis Heiser was principal from 1920 to 1922. Abioseh Nicol was the first Sierra Leonean administrator in 1966.