Obadiah Johnson

Obadiah Johnson
Born	1849 Freetown, Sierra Leone
Died	1920 London
Nationality	Nigerian
Alma mater	Fourah Bay College University of Edinburgh King's College London
Occupation	Medical doctor
Known for	History of the Yorubas

Dr. Obadiah Johnson, MD (1849–1920) born in Freetown, Sierra Leone) was a Creole who was the second Nigerian to qualify as a medical doctor, and the author with his brother the Reverend Samuel Johnson of A History of the Yorubas from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate.

Johnson was of a liberated African or recaptive family that was originally from Nigeria and was an of the Kingdom of Oyo as a descendant of Alaafin Abiodun. Obadiah was the second Nigerian ever to qualify as a medical doctor. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School with an M.B., C.M. degree in 1886 and his M.D. in 1889. From 1890-1897 he was the Chief Medical Officer in Lagos. Although this achievement of his was a milestone in history, he became famous only for tackling another monumental undertaking.

In 1897, his older brother, the Reverend Samuel Johnson completed a major work on the history of the Yorubas but, in Dr. Johnson's own words, "A singular misfortune...befell the original manuscripts of this history, in consequence of which the author never lived to see in print his more than 20 years of labour." The manuscripts were sent to an English publisher in London, England, through a missionary society, in 1899 but, "nothing more was heard of them".

In 1900, Johnson visited England and called on the publisher who told him he misplaced the manuscripts and, "that they could not be found, and that he was prepared to pay for them." Although Dr. Johnson smelt a rat immediately, he and his brother decided to "let the subject rest there." The original author, Samuel Johnson, died a year later on 29 April 1901. Thus, Dr. Obadiah Johnson had "to rewrite the whole history anew from the copious notes and rough copies left behind by the author".

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