author
Orishatukeh Faduma
d. 1946
A pioneering educator and missionary, he moved between Guyana, Sierra Leone, Britain, and the United States while arguing that African culture deserved respect rather than dismissal. His life traced an unusual path across the Black Atlantic and helped open space for later African studies.
1 Audiobook
The Defects of the Negro Church The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 10
by Orishatukeh Faduma
About the author
Born in British Guiana in 1855 to Yoruba parents who had been taken from West Africa in the era of slavery, he was originally named William James Davies. After studying in Sierra Leone, he embraced a Yoruba identity, took the name Orishatukeh Faduma, and went on to study in Britain and at Yale, becoming one of the first Africans to attend the university.
He worked as a teacher, Christian missionary, and public thinker, serving in places including Sierra Leone and the United States. He is especially remembered for urging churches and schools to take African languages and customs seriously, rather than treating African life as something to be erased.
Later in life he led Peabody Academy in North Carolina and remained active in religious and intellectual circles. He died in 1946, leaving behind a story that connects African, Caribbean, and African American history in a strikingly personal way.