University of Sierra Leone - Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College is the oldest University College in West Africa, soon to celebrate its 180th anniversary. The Faith and Globalisation course at Fourah Bay examines the lessons learned from Sierra Leone's complex history, in terms of the impact of religion on conflict and the way religion is influencing development.
Sierra Leone has a reputation for being one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. Fourah Bay’s involvement enriches the Faith and Globalisation Initiative as the only African university in the network.
As with all the initiative’s universities, the course is multi-disciplinary, combining the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and the Department of Peace & Conflict Studies. This approach takes the study of religion closer to the study of society and public life.
Fourah Bay College was founded by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1827. The establishment of Fourah Bay College was intended to provide its pupils, the children of the freed slaves and liberated Africans, with opportunities to obtain training in basic skills and to train those of its pupils who displayed the requisite aptitude as teachers and priests.
In 1876, the CMS succeeded in getting the College affiliated to Durham University, which meant that the students could sit for Durham's matriculation examinations and take Durham University degree examinations. As from 1st September 1966, the college became a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone which itself was constituted under the University of Sierra Leone Act 1967. Students, however, who had earlier matriculated in the University of Durham, continued pursuing courses of the University of Durham.
In 1972, a new act ‘The University of Sierra Leone Act’ was passed in parliament. This established a unitary system embracing Fourah Bay College, Njala University College and one or two other smaller colleges. Each college though has a large measure of autonomy.
Since its foundation, Fourah Bay College has, and continues to cater for Sierra Leonean and non-Sierra Leonean students from the entire continent of Africa and beyond.
