This dissertation is about Fourah Bay College (FBC) and its role as an institution of higher learning in both its African and international context. The study traces the College's development through periods of missionary education (1816-1876), colonial education (1876-1938), and development education (1938-2001).
FBC has stood at the center of complex interactions related to religious and racial intolerance, colonialism, Pan-Africanism, nationalism, neocolonialism, the Cold War, and African studies. Both African and European academics have contributed enormously to the College's development. This work argues that people willing to engage respectfully with others different from themselves benefited the most through such intercultural learning experiences. It also shows that those who entered cross-cultural environments assuming the superiority of one culture, "civilization," over another have done great damage. It distinguishes the individual efforts of FBC students, faculty, and alumni to address local needs and bridge cultural differences from the constraints of a rather narrow curriculum and a chronically under-funded institution.
The study has found that the African students, faculty and alumni at FBC tended to support the integration of West Africa into the global community as they opposed colonial rule, while external actors, primarily from Great Britain, exercised tremendous economic and political control over the College, both directing and impeding its development. While FBC's curriculum did not particularly emphasize learning about the language, customs, or culture of different ethnic groups in Sierra Leone or West Africa, many alumni took a keen interest and played important roles investigating and reporting on such topics. FBC faculty and alumni, including visiting scholars, have helped change the traditional methodologies and canons of the Western university, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
The history of international relations at Fourah Bay College emphasizes the challenges of transforming higher education into a more inclusive, multicultural, international system that promotes development globally. Despite some notable accomplishments, it appears that we have not yet developed the appropriate technology, skills, or understanding to bring about such transformation.
