Michael Crowder

Not to be confused with Mike Crowder.

Michael Crowder (9 June 1934 – 14 August 1988)^[1][2] was a British historian and author notable for his books on the history of Africa and particularly on the history of West Africa.^[3][4]

Michael Crowder
Born	(1934-06-09)9 June 1934 London, England
Died	14 August 1988(1988-08-14) (aged 54) London, England
Alma mater	Hertford College, Oxford
Occupation	Historian

Early life and education

Michael Crowder was born in London, England, on 9 June 1934, and was educated at Mill Hill School. After earning a first-class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Hertford College, Oxford, in 1957, he returned to Lagos, Nigeria – where he had previously been conscripted to the Nigeria Regiment from 1953 to 1954 for his British national service^[5] – to become first Editor of Nigeria Magazine in 1959.^[5]

Academic career

Crowder commenced his career as a secretary at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. In 1964, he was Visiting Lecturer in African History at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1965.

While in Nigeria from 1968 to 1978, he was appointed as Research Professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University). Afterwards, he became Professor of History at Ahmadu Bello University and finally was Research Professor in History at the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos in the 1970s. After his return to London in 1979, he worked as an editor for the British magazine History Today. He was also Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and Professor of History at the University of Botswana in the 1980s, while he worked as a Consultant Editor until his death.^[6][7][8][9]

He died in London on 14 August 1988, aged 54.^[10]

Selected books

• The Story of Nigeria (1962)
• Eze Goes to School, co-authored with Onuora Nzekwu (1963)
• West Africa Under Colonial Rule (1968)
• West African Resistance (1971)
• West Africa: An Introduction to its History (1977)
• Akin Goes to School, co-authored with Christie Ade Ajayi (1978)
• Colonial West Africa (1978)
• The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 8: From c.1940 to c.1975 (1984), Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22409-3.

See also

• John Fage, another early Africanist specialising in West Africa
• Anthony Kirk-Greene
• Ibadan School