Adelaide Casely-Hayford
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| Adelaide Casely-Hayford | |
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| Born | 27 June 1868 Freetown, Sierra Leone |
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| Died | 16 January 1960 (aged 91) Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Nationality | Sierra Leonean |
| Profession | advocate, nationalism, educationist |
| Religion | Christian |
Adelaide Casely-Hayford née Smith (27 June 1868 - 16 January 1960) was a strong Sierra Leonean Creole advocate, cultural nationalism, educationist, short story writer and ardent feminist. Her determination to ensure that Sierra Leoneans preserve their national identity and cultural heritage caused her in 1925 to attend a reception in honour of the Prince of Wales in traditional African costume, causing a sensation.
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[edit] Early life and education
Adelaide Casely Hayford, née Smith was born on 27 June 1868 in Freetown, Sierra Leone to a mixed race father (of English and royal Fanti parentage) from the Gold Coast and a Creole mother of English, Jamaican Maroon, and Sierra Leone Liberated African ancestry. The young Adelaide spent most of her childhood and adolescence in England where her father had retired in 1872 on a pension of 666 poundsterling In England, she attended the Jersey Ladies College, and at the age of seventeen she proceeded to Stuttgart, Germany to study music at the Stuttgart Conservatory. Adelaide and her sisters returned to Sierra Leone after twenty-five years abroad.
She returned to England where, together with her sister, she opened a boarding home for African bachelors. While in England she married J.E. Casely Hayford (a.k.a. Ekra-Agiman). It is probable that her marriage to Casely-Hayford gave her a deeper insight into African culture and may have influenced her transformation into a cultural nationalist. Inspired by the ideas of racial pride and co-operation advanced by Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), she joined the Ladies Division of the Freetown Branch on her return and became its President. She resigned from the Association however, in June 1920, because of a conflict of interest between the UNIA and the proposed Girls' Vocational School she intended to establish. In the United States, she gave public lectures aimed at correcting the misguided American notions about Africa.
Back in Freetown, Adelaide embarked on her project of establishing a vocational institution which would help students understand racil background and pride. In October 1923, The Girls' Vocational School opened in the Smith Family home at Gloucester Street, opposite the Post Office, with fourteen pupils. As Principal, she would have preferred the pupils wearing native dress to school, but this idea was rejected by the community. However, on A
[edit] Achievement and Award
Despite Adelaide's opposition to the injustices of the colonial system and her strong advocacy of cultural nationalism, the British authorities had sufficient respect for her to award her the King's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935, and the MBE in 1950. She spent the final years of her life writing her memoirs and short stories.
[edit] Trivia
- The famous Sierra Leone Creole people poet, Gladys Casely-Hayford was the daughter of Adelaide Casely Hayford and
- The well-known Sierra Leonean doctor MCF Easmon was the nephew of Adelaide Casely-Hayford through his mother, Kathleen Smith Easmon the sister of Adelaide
- She was an acquintance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
- Her only grandson is Kobina Hunter
- Her short story "Mista Courifer" was featured in Langston Hughes' African Treasury, a collection of short African stories
[edit] References
- http://www.sierra-leone.org/heroes6.html
- An African Victorian Feminist; the Life and Times of Adelaide Smith Casely Hayford, 1868-1960
- http://www.amazon.com/African-Victorian-Feminist-Adelaide-1868-1960/dp/0882581570
