Florence Mahoney

Dr Asi Florence Peters Mahoney (born 1929) is a Gambian Creole or "Aku" author and the first Gambian woman to obtain a PhD.

Background and early life

Florence Mahoney was born in 1929 in Bathurst, Gambia to Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters (1894-February 14, 1968) and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie was a Sierra Leone Creole, while Rosemary was a Gambian Creole or Aku. Because Gambian Creoles or Akus are descendants of Sierra Leonea Creoles who worked and settled in Gambia, Mahoney has ties on both sides to Sierra Leone. The Peters family was of West Indian or more likely Nova Scotian Settler descent (making them descendants of the original black American founders of the 1792 Freetown settlement and possibly direct descendants of Thomas Peters himself). The family was also related to the prominent Sierra Leonean Creole Maxwell family that produced Joseph Renner Maxwell, the first African graduate of the University of Oxford, and the son of a colonial chaplain. Mahoney was one of five children, including the late Dr. Lenrie Peters and actor Dennis Alaba Peters. Her parents had met each other in the 1920s and married within the same decade. Mahoney's father, Lenrie Ingram was a graduate of Fourah Bay College and because of that institution's affiliation with Durham University was also a graduate of the latter university. Peters was the longest serving editor for the Gambian Echo and a staunch advocate for the rights of indigenous Gambians. He was a pan-Africanist and used to read poetry to Lenrie Jr. as a child.

Education

Mahoney attended St. Mary's Anglican Primary and then the Methodist Girls' High School and passed her Senior Cambridge School Certificate. Mahoney was then sent to St Elphin's Boarding School for girls in Derbyshire, England. After finishing, Mahoney attended Westfield College (now Queen Mary, University of London) and received a bachelor's degree with honors in History. Mahoney then attended the University of Oxford where she obtained a post-graduate degree in Education. Mahoney then studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies where she obtained a PhD in History. Mahoney was the first Gambian woman ever to obtain a PhD.

Return to the Gambia and educationalist work

Mahoney returned to the Gambia and married John Mahoney Jr. John Mahoney was the son of Sir John Mahoney a member of an influential and prominent Gambian Creole family that was active in colonial politics. Dr. John Mahoney's sister, Hannah Augusta Darling Mahoney married Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, the first leader of the Gambian Republic following independence on February 18, 1965. In 1972, Mahoney was made a "Fulbright Professor of African history" and lectured at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia. In 1973 she returned to the Gambia but shortly thereafter she returned to the United States in March 1974 to lecture at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Mahoney taught "History and Religion" before rejoining her husband in Congo Brazzaville after her classes had ended.

Family

Florence Mahoney is still married and has three children; Omotunde, Sola, and Ayodeji.

Sources

• http://allafrica.com/stories/201007060225.html
• http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/tribute-to-a-great-gambian-historian-dr-florence-mahoney-at-80
• http://gamwriters.com/africa/gambia/post/2008/10/10/dr-florence-mahoney
• http://gamwriters.com/africa/gambia/banjul/post/to-my-late-friend-dr-lenrie-peters-the-gambian-vessel-emptied-of-its-poetry
• http://africa.gm/africa/senegal/dakar/article/2008/6/3/obituary-notice
• http://allafrica.com/stories/200906081511.html
• http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/adieu-lenrie-peters
• Historical dictionary of the Gambia, by Arnold Hughes & David Perfect
• African media cultures: transdisciplinary perspectives, by Rose Marie Beck & Frank Wittmann