Africanus Horton | |
|---|---|
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| Born | James Beale Horton c. 1835 |
| Died | c. 1883 (aged 47–48) Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Alma mater | King's College London University of Edinburgh |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  British Empire |
| Service |  British Army |
| Rank | Surgeon-Major |
| Unit | West India Regiments Army Medical Staff |
| Battles / wars | Anglo-Ashanti wars |
| Occupation(s) | Army officer, surgeon, writer, banker |
| Spouses |
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Surgeon-MajorJames Africanus Beale Horton (c. 1835 –c. 1883) was aBritish Army officer, surgeon, writer and banker. Born inGloucester, Sierra Leone into aCreole family who wereliberated from enslavement by theRoyal Navy, he began attending theSLGS in 1845. After graduating fromFourah Bay College, Horton received aWar Office scholarship study medicine in Britain to prepare him for a career in theBritish Armed Forces, and he attendedKing's College London and theUniversity of Edinburgh. Serving in theWest India Regiments, Horton was posted to various locations within theBritish Empire, includingLagos,the Gambia,Sierra Leone and theGold Coast and participated in theAnglo-Ashanti wars.
Horton wrote extensively on the medicine and botany ofWest Africa, and espousedAfrican nationalism andpan-Africanism in opposition toracism by European writers. In his works, includingThe Political Economy of British West Africa (1865) andWest African Countries and Peoples (1868), he defended Africans against racist arguments and espousedself-governance for Britain's African colonies. After retiring from the army at the age of 45, Horton went to Freetown where he continued to campaign on political issues and opened a bank. His business activities and gold mining investments made him one of the wealthiest men in Africa by 1880, and Horton died three years later. Acrater onMercury is named in his honour.
James Beale Horton was bornc. 1835 in the village ofGloucester, Sierra Leone, nearFreetown, the capital of theSierra Leone Colony and Protectorate.[1] His father was James Horton Sr., anIgbo man who had been sold into slavery as part of theAtlantic slave trade beforebeing liberated by theRoyal Navy'sWest Africa Squadron and landed ashore at Freetown.[2] Horton began his education by studying at a local school in Gloucester before being recruited by British missionary The Rev. James Beale in 1845 to attend theSierra Leone Grammar School, which was run by theChurch Mission Society.[1] After graduating from the school, he began studyingdivinity at theFourah Bay College in the hopes of becoming aclergyman.[1][3]
However, Horton eventually sought a military career instead. In 1855, alongside fellowCreoles William Davies and Samuel Campbell, he received aWar Office scholarship to study medicine in Britain to prepare Horton for a career in theBritish Armed Forces, which at the time was looking for Black military personnel more acclimated to African environments to serve in Africa. Horton studied atKing's College London, and in 1858 published his dissertation, which was titled"On the medical topography of the west coast of Africa including sketches of its botany". He graduated in the same year.[4][5][6]
While a student in Britain, Horton took on the name "Africanus" as a symbol of pride in his African heritage.[5] After studying at King's College London, he went on to attend theUniversity of Edinburgh, graduating with aDoctor of Medicine. Upon the completion of his studies atEdinburgh, Horton was commissioned as anofficer in theBritish Army at the rank ofStaff-Assistant Surgeon, becoming one of the firstBlack people to serve in the officer corps of the British military. When he returned to Sierra Leone, Horton was posted to the neighbouring British colony of theGold Coast, serving in theWest India Regiments. As part of his military career, he was posted to various locations within theBritish Empire, includingLagos,the Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast.[7] Horton also participated in theAnglo-Ashanti wars.[8]
Horton's first two publications:The Political Economy of British West Africa: with the Requirements of Several Colonies and Settlements (1865) andWest African Countries and Peoples (1868) were a defense of Africans against racist views of some European anthropologists that Africans were a physically and intellectually inferior people whose development stopped centuries ago.[9] He argued that all races have the faculty to acquire knowledge about philosophy, science and technologies that civilizations have developed over the ages.[10] Horton was the first modern African political thinker to openly campaign for self-government for the West African colonies and champion the cause of what he referred to as "African nationality".[11]
He was an advocate of an elected monarchy in which a king would be elected by universal suffrage and bicameral legislature. In regards to the economic development of Sierra Leone, he proposed the annexation and commercial development of surrounding land in an effort to raise the revenue necessary to implement various economic and social development plans.[12] In another of his publications, a compilation of letters calledLetters of the Political Condition of the Gold Coast since the exchange of territory, Horton wrote about hostilities between ethnic groups in the Gold Coast and offered his views about solving the hostilities including the continuation of education in Africa.
Horton was one of the first West Africans to demand the establishment of a medical school and higher institution in the region. Horton recognised the value in an indigenous institution and believed that it should be headed by an African, believing that they would be more invested in the progress of the country than a European.[13] In 1861, he wrote a letter to the War Office in London, stating the need for atropical medical school in the region.[14] At the same time, Horton conducted his own medical science experiments in Africa, including an attempt to prove the presence of malaria in the miasmatic gasses of the Keta Lagoon.[15] Horton is often seen as one of the founders ofAfrican nationalism and has been called "the father of modern African political thought".[16]
After his retirement from the army, Horton started a finance institution called the Commercial Bank of West Africa. Horton married on two occasions while living in Freetown; he first married Fanny Marietta Pratt, daughter of the prominent Pratt family of Igbo origin. Marietta died at age twenty-two and Horton then on May 29, 1875, went on to marry Selina Beatrice Elliott, daughter of John Bucknor Elliott who was the manager of the Western Area of Freetown. The Elliotts were aNova Scotian Settler family ofAfrican-American descent.[17] He diedc. 1883. Acrater onMercury is named after him.[18]
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