Dandeson Coates Crowther

Archdeacon Dandeson Coates Crowther OBE (24 September 1844 - 5 January 1938) was a son of Archbishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and a leader of the Anglican Church in West Africa. He was born in Sierra Leone. He was a part of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) in 1870 and titled as "Archdeacon" of the Niger Delta in 1876. He is credited with initiating the "mass movement" towards Christianity in the 1870s and ultimately the first African secession from the Anglican Church when he founded the Niger Delta Pastorate.

He was ordained at Saint Mary's Parish Church by Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Prior to this role, he held a few temporary roles. This included jobs such as secretary and chaplain for his father Samuel Ajayi Crowther and Senior Pastor in Bonny, Niger Delta.

Early life
Dandeson Coates Crowther was the youngest son of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who was the first African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria. His father, Archbishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, was born in 1807 in Osogun, Yorubaland, Nigeria. He was enslaved at 13 years old and traded to Portuguese slave ships. After Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, Royal Navy patrols stopped Ajayi's captive ship in April 1822, transporting these newly freedmen to Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was converted to the Anglican Church and adopted the name Crowther. Dandeson Crowther, born in 1844, was the youngest of his children.

Education
Dandeson Coates Crowther was educated in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and England. He attended the Christian Missionary Society Grammar School located in Lagos, Nigeria in 1860. He then relocated and attended the Christian Missionary Society College in Islington, London, graduating in 1863. He received a Doctorate of Divinity in Lambeth in 1921.

Mission
Dandeson Coates Crowther's journey as a missionary began in 1870 after he was ordained by his father. On 19 June 1870, he became a deacon at Saint Mary's Parish Church in Islington, London. He returned to the Niger Delta in 1871 to join the Christian Missionary Society Niger Mission. On 12 March 1871, he became a priest in Lagos, Nigeria. He remained at Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria until becoming Archdeacon of the Niger Delta in 1876. He was Archdeacon, often called "venerable," of the Lower Niger and Delta stations, and led the Southern Nigeria Province of the Christian Missionary Society Mission.

D.C. Crowther frequently travelled across continents, utilizing shipping lines between Great Britain and West Africa, such as the Elder Dempster Line. He constantly travelled between London and Nigeria, but when he got sick, he traveled to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Crowther struggled throughout his mission as some of the leaders of the Christian Missionary Society did not want any non-native Europeans to run the Mission. The backlash against African-born clergymen skyrocketed after the Niger Crisis of 1890 and even led to the death of Samuel Ajayi Crowther in 1891. Today, historians possess letters written by Dandeson Coates Crowther, expressing his realization of people attempting to kick him out of the Christian Missionary Society. He concluded his role as Archdeacon of the Niger Delta in 1926. In 1935, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, knighted by the King of England, and made "Sir." He died at the age of 93 years old on 5 January 1938 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Legacy
Before passing away in 1938, Crowther was involved in the Delta Revolt and often fought for Africans to run their continent without the sole reliance on Europeans. The Niger Delta separated from the Christian Missionary Society after Crowther advocated for a self-governing African church, establishing the Niger Delta Pastorate in 1892. To carry out this mission, he often dabbled in translating work. He translated the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, "Dusk to Dusk," into Igbo, a language of southeastern Nigeria. He also translated a portion of the book of Jeremiah of the Bible into Yoruba, a language of southwestern Nigeria. Following in the footsteps of his father, who translated the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Yoruba, Dandeson Coates Crowther worked to keep Africans as involved with the Church as possible, while maintaining autonomy and freedom.