Who translated the Bible to Yoruba? This question is currently trending online as many Nigerians are wondering who translated the bible to Yoruba. This article seeks to provide the answer to the person who translated the bible to Yoruba.
Yoruba, an African indigenous group, are thought to be the descendants of Odua, also known as Oduduwa. They live in western Africa, and their area was known as the “Slave Coast” during the slave trade.
Who Translated The Bible To Yoruba?
Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the person who, in addition to translating the Bible into Yoruba, created a Yoruba dictionary in 1843. He was born in 1809 and died in 1891. He was a Nigerian linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop in West Africa.
When he was just twelve years old, he and his family were captured by slave raiders in Osogun (in what is now Ado-Awaye, Oyo State, Nigeria).
During the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars (1821-1829), his village Oshogun was sacked. Ajayi was later resold to Portuguese slave traders, who placed him into a ship sailing across the Atlantic to the New World.
The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, which was enforcing the British ban on the Atlantic slave trade at a coastal port, rescued Crowther from slavery.
People who had been liberated were transported to Sierra Leone. Ajayi adopted the English name Samuel Crowther and began his English study in Sierra Leone.
He became a Christian and identified with Sierra Leone’s dominant ethnic group, the Krio. He studied languages and was ordained as a pastor in England before receiving a doctorate from Oxford University.
