Blyden, Edward Wilmot (1832-1912)

Blyden is widely regarded as the Father of modern black and African nationalism. He had a profound impact on an entire generation of African nationalists. Blyden was born in the West Indies, but lived in West Africa for most of his life. His career as clergyman, educator, journalist, administrator, diplomat, politician, and philosopher of black nationalism was remarkable. Some of his works—like Vindication of the Negro Race (1857), Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887), and African Life and Customs (1908)—became classics of African Nationalism in the twentieth century. Nearly all major ideas advanced by black and African nationalists after World War I were first developed in Blyden's writings—whether it be Garvey's “Black Zionism,” Nkrumah's “African personality,” Padmore's “pan-Africanism,” or Senghor's and Césaire's “négritude.”