Harry Sawyerr (theologian) explained

Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyerr MBE (9 October 1909 – August 1986) was a Sierra Leonean Anglican theologian and writer on African religion.^[1] He became principal of Fourah Bay College and Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone.^[2]

Sawyerr studied initially at Fourah Bay College, later moving to England to study at the main campus of Durham University.^[3] He successively earned Bachelor of Arts (1933), Master of Arts (1936) and Master of Education (1940) degrees.

Harry Sawyerr was influenced by Thomas Sylvester Johnson, the first assistant bishop of Sierra Leone.^[4]

Works

• (with William Thomas Harris) The Springs of Mende Beliefs and Conduct: a discussion of the influence of the belief in the supernatural among the Mende, 1968
• Creative Evangelism: towards a new Christian encounter with Africa, 1968
• God: Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of traditional belief in Ghana, Nigeria & Sierra Leone, 1970
• (ed. J. Paratt) The Practice of Presence: Selected Papers of Harry Sawyerr, 1995

Notes and References

1. L. M. Miles, Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyerr, Dictionary of African Christian Biography, 2005. Accessed 18 November 2012.
2. Book: C. Magbaily Fyle. Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone: New Edition. registration. 18 November 2012. 2006. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-5339-3. 175.
3. Book: Sawyerr, Rev. Prof. Canon Harry Alphonso Ebun, (16 Oct. 1909–1986) . UK Who's Who . 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U168873. 978-0-19-954089-1. 5 October 2018 . en .
4. Andrew F. Wallis, 'Johnson, Thomas Sylvester', in Gerald H. Anderson, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, 1998. Reprinted online at the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.