Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones (6 January 1925 – 21 March 2020)''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 537. was a

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

an academic and literary critic, known for his book ''Othello's Countrymen: A Study of Africa in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama''. He was a principal of

Fourah Bay College Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-le ...

. Jones died in

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

, Sierra Leone, on Saturday, 21 March 2020.

Biography

Eldred Durosimi Jones was born on 6 January 1925 to

Sierra Leone Creole The Sierra Leone Creole people () are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Sierra Leone Liberated African, Liberated African slaves who ...

parents. On his maternal side, Jones descended from the

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...

. Jones attended the

CMS Grammar School, Freetown The Sierra Leone Grammar School was founded on 25 March 1845 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by the Church Mission Society (CMS), and at first was called the CMS Grammar School. It was the first secondary educational institution for West Africans with ...

, and

(1944–47), completing a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree. He studied in England at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

(1950–53) and the main campus of the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

(1962). In 1968, he became the first editor of the journal ''

African Literature Today ''African Literature Today'' (''ALT'') is a journal that was first published in 1968 and is now the oldest international journal of African Literature still publishing. The journal was founded by Eldred Durosimi Jones, and annual volumes were ed ...

'', continuing in the role for more than three decades. His critical works include ''Othello's Countrymen: A Study of the African in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama'' (Oxford University Press, 1985), ''The Writing of Wole Soyinka'' (Heinemann, 1973), and ''The Elizabethan Image of Africa'' (University of Virginia for the Folger Shakespeare Library, 1971). Jones was also the author of ''The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags'' (James Currey, 2012) with the help of his wife Marjorie Jones. Eldred Jones died on 21 March 2020, at the age of 95.

References

External links

Review of ''The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags''
by Jane Plastow, '' Leeds African Studies Bulletin'', 75 (2013/14), 30 July 2013. *

Kole Omotoso Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso (21 April 1943 – 19 July 2023), also known as Kole Omotoso, was a Nigerian writer and intellectual best known for his works of fiction and in South Africa as the "Yebo Gogo man" in adverts for the telecommunications co ...

"Eldred Durosimi (Pause For Breath) Jones 1925 – 2020"
''The Guardian'' (Nigeria), 19 April 2020. 1925 births 2020 deaths Academic staff of Fourah Bay College Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Fourah Bay College alumni Linguists from Sierra Leone People educated at the Sierra Leone Grammar School Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leonean writers Sierra Leonean people of Jamaican Maroon descent Scholars of African literature Linguists from Jamaica {{SierraLeone-writer-stub