Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango (9 August 1891 – 20 July 1924) 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 missionary and artist who was the first West African to earn a diploma from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. She was the niece of Adelaide Casely-Hayford and was a personal friend of

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 18751 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor. He was particularly known for his three cantatas on the epic 1855 poem ''The Song of Hiawatha'' by American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coler ...

. Simango was also a member of the prominent

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 ...

Easmon family The Easmon family or the ''Easmon Medical Dynasty'' is a Sierra Leone Creole medical dynasty of African-American descent originally based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Easmon family has ancestral roots in the United States, and in particular Sav ...

Early years and education

Kathleen Mary Easmon was born on 9 August 1891 as the younger of two children in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), to Dr John Farrell Easmon and Annette Kathleen Easmon, née Smith. Kathleen was educated at Slaford House School, then Notting Hill High School from 1903 to 1907, then the Girls' Modern School, Bedford, from 1907 to 1908, and finally studied at the

in London. She began writing poetry at a young age, and when she was still a teenager some of her poems were set to music by composer

, who was a family friend.

Personal life

She was married to Columbus Kamba Simango, an

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

n teacher educated at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Death

Kathleen Easmon died of appendicitis, aged 32, on 20 July 1924 at

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is district general hospital and teaching hospital located in Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approxim ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. Her obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' described her as " e of the most cultured women that West Africa has yet given the world".

Sources

*M. C. F. Easmon, "A Nova Scotian Family", ''Eminent Sierra Leoneans in the nineteenth century'' (1961). *Adell Patton, Jr., "Dr. John Farrell Easmon: Medical Professionalism and Colonial Racism in the Gold Coast, 1856–1900", ''The International Journal of African Historical Studies'', Vol. 22, No. 4 (1989), pp. 601–636. *Adell Patton Jr., "The Easmon Episode", ''Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa'', pp. 93–122.

References

External links

Easmon Family History
1891 births 1924 deaths Sierra Leone Creole people Kathleen Mary Sierra Leonean people of African-American descent Sierra Leonean people of Jamaican Maroon descent Sierra Leonean people of Caribbean descent Sierra Leonean people of Irish descent Sierra Leonean people of British descent People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School MacCormac family (County Armagh) Deaths from appendicitis {{SierraLeone-bio-stub