Samuel Benjamin (Akube) Thomas ( ''fl.'' 1833 – 1901) 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 entrepreneur and philanthropist who amassed a large fortune from which he left a substantial endowment for the establishment of an agricultural college.Christopher Fyfe, A History of Sierra Leone, London, 1962 Born in Wellington, Freetown to Creole parents, Thomas attended the CMS Grammar School and later

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 ...

where he studied

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Ch ...

. One of the richest Africans of his era, Thomas later developed a keen interest in practical agriculture and possessed the wealth to turn his views into reality. Upon his death, he left a large endowment for the establishment of the first agricultural college in West Africa to train students, not only in the liberal arts or Christian theology, but also in the theory and practice of agriculture. The foundation stone for the S.B. Thomas Agricultural Academy, was laid by Governor Leslie Probyn on 28 January 1909 and the college was opened in 1912 on 1000 acres of land in Ribbi Chiefdom,

Moyamba District Moyamba District is a Districts of Sierra Leone, district in the Southern Province, Sierra Leone, Southern Province of Sierra Leone, with a population of 318,064 in the 2015 census. Its capital and largest city is Moyamba. The other major towns in ...

.''The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography'' (In 20 Volumes). Volume Two: Sierra Leone-Zaire. Ed. L. H. Ofosu-Appiah. New York: Reference Publications Inc., 1979

References

Sierra Leone Creole people People from Freetown People educated at the Sierra Leone Grammar School Fourah Bay College alumni Year of birth missing Year of death missing Sierra Leonean businesspeople 19th-century African businesspeople 19th-century philanthropists {{SierraLeone-bio-stub