Physician Africanus Horton

Africanus Horton was born in 1835 to parents of Nigerian (Igbo) descent in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was a Black West African who became a respected physician, soldier, and one of the first modern African political theorists during colonial rule, and all in the 1800s. Committed to his heritage Africanus changed his name from his birth name, James Horton, to Africanus later in life.

He started his education in Freetown though travelled to Britain in 1855 when he was awarded a War Office scholarship to study medicine. Horton trained first at King’s College London, then at the

University of Edinburgh. Despite being thousands of miles from home Horton excelled. He qualified as a doctor and in 1859 was appointed Staff Assistant Surgeon in the British Army. He served across West Africa including in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana). Dr Horton's role was not only medical but also symbolic, as he stood as a living challenge to racist ideas that Africans were unfit for leadership or intellectual work.

As well a excelling in the medical and military realms Horton turned to the pen to take on the colonial mindset. He challenged European voices claiming Africans were intellectually and morally inferior.
 
His 1868 book West African Countries and Peoples directly challenged these racist beliefs and called out European misconceptions and laid down a vision for African led progress. In his second book published in 1865 The Political Economy of British West Africa Dr Horton made the case for African self-governance. This was nearly a century before most African countries achieved independence. He believed Africans should be running their own governments and developing their own institutions. He refused to accept colonial limitations.

Dr Horton is widely seen as one of the first African nationalists. He wasn’t just writing in theory. he created infrastructure for Black-led growth, he invested in mining, banking, and education in West Africa.

Africanus Horton died in 1883 at just 48 years old.

Read about Africanus Horton the Activist HERE. Want information about medical jobs? Click HERE