Edward Wilmot Blyden III
Encyclopedia
Edward Wilmot Blyden III (May 19, 1918- October 10, 2010; Native of Sierra Leone) was a diplomat, political scientist and educator born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He distinguished himself as an educator and contributor to post-colonial discourse on African self-government, and Third World non-alignment. He was the grandson of Edward Wilmot Blyden
.
pandemic. While this affected his ability to walk in early childhood it was not a lasting disability. Edward and his sister Amina were raised by their mother, Isa Cleopatra Blyden and their Liberian grandmother, Anna Espadon Erskine, who were both headmistresses of primary schools in the Muslim communities of Foulah Town and Fourah Bay
even though the family were active members of the Zion Methodist Church, Wilberforce Street. He attended the Ebenezer Amalgamated Primary School.
He attended the Wesleyan Methodist Boys High School and after graduating, matriculated at Fourah Bay College. He worked as a teacher and briefly for the Sierra Leone Railway during the early 1940s. His earliest published essays on African education and colonialism date back to these years.
in the United States where his grandfather had received an honorary doctorate. He graduated from Lincoln in 1948 with an A.B. degree and matriculated at Harvard University, where he earned M.A., M.Ed. degrees in Education and began research for a Ph.D. in Political Science. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the pattern of constitutional change and emergence of African political thought in the twentieth century. During this period, he met with Edith Holden granddaughter of John Pray Knox with whom Blyden's family had longstanding historical connections and with whom he later worked on the definitive biography of his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
. In 1950 he met and married Amelia Elizabeth Kendrick a native of Worcester, Massachusetts and a graduate of Boston University.
in 1957. Promoting the view that a newly independent Sierra Leone would not be well served by the fractious nature of party politics, he galvanised his followers with the Movement's signature call and response: "What's the Word? SLIM!". Prominent supporters of SLIM included regional and international Pan-Africanists like Nnamdi Azikiwe
, Kwame Nkrumah
, George Padmore
, Eric Williams
, Julius Nyerere
and John Henrik Clark who viewed the progress towards independence in Sierra Leone as part of a wider effort to forge an independent West Africa united by the same socio-political principles. In 1957, Blyden and Paramount Chief and Member of Parliament Tamba Songou Mbriwa of Gbense Chiefdom, Kono District
lodged a formal protest at the Colonial Office in London against the illicit exploitation of Sierra Leone's diamonds, demanding a Royal Commission of Enquiry into serious riots in the Kono District
. In the pre-elections of 1957, SLIM won no seats which disappointed Blyden and his supporters within and without the country. Blyden and Mbriwa went on to form an alliance, merging their parties to form the Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement
(SLPIM)
At the eve of independence, a West Africa Correspondent's Report summed up Blyden and SLIM's impact on pre-independence politics as follows:
to help build the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he established the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy and the Department of African Studies. He was Dean of Faculties but made his most lasting impact on a generation of West Africans as the University Public Orator. Blyden was able to expose the student body to a wide spectrum of international scholars, including William Leo Hansberry
, Arnold Toynbee
, Basil Davidson
, Leopold Senghor and others. At the outbreak of the Biafran War in 1966, he and his family moved to Freetown where he became Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Director of African studies at Fourah Bay College
(the University of Sierra Leone
). First and foremost, Blyden considered himself a teacher, and strove to imbue a generation of bright young men and women with the knowledge, principles and self-confidence needed to guide Africa in a Post-Colonial world. The careers of notable Africans such as Peter Onu, James Jonah and others he taught or mentored are testament to his success.
that formally ended World War II
. He toured Asian and Far Eastern Universities as a visiting lecturer, coming in contact with intellectuals involved in Asian independence struggles,,. In 1954 he was the sole delegate from colonial Sierra Leone to the Eighth General Assembly of UNESCO in Montevideo, Uruguay. Thus by the mid-1950s, Blyden's African perspective on post-colonial nationhood and self-determination was widely known and respected among Africans and Asians seeking to define the roles of post-colonial nations on the world stage. At the 1962 conference on international politics billed “New Nations in a Divided World: The international relations of Afro-Asian states", Blyden presented the paper African Neutralism and Non Alignment. The conference organizers would ultimately publish the conference proceedings in a book of the same name (Praeger, NY) edited by Kurt London, with the following commentary:
In his contribution, Blyden reviewed the history and origin of African ideas on neutralism and non-alignment from James Aggrey
and J. E. Casely Hayford
, through Nnamdi Azikiwe
and Kwame Nkrumah
to the Bandung Conference. Blyden summarized the primacy of Africanism in the policy-making of newly independent nations:
In 1971, Blyden was again given the chance to put the ideas on which he had built his academic and political careers into practice. Under the presidency of Siaka Stevens
, Blyden was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Sierra Leone to the Soviet Union
, and accredited to Romania
, Poland
, Yugoslavia
, Bulgaria
, Czechoslovakia
and Hungary
. During his first visit to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs to schedule a date for official presentation of his credentials, Blyden met Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
and reminded him of their first meeting in 1949 at the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco
. What followed was an extended conversation which also broke the protocol of conversations through translators: Blyden returned to his embassy to find an official invitation to present his credentials the following morning. On a later visit to Moscow, Blyden would be presented with a biography of his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
, published by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Africa and Asia under the directorship of Anatoli Gromyko.
Another surprise for Blyden was his meeting with former Harvard classmate, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, during President Richard Nixon
's historic 1972 visit to Moscow; both of them now on the world stage. While accredited to Eastern Europe, he orchestrated three successful state visits to Sierra Leone by Marshall Josef Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Premier Alexei Kosygin of the Soviet Union, and Nicolae Ceausescu
of Romania. Blyden negotiated important agreements between Sierra Leone and Warsaw Pact Countries for trade and development projects in Sierra Leone.
From 1974-1976 he served as Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations where he was Chairman of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization
. He was an influential voice of reason in the infamous *Zionism is racism* debate that led to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975, placing Sierra Leone at the center of efforts to table the motion and presenting an Africanist perspective on Zionism first elaborated by his own grandfather in 1898,.
On his return from the UN, Blyden served as Special Adviser to the President, and played an active role during the 1980 OAU Summit in Sierra Leone, at which he was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal by the visiting U.N. Secretary General.
. He gave the keynote speech at the 100th Anniversary of the University of Liberia ( formally Liberia College), an institution at which his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
had been a founding Professor. Though much of his career was spent outside of Sierra Leone, Blyden remained deeply attached to the cultural life of his native Freetown. He was a member of the Zion Methodist Church of Wilberforce St. and an important patriarchal figure in the Muslim communities of Fullah Town and Fourah Bay. He was a Freemason and former Grand Master. He was an honorary member of the Akamori Hunting Society. Blyden's character and its lasting impression has been succinctly summarized by the anthropologist Joe Opala
:
Blyden III, Edward W. The Idea of African "Neutralism" and "Non-Alignment": An Exploratory Survey in New Nations in a Divided World. K.L. London (ed.) Praeger, N.Y. & London, 1963.
Blyden, Edward W., "The Rise and Growth of African Statesmanship: From the Mid-Fifteenth Century to the Present," in Statesmanship in Africa, special supplement to Civilizations, Winter, 1953.
Blyden, Edward W., "The Need for Mass Education in Sierra Leone" (A review essay in Memorandum on the Education of African Communities) in West Africa (London), January 1940 (under pseudonym Adjai Onike).
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
.
Early Years
Edward Wilmot Blyden III was born Edward Wilmot Abioseh Blyden-Taylor on May 19, 1918, to Isa Cleopatra Blyden and Joseph Ravensburg Taylor in the "Baimbrace" neighborhood of Freetown. As an infant, he suffered the effects of Rickets brought on by malnutrition in the wake of the 1918-19 Spanish FluSpanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
pandemic. While this affected his ability to walk in early childhood it was not a lasting disability. Edward and his sister Amina were raised by their mother, Isa Cleopatra Blyden and their Liberian grandmother, Anna Espadon Erskine, who were both headmistresses of primary schools in the Muslim communities of Foulah Town and Fourah Bay
Fourah Bay
Fourah Bay is a neighborhood in the West End of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Fourah Bay is known for its rich culture and deeply religious muslim people. Fourah Bay is largely muslim and is home to Sierra Leone's biggest and West Africa's oldest university, the Fourah Bay College ) to which it gives its...
even though the family were active members of the Zion Methodist Church, Wilberforce Street. He attended the Ebenezer Amalgamated Primary School.
He attended the Wesleyan Methodist Boys High School and after graduating, matriculated at Fourah Bay College. He worked as a teacher and briefly for the Sierra Leone Railway during the early 1940s. His earliest published essays on African education and colonialism date back to these years.
Student Years in America
After the Second World War, Blyden, was invited to continue his education at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)
Lincoln University is the United States' first degree-granting historically black university. It is located near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university also hosts a Center for Graduate Studies in the City of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides...
in the United States where his grandfather had received an honorary doctorate. He graduated from Lincoln in 1948 with an A.B. degree and matriculated at Harvard University, where he earned M.A., M.Ed. degrees in Education and began research for a Ph.D. in Political Science. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the pattern of constitutional change and emergence of African political thought in the twentieth century. During this period, he met with Edith Holden granddaughter of John Pray Knox with whom Blyden's family had longstanding historical connections and with whom he later worked on the definitive biography of his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
. In 1950 he met and married Amelia Elizabeth Kendrick a native of Worcester, Massachusetts and a graduate of Boston University.
Politics and the Sierra Leone Independence Movement
Blyden interrupted his graduate studies in 1954 to return to Sierra Leone where he took up a position as head of Extra Mural Studies at Fourah Bay College. He became increasingly active in the politics of independence and after a sensational series of Town-Hall lectures, he formed the Sierra Leone Independence MovementSierra Leone Independence Movement
Sierra Leone Independence Movement was a Freetown-based political party in Sierra Leone, was founded in 1957. The movement was led by Edward Wilmot Blyden III...
in 1957. Promoting the view that a newly independent Sierra Leone would not be well served by the fractious nature of party politics, he galvanised his followers with the Movement's signature call and response: "What's the Word? SLIM!". Prominent supporters of SLIM included regional and international Pan-Africanists like Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe , usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe and popularly known as "Zik", was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism who became the first President of Nigeria after Nigeria secured its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960; holding the...
, Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, George Padmore
George Padmore
George Padmore , born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist in his later years.-Early years:...
, Eric Williams
Eric Williams
Eric Eustace Williams served as the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He served from 1956 until his death in 1981. He was also a noted Caribbean historian, and is widely regarded as "The Father of The Nation."...
, Julius Nyerere
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....
and John Henrik Clark who viewed the progress towards independence in Sierra Leone as part of a wider effort to forge an independent West Africa united by the same socio-political principles. In 1957, Blyden and Paramount Chief and Member of Parliament Tamba Songou Mbriwa of Gbense Chiefdom, Kono District
Kono District
Kono District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Koidu Town. The other major towns in the district include Yengema, Tombodu, Motema, Jaiama-Nimokoro and Sewafe. Kono District is the largest diamond producer in Sierra Leone.The population of Kono...
lodged a formal protest at the Colonial Office in London against the illicit exploitation of Sierra Leone's diamonds, demanding a Royal Commission of Enquiry into serious riots in the Kono District
Kono District
Kono District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Koidu Town. The other major towns in the district include Yengema, Tombodu, Motema, Jaiama-Nimokoro and Sewafe. Kono District is the largest diamond producer in Sierra Leone.The population of Kono...
. In the pre-elections of 1957, SLIM won no seats which disappointed Blyden and his supporters within and without the country. Blyden and Mbriwa went on to form an alliance, merging their parties to form the Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement
Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement
Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement was a political party in Sierra Leone, led by Paramount Chief from Kono, Tamba Sungu Mbriwa. The party was founded in 1958, through the merger of the Kono Progressive Movement and the Sierra Leone Independence Movement...
(SLPIM)
At the eve of independence, a West Africa Correspondent's Report summed up Blyden and SLIM's impact on pre-independence politics as follows:
- "If the news that all Sierra Leone parties have formed a National front to greet Independence means what if seems to, prospects are better than ever they were...
- A man to whom the country owes an apology if this moment of concord holds is E.W. Blyden, III. He argued with considerable vigour and wit that the country was not ripe for party politics and it was in this faith that he created the officially 'non-party' Sierra Leone Independence Movement. He lately took his doctorate at Harvard after retiring discomfited from active politics. It is improbable, however that this interminable monologuist, whom the Vanguard saluted ironically on his departure for trying to teach a country politics by the book will receive any acclaim from the hard-bitten realists who have now joined together. I told you so makes few friends."
Academic Years in West Africa
In 1960, Blyden was invited by Nnamdi AzikiweNnamdi Azikiwe
Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe , usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe and popularly known as "Zik", was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism who became the first President of Nigeria after Nigeria secured its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960; holding the...
to help build the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he established the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy and the Department of African Studies. He was Dean of Faculties but made his most lasting impact on a generation of West Africans as the University Public Orator. Blyden was able to expose the student body to a wide spectrum of international scholars, including William Leo Hansberry
William Leo Hansberry
William Leo Hansberry was an American scholar and lecturer. His was the older brother of real estate broker Carl Augustus Hansberry, uncle of award-winning playwright Lorraine Hansberry and great-granduncle of actress Taye Hansberry.-Biography:Hansberry was born on February 25, 1894 in Gloster,...
, Arnold Toynbee
Arnold Toynbee
Arnold Toynbee was a British economic historian also noted for his social commitment and desire to improve the living conditions of the working classes.-Biography:...
, Basil Davidson
Basil Davidson
Basil Risbridger Davidson MC was a British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution....
, Leopold Senghor and others. At the outbreak of the Biafran War in 1966, he and his family moved to Freetown where he became Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Director of African studies at Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College
Fourah Bay College is the oldest university college in West Africa. It is located atop Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone...
(the University of Sierra Leone
University of Sierra Leone
The University of Sierra Leone is the name of the former unitary public university system in Sierra Leone, which, as of May 2005, was reconstitued into the individual colleges of Fourah Bay College and Njala University. It is now affiliated to many colleges in Sierra Leone.-See also:* Fourah Bay...
). First and foremost, Blyden considered himself a teacher, and strove to imbue a generation of bright young men and women with the knowledge, principles and self-confidence needed to guide Africa in a Post-Colonial world. The careers of notable Africans such as Peter Onu, James Jonah and others he taught or mentored are testament to his success.
Non-Alignment and Cold War Diplomacy
Blyden was a first-hand observer and participant at many key events that would shape the geopolitics in the second half-of the 20th Century. Under the auspices of Harvard University, he was a student observer at the Treaty of San FranciscoTreaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...
that formally ended World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He toured Asian and Far Eastern Universities as a visiting lecturer, coming in contact with intellectuals involved in Asian independence struggles,,. In 1954 he was the sole delegate from colonial Sierra Leone to the Eighth General Assembly of UNESCO in Montevideo, Uruguay. Thus by the mid-1950s, Blyden's African perspective on post-colonial nationhood and self-determination was widely known and respected among Africans and Asians seeking to define the roles of post-colonial nations on the world stage. At the 1962 conference on international politics billed “New Nations in a Divided World: The international relations of Afro-Asian states", Blyden presented the paper African Neutralism and Non Alignment. The conference organizers would ultimately publish the conference proceedings in a book of the same name (Praeger, NY) edited by Kurt London, with the following commentary:
- "Of all current political and ideological concepts, few have stirred more controversy than that of non-alignment-- the doctrine devised by those Afro-Asian leaders who are seeking a "third way" in the East-West struggle. Their unwillingness to align themselves with either of the two great power blocks now confronting each other cannot fail to have enormous and far-reaching effects -- now and in the future -- upon the shape of the world."
- The publisher went on to say:
- "To explore the impact of non-alignment on a divided world, sixty scholars from twenty-two countries of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America recently assembled in Athens, Greece, for the Fourth International Conference on World Politics. From the papers submitted at the conference, Kurt London, Director of the Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies at the George Washington University and one of the chief organizers of the conference, selected twenty of the most provocative contributions for this volume. Among them are essays by such distinguished authorities as Edward Blyden III, Jane Degras, Herbert Dinerstein, Rupert EmersonRupert EmersonRupert Emerson was a professor of political science and international relations. He served on the faculty of Harvard University for forty-three years and served in various U.S government positions.After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1917-18, he received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1922, then...
, Walter LaqueurWalter LaqueurWalter Zeev Laqueur is an American historian and political commentator. He was born in Breslau, Germany , to a Jewish family. In 1938, Laqueur left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust...
, Choh-Ming LiChoh-Ming LiLi Choh-ming, KBE, JP was an economist and an educator. He was the founding Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963. He compiled The Li Chinese Dictionary .Career=...
, and Richard LowenthalRichard LöwenthalRichard Löwenthal was a Jewish German journalist and professor who wrote mostly on the problems of democracy, communism, and world politics.- Life :...
. In Part I, questions of colonialism and Communism predominate – for example, the Communist attitudes toward colonialism, neo-colonialism, and neutrality discussed from the points of view of both Westerners and Afro-Asians. In Part II, which concerns itself with the new nations in transition, specific problems are taken up – among them, the role of the intelligentsia in the new countries and the idea of African neutralism and non-alignment. In Part III, the focus shifts to Communist policies in non-aligned countries – including Soviet economic policies toward the Afro-Asian countries and the motives and operations of Communist China’s foreign policy."
In his contribution, Blyden reviewed the history and origin of African ideas on neutralism and non-alignment from James Aggrey
James Aggrey
James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was an intellectual, missionary, and teacher. He was a native of the Gold Coast who later emigrated to the United States, but returned to Africa for several years....
and J. E. Casely Hayford
J. E. Casely Hayford
Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford or Ekra-Agiman was a Fante journalist, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism...
, through Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe , usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe and popularly known as "Zik", was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism who became the first President of Nigeria after Nigeria secured its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960; holding the...
and Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
to the Bandung Conference. Blyden summarized the primacy of Africanism in the policy-making of newly independent nations:
- "A point that may be obvious but can hardly be overstated in any assessment of African Policies of non-alignment is that African political leaderships do not conceive of their policies as Eastern or Western, but as African. Africanism is the touchstone of the policy-maker in the new African states. It is noteworthy in this regard that serious writers on Africa have been struck by the pervasiveness of the pan-African impulse in contemporary African politics. Leading students like Padmore, Shepperson, Fyfe, Hargreaves, and Dike have been unanimous in pointing to an intimate interconnection between the ideas of pan-Africanism and African neutralism and non-alignment."
In 1971, Blyden was again given the chance to put the ideas on which he had built his academic and political careers into practice. Under the presidency of Siaka Stevens
Siaka Stevens
Siaka Probyn Stevens was the 3rd prime minister of Sierra Leone from 1967–1971 and the 1st president of Sierra Leone from 1971–1985. Stevens is generally criticised for dictatorial methods of government in which many of his political opponents were executed, as well as for mismanaging...
, Blyden was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Sierra Leone to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and accredited to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. During his first visit to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs to schedule a date for official presentation of his credentials, Blyden met Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko
Andrei Gromyko
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet . Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1987. In the West he was given the...
and reminded him of their first meeting in 1949 at the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco
Treaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...
. What followed was an extended conversation which also broke the protocol of conversations through translators: Blyden returned to his embassy to find an official invitation to present his credentials the following morning. On a later visit to Moscow, Blyden would be presented with a biography of his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
, published by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Africa and Asia under the directorship of Anatoli Gromyko.
Another surprise for Blyden was his meeting with former Harvard classmate, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, during President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's historic 1972 visit to Moscow; both of them now on the world stage. While accredited to Eastern Europe, he orchestrated three successful state visits to Sierra Leone by Marshall Josef Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Premier Alexei Kosygin of the Soviet Union, and Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
of Romania. Blyden negotiated important agreements between Sierra Leone and Warsaw Pact Countries for trade and development projects in Sierra Leone.
From 1974-1976 he served as Sierra Leone's Permanent Representative to the United Nations where he was Chairman of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization
Special Committee on Decolonization
The Special Committee on Decolonization was created in 1961 by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the purpose of monitoring implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples...
. He was an influential voice of reason in the infamous *Zionism is racism* debate that led to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975, placing Sierra Leone at the center of efforts to table the motion and presenting an Africanist perspective on Zionism first elaborated by his own grandfather in 1898,.
On his return from the UN, Blyden served as Special Adviser to the President, and played an active role during the 1980 OAU Summit in Sierra Leone, at which he was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal by the visiting U.N. Secretary General.
Retirement Years
He received honorary degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)
Lincoln University is the United States' first degree-granting historically black university. It is located near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university also hosts a Center for Graduate Studies in the City of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides...
. He gave the keynote speech at the 100th Anniversary of the University of Liberia ( formally Liberia College), an institution at which his grandfather Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
had been a founding Professor. Though much of his career was spent outside of Sierra Leone, Blyden remained deeply attached to the cultural life of his native Freetown. He was a member of the Zion Methodist Church of Wilberforce St. and an important patriarchal figure in the Muslim communities of Fullah Town and Fourah Bay. He was a Freemason and former Grand Master. He was an honorary member of the Akamori Hunting Society. Blyden's character and its lasting impression has been succinctly summarized by the anthropologist Joe Opala
Joseph Opala
Joseph A. Opala is an American historian who documented the "Gullah Connection," the historical link between the Gullah people in South Carolina and Georgia, and the West African nation of Sierra Leone...
:
- He was a man of strong opinions, and he was never shy to voice them. And because he combined a vast amount of knowledge with his strong convictions, you couldn't forget a conversation with him.
Family
Edward Blyden was married to Dr. Amelia Elizabeth Blyden (née Kendrick), a retired professor. They have eight children: Edward Walter Babatunde Blyden, a businessman; Isa Jeanette Blyden, a Russian philologist and free-lance radio journalist; Bai-Bureh Kendrick Blyden, a Power engineer and engineering consultant; Dr. Fenda Aminata Akiwumi, an assistant professor of environmental geographer and hydrogeologist; Henrietta Cleopatra Blyden, an ESL teacher and free-lance writer; Dr. Eluemuno Richard Blyden, a biotechnologist, business-owner and Adviser to the Government of Sierra Leone; Edward Katib Blyden, of ChefBlyden.com; and Dr. Nemata Amelia Blyden-Bickersteth, an Associate Professor of African and African Diasporan History at George Washington University.Selected Writings & Speeches
Blyden, Edward Wilmot Abiòsu Sierra Leone: the pattern of constitutional change, 1924-1951.Blyden III, Edward W. The Idea of African "Neutralism" and "Non-Alignment": An Exploratory Survey in New Nations in a Divided World. K.L. London (ed.) Praeger, N.Y. & London, 1963.
Blyden, Edward W., "The Rise and Growth of African Statesmanship: From the Mid-Fifteenth Century to the Present," in Statesmanship in Africa, special supplement to Civilizations, Winter, 1953.
Blyden, Edward W., "The Need for Mass Education in Sierra Leone" (A review essay in Memorandum on the Education of African Communities) in West Africa (London), January 1940 (under pseudonym Adjai Onike).