The legacy of early CMS education work is being celebrated in two West African countries as two pioneering schools celebrate major anniversaries this month.
Annie Walsh School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is 160 years old, and the CMS Grammar School in Lagos, Nigeria, is marking its 150th anniversary.
Annie Walsh, a girls' high school that was the first educational institution in West Africa founded for young black women, launched a book, Builders, celebrating their story.
"The Annie Walsh School has produced some of the greatest women in Sierra Leone and West Africa," said Sierra Leone's Awareness Times. "They are also noted for being trail blazers or embarking on singular careers. The example of Jemina Cox-George who remained the only female land surveyor in the history of West Africa is notable. The First Lady of Sierra Leone, Sia Koroma, is the school’s current pride."
Meanwhile, Nigeria's The Guardian notes that the CMS Grammar School in Lagos is "older than Nigeria". "When it was founded by the CMS in 1859, Nigeria had not yet become a British dependency. Secondly, the school was the product of a private effort by the CMS of the Anglican Church in England, and not the colonial government. In fact, it was not until 1909...that the first state secondary school, the King's College, Lagos, was founded, by the British colonial administration."
Of course, there's also a book to go with this anniversary, telling the story of Nigeria's first secondary school. And there are more pictures of the grammar school in Lagos from a 2007 visit on the CMS site.
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