Florence Mahoney

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Florence Mahoney ( Asi Florence Kezia Omolara Mahoney, born Asi Florence Peters on January 6, 1929 in Bathurst , British Gambia ) is a Gambian historian and university professor. In the course of her career, Mahoney earned her reputation particularly against the disadvantage of women in education. She is considered to be the first Gambian woman to receive a doctorate and with her work Stories of The Senegambia she published the first history book on the history of the Gambia from a Gambian and thus non-European perspective.

Life

family

Mahoney was one of five children of journalist and publisher Lenrie Peters Senior (1894-1965) and Kezia Rosemary Peters on January 6, 1929 in Bathurst (now Banjul), the capital of the colony of British Gambia. Her parents belong to the Aku group . Among her siblings were the surgeon and writer Lenrie Peters (1932–2009), the actor Dennis Alaba Peters (d. 1996) and the journalist and nurse Bijou Peters (1927–2014).

She married the physician John Mahoney (1919–2012), son of Sir John Mahoney , the first speaker of the Legislative Council in what was then the colony of Gambia, and his wife Hannah Mahoney , around 1954 or 1955 . Her husband's family included several important people who shaped political life in Gambia.

Florence Mahoney and her husband had three sons, Omotunde, Sola and Ayodeji (born 1963).

Youth and education

Mahoney first attended St. Mary's Anglican School from 1935 to 1939, then attended the Methodist Girls' High School (now the Gambia Senior Secondary School ). On the advice of her headmistress, she went to Great Britain in 1946 to the St. Elphin's School near Derbyshire , where she received the Higher School Certificate in 1948 . In 1951 she earned a bachelor's degree with honors in history from Westfield College, University of London. In 1952/53 she completed a diploma in educational sciences at Oxford University .

promotion

In 1953 she returned to Gambia and taught from 1956 to 1960 with interruptions at the Methodist Girls' High School (or from 1959 Gambia High School ). She gained a reputation for fighting against discrimination in the education of women in Gambia. In a commentary for her father's newspaper, The Gambia Echo , she wrote in 1954: “Of all the teachers sent to the UK who have received government scholarships, five are men and only one woman. The Gambia cannot make progress if men are trained and women remain uneducated ”.

In the meantime she lived with her husband, who worked as a medical officer , in Bansang and in Wales , where he was studying. In 1960 she went to London and received her PhD in 1963 with a thesis entitled Government and Public Opinion in The Gambia: 1816 to 1901 at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). In her work, she examined the contribution of Gambians who are not involved in politics to the economic and political development of the Gambia. To this day, the work is considered to be groundbreaking and is cited in research into Gambian history and development. With her doctorate Mahoney was the first Gambian woman with a Ph.D .

Commitment to building the Gambia

After her return to Gambia in 1964 she was part of the committee that deliberated on the Gambian flag and national anthem . She was also involved in preparing for Gambia's participation in the first World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar in 1966. In the late 1960s, she was also a co-founder of the Friends of the National Museum , which ultimately led to the establishment of the Gambia National Museum in 1985. Mahoney himself helped design the museum.

In addition to her civic engagement, Mahoney continued to teach as a teacher at Gambia High School from 1964 to 1972 . From 1967 to 1972 she was responsible for awarding study grants on the National Scholarship Board . According to her own statement, it was particularly important to her to enable young women to attend universities. To this end, a program was set up to enable young women in Great Britain to study education.

Stays abroad in the USA and Congo-Brazzaville

From 1972 to 1973, Mahoney lectured on a Fulbright scholarship at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and taught African history . Then in March 1974 she went to the United States as a lecturer at the Pacific School of Religion for a few months . In the same year, she published the school reading Stories of The Senegambia, the first work on Gambian history that was written by a person from Gambia - and not, as before, by Europeans. As an example, Mahoney begins her work with listing and explaining the ethnic groups of the Gambia and not, as is usually the case from a European point of view, with the arrival of Europeans on the Gambia river.

Together with Patience Sonko-Godwin , she was one of the first Gambians to use scientific methods to research the Gambian history. In the 1970s, she also led the establishment of the Gambia National Archives and engaged in the WCC ( World Council of Churches ).

After her stay in the USA, she lived in Congo-Brazzaville until 1979 , where her husband worked for the World Health Organization (WHO). She herself worked for the Faith and Order Commission (Engl. Faith and Order Commission ).

Return to Gambia

From 1982 to 1985 Mahoney lectured at the Gambia College in Brikama, and she was also the coordinator for stays abroad. During that time she is said to have trained practically an entire generation of history teachers in the Gambia. In 1987 she was one of the founders and director of The Gambia Women's Finance Association alongside Rachael Palmer , Cecilia Cole and Betty Saine . She also served in the All Africa Conference of Churches in the 1980s and served as President of the West African branch of the Mothers' Union from 1990 to 1996 . She was also a member of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Since her retirement, Mahoney has mainly been in charge of doctorates in the field of Gambian history, including the dissertation published by Martha Fredericks on the history of Christianity in the Gambia since 1456, which is considered to be groundbreaking. It was published in 2006 in the Netherlands.

Publications

  • Stories of The Senegambia , 1982
  • The Liberated Slave and the Question of the Return to Africa , 2001
  • Creole Saga: The Gambia's Liberated African Community in the Nineteen Century , 2007
  • Gambia Studies: A Signare (Mulatto Lady) , 2007

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c David Perfect: Historical Dictionary of The Gambia . Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4422-6526-4 , pp. 281 ( google.de [accessed on January 28, 2019]).
  2. ↑ allAfrica.com: Gambia: A Literary Giant Has Fallen. October 16, 2012, accessed January 27, 2019 .
  3. ^ Dennis Alaba Peters. Retrieved January 27, 2019 .
  4. ^ A b c d e Hassoum Ceesay: Mahoney, Florence . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 4 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 46 .
  5. ^ Dr Florence Mahoney - Gambian Literature and Writings. April 5, 2009, accessed January 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ayodeji Christopher Renner MAHONEY - Personnel Appointments (free information from Companies House). Retrieved January 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Gambia: Dr John Mohoney Passes Away. Retrieved January 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 1966 according to Ceesay or 1968 according to Interview Foroyaa
  9. ^ According to Ceesay: Friends of the Museum Society
  10. ^ Ceesay writes: All Africa Council of Churches
personal data
SURNAME Mahoney, Florence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mahoney, Florence K. Omolara; Peters, Asi Florence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gambian historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Bathurst, British Gambia