Arthur Thomas Daniel Porter III (26 January 1924 – 26 March 2019) was a Creole professor, historian, and author. His book on the Sierra Leone Creole people, ''Creoledom: A study of the development of Freetown society'', examines their society in a way in which few books of their time period had, and it is one of the most quoted books on the Creoles. He was published in East Africa and the UK.

Early life

Arthur Porter was born in January 1924 in

Freetown Freetown is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educ ...

, British Sierra Leone, to Guy Hardesty Porter and Adina Porter. Guy Porter was an electrical engineer who died as a civil servant. Adelina Porter was a school teacher at the Freetown Secondary School for Girls, which was attended by Porter's sister, Iyatunde Harriet Maria Palmer (''née'' Porter). Porter attended the Cathedral School in Freetown.

Background

Like many Creoles, Porter was of West Indian,

Jamaican Maroon Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...

, Liberated African, and Nova Scotian settler descent. His paternal grandfather was Arthur Thomas Porter I (1834–1908), a successful Creole businessman of West Indian and Jamaican Maroon parentage. The father of A. T. Porter I was Guy Porter, a West Indian immigrant to Sierra Leone via England, who became a headman of Kent Village. Guy Porter married a Maroon colonist. The Porter family house owned by A. T. Porter I was at No. 11 Wilberforce Street in the heart of Settler Town and near Zion Methodist Church. Porter was also of "Settler" or Nova Scotian stock, by way of a

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

n ancestor who had arrived in Sierra Leone via Nova Scotia. The Virginian had occupied a house in what the Nova Scotians called Settler Town, Sierra Leone, and was one of the founders of Freetown.

Education

Porter was educated at the Freetown Secondary School for Girls before proceeding to

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-l ...

and obtaining his bachelor's degree. He subsequently obtained a bachelor's degree in history from

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn ( ...

before earning his doctorate in sociology at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

Personal life

Porter married a woman from Denmark and they had three children Guy, Arthur and Emma. He is the grandfather of four girls: Gemma, Fiona, Adina and Charlotte. He lived in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada, and he made frequent trips back to his homeland, Sierra Leone. Porter's son, Arthur Porter IV, was a Canadian physician and former Director General (CEO) of the

McGill University Health Centre The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC; french: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical complex ...

. Porter died on 26 March in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

, Canada.

Legacy

Porter's work on Sierra Leonean history is considered to be among the most scholarly work done on the people of his native Sierra Leone. Porter's analysis of the stratification of Creole society is considered the most authoritative work on the development of Creole society, and most scholars reference his book when researching the Creole people. The work he accomplished during his tenure at

has made many look upon Porter as one in the mould of historian

Christopher Fyfe Christopher Fyfe (9 November 1920 – 26 August 2008) was a Scottish historian most noted for his work on Sierra Leone in West Africa. Biography Christopher Hamilton Fyfe was born in England in 1920 to a family of Scottish ancestry. His father m ...

, Professor Eldred D. Jones, Professor Akintola J. G. Wyse, and linguist Leo Spitzer. After leaving his post as Vice-Principal of Fourah Bay College, Porter moved to East Africa and became Principal of the University College, Nairobi, one of the three colleges of the

University of East Africa The University of East Africa was established on 29 June 1963"Universities: East Africa", ''A Historical Companion To Postcolonial Thought In English'' (Columbia University Press, 2005) Prem Poddar and David Johnson, eds., p. 489. and served Keny ...

. His term there ended in 1970.Headway, Volume 3, Number 1; "Turning Point 1963: Looking back on the birth of a Kenyan medical school". McGill Publications, McGill University, Canada
Retrieved 13 February 2012.

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20041103214952/http://www.muhc.ca/media/ensemble/2004feb/new_ceo/ McGill University Health Centre.br>"ARTHUR T. PORTER, M.D., M.B.A", UHMS, Board of Directors.
*William Roger Louis, Alaine Margaret Low, Nicholas p. Canny, Robin William Winks, Peter James Marshall
''The Oxford History of the British Empire: Historiography. Volume V''
Oxford University Press, 1999.
''Detroit News''."Hon. Dr. Arthur T. Porter, P.C., M.D."
MUHC Foundation. {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Arthur Thomas 1924 births 2019 deaths Sierra Leone Creole historians Academic staff of the University of Nairobi Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leoneans of Jamaican Maroon descent Historians of Africa People from Freetown Boston University alumni Fourah Bay College alumni Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Academic staff of Fourah Bay College Historians of Sierra Leone Sierra Leonean expatriates in the United Kingdom Sierra Leonean expatriates in Canada Sierra Leonean expatriates in the United States