Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones (6 January 1925 – 21 March 2020)
[''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 537.] was a
Sierra Leonean academic and literary critic, known for his book ''Othello's Countrymen: A Study of Africa in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama''. He was a principal of
Fourah Bay College. Jones died in
Freetown, Sierra Leone, around 1am on Saturday 21 March 2020.
Biography
Eldred Durosimi Jones was born on 6 January 1925 to
Sierra Leone Creole parents. On his maternal side, Jones descended from the
Jamaican Maroons. Jones attended the
CMS Grammar School, Freetown
The Sierra Leone Grammar School was founded on 25 March 1845 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by the Church Mission Society (CMS), and at first was called the CMS Grammar School. It was the first secondary educational institution for West Africans with ...
, and
Fourah Bay College (1944–47), completing a
Bachelor of Arts degree. He studied in England at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1950–53) and the main campus of the
University of Durham (1962).
His critical works include ''Othello's Countrymen: A Study of the African in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama'' (Oxford University Press, 1985), ''The Writing of Wole Soyinka'' (Heinemann, 1973), and ''The Elizabethan Image of Africa'' (University of Virginia for the Folger Shakespeare Library, 1971).
Jones was also the author of ''The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags'' (James Currey, 2012) with the help of his wife Marjorie Jones.
Eldred Jones died on 21 March 2020, at the age of 95.
References
External links
Review of ''The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags''by Jane Plastow, ''
Leeds African Studies Bulletin
Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) is an interdisciplinary centre at the University of Leeds that was established in 1964, and has members from a variety of faculties who share an interest in African Studies. The English, Geography ...
'', 75 (2013/14), 30 July 2013.
*
Kole Omotoso
Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso (born 21 April 1943), also known as Kole Omotoso, is a Nigerian writer and intellectual best known for his works of fiction and in South Africa as the "Yebo Gogo man" in adverts for the telecommunications company Vodacom ...
"Eldred Durosimi (Pause For Breath) Jones 1925 – 2020" ''The Guardian'' (Nigeria), 19 April 2020.
1925 births
2020 deaths
Sierra Leonean writers
Sierra Leone Creole people
Sierra Leoneans of Jamaican Maroon descent
Linguists from Sierra Leone
People educated at the Sierra Leone Grammar School
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Fourah Bay College faculty
Fourah Bay College alumni
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