Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones (6 January 1925 – 21 March 2020)[1] 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.[2] Jones died in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Saturday, 21 March 2020.[3]
Eldred D. Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | Eldred Durosimi Jones 6 January 1925 Freetown, British Sierra Leone |
| Died | 21 March 2020 (aged 95) Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Occupation | Literary critic, university professor, university principal |
| Nationality | British Subject, Sierra Leonean |
| Education | CMS Grammar School, Freetown; Fourah Bay College; Corpus Christi College, Oxford' University of Durham |
Biography
editEldred 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, and Fourah Bay College (1944–47), completing a Bachelor of Arts degree.[4] He studied in England at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1950–53) and the main campus of the University of Durham (1962).[1]
In 1968, he became the first editor of the journal African Literature Today, continuing in the role for more than three decades.[5]
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).[1] 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.
References
edit- ^ a b c Africa Who's Who, London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 537.
- ^ "Birmingham University honours 2". Awareness Times. 24 April 2006. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
- ^ Thomas, Abdul Rashid (21 March 2020). "Sierra Leone has lost a great patriot – Professor Eldred Jones". The Sierra Leone Telegraph.
- ^ Gradatues of the University. Durham: Durham University. 1948. p. 134.
- ^ a b Williams, Abiodun (30 March 2020). "Other lives | Eldredn Joes obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ "Professor Eldred Jones (1925 – 2020)". Corpus Christi College Oxford. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
External links
edit- Review of The Freetown Bond: A Life under Two Flags by Jane Plastow, Leeds African Studies Bulletin, 75 (2013/14), 30 July 2013.
- Kole Omotoso, "Eldred Durosimi (Pause For Breath) Jones 1925 – 2020", The Guardian (Nigeria), 19 April 2020.
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