Nathaniel Durojaye Oyerinde: Nigeria’s First African Professor and Community Leader

Professor Nathaniel Durojaye Oyerinde was born in October 1875 in Ile-Igbagbo, Ogbomoso. He earned a BA and BD in Virginia before completing postgraduate studies in Hebrew at the University of Chicago. He taught at Baptist Academy and the Baptist College and Seminary in Ogbomoso. He served as Recording Secretary and later President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. From 1935 to 1944, he represented Oyo Province on the Legislative Council. As Otun Baale of Ogbomoso, he helped found the local continuation classes and People’s Institute. He was instrumental in establishing Ogbomoso Grammar School and Ogbomoso Girls High School. His economic thesis on cocoa, rubber and mahogany shaped the town’s development. Honoured with an OBE in 1947 and later an MFR, he published Iwe Itan Ogbomoso in 1934. Professor Oyerinde died on April 18, 1977, at the age of 102, leaving a lasting legacy in Nigerian education and community leadership.

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