Lalage J. Bown was born in Surrey, U.K. in 1927 but spent much of her professional career in Africa, establishing or expanding adult education programs at various universities in Ghana, Uganda, and Nigeria. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College and the University of Oxford, where she took Second Class Honors in Modern History (1949) and then continued on to an M.A. (1952). She taught briefly at the University of Edinburgh before relocating to Africa where she taught at the University College of the Gold Coast, Ghana; Makerere University College, Uganda; University of Ibadan, Nigeria; University of Zambia; Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; and the University of Lagos. In most of these positions, she was involved in either establishing or substantially enhancing Adult Education and extension programs and/or departments. She also directed or chaired various short-term programs including an 8-week Peace Corps training program at the University of California, a Carnegie Foundation training program for African diplomats, and a seminar for diplomats working in London.
She was involved in many programs for teaching African literature and arts in the various parts of Nigeria, and among other things in the organization of the first-ever conference on African culture to be held on African soil. She was also the first organizing secretary of the International Congress of Africanists. Her book Two Centuries of African English (Heinemann, 1973) arose directly from efforts to Africanize the curriculum, both in formal education and in the wider community.
In 1975 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Open University "for services to the education of the underprivileged," and the William Pearson Tolley Award from Syracuse University, the first woman to receive this award. In 1981 she returned to the U.K., accepting a position with the Department of Adult and Continuing Education at the University of Glasgow. In 2002 that institution awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.).
From the guide to the Lalage J. Bown Papers, 1961-1980, 1971-1979, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
