Adelaide Casely-Hayford

Life & Legacy

Adelaide Casely-Hayford (née Smith; 2 June 1868 – 24 January 1960), was a Sierra Leone Creole advocate, activist of cultural nationalism, teacher, fiction writer, and feminist. Her commitment to public service led her to improving the conditions of black women and men. She played an important role as an advocate of women's education in Sierra Leone to popularize Pan-Africanist and feminist politics in the early 1900s. In 1923, she founded a Girls' Vocational and Training School in Freetown to instil cultural and racial pride for Sierra Leoneans under colonial rule. The school lasted until 1940 and strongly emphasized the education of African women. She later went on to further her mission of feminism and cultural nationalism from the school by writing short stories and memoirs.