Rev. Hope Masterton Waddell

Summary

Irish-born minister of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the founding figure of Christian mission to the Cross River. Sailed for Calabar in 1846 — a full generation before Mary Slessor — with his wife Jessie Waddell, the Jamaica-trained printer Edgerley, and a party of West Indian Christian artisans. He learned Efik, established the first mission stations at Duke Town, Creek Town, Old Town and Ikorofiong, opened the first schools and printing press in the region, and persuaded King Eyo Honesty II of Creek Town and King Eyamba V of Duke Town to sign the earliest formal proscription of twin-killing and human sacrifice in Old Calabar (1850 — "the Calabar treaty against esere bean and twin murder"). The campaign was multi-generational and faltered repeatedly, but Waddell's 1846 arrival is the documented start of the long Cross River movement that Mary Slessor would carry into the Okoyong interior in 1888. The historic Hope Waddell Training Institution, Calabar (1895) — alma mater of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jaja Wachuku, Eyo Ita and many of the founding generation of Eastern Nigerian leaders — was named in his memory.

Documented contributions

• 01Founded the first sustained Christian mission in the Cross River — Duke Town, Calabar (10 April 1846)
• 02Negotiated with Kings Eyo Honesty II (Creek Town) and Eyamba V (Duke Town) the earliest formal proscription of twin-killing, human sacrifice and trial by esere bean in Old Calabar (1850)
• 03Opened the first schools and the first printing press in present-day South-East / South-South Nigeria; produced the first printed Efik primers and Scripture portions
• 04Recruited and trained Jamaican freedmen and Sierra Leoneans as the first mission catechists in Calabar, embedding the work in the African Christian diaspora
• 05His memoir Twenty-Nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa (Edinburgh, 1863) remains the principal primary source on early Old Calabar mission and the abolition of twin-killing
• 06Inspired the next wave of Calabar mission, including the founding by his successors of the [Hope Waddell Training Institution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Waddell_Training_Institution) (1895), which educated Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jaja Wachuku and Eyo Ita; and the lifelong vocation of [Mary Slessor](/heroes/mary-slessor) in Okoyong