Clifford Nelson Fyle

Clifford Nelson Fyle
Born	March 29, 1933 Freetown
Died	January 18, 2006 Yonkers, New York

Professor Clifford Fyle (March 29, 1933—January 18, 2006) was a linguistics professor who authored the Sierra Leone National Anthem. He was the first Sierra Leonean to produce school books for the teaching of Sierra Leonean languages.

Biography

Clifford N. Fyle attended the Methodist Boys High School. In Fourah Bay College, which was then under the University of Durham, England, Fyle obtained Bachelor's degree in Languages and Mathematics at age of 20. He started his successful career as an educationist after taking a Diploma in Education.

Fyle started working as a schoolteacher. He was also a politician—the first Publicity Secretary of the United Progressive Party (UPP) and the third in command of the same party, after Cyril Rogers-Wright and John Nelson-Williams, before it merged with the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) forming the Government of National Unity that would lead Sierra Leone to national independence from the British Empire in 1961.

Fyle gave up politics to concentrate his efforts on education, later becoming a story writer. He was the author of the popular Bangurah-Cole stories which were published in the Sierra Leone Daily Mail in the mid-1950s.

In 1958, in the University of Durham, Fyle achieved a Master of Arts degree in Education; two years later, in 1960, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in English with honours. He then left the University of Durham and returned home to Sierra Leone, where, upon winning the competition of the words of the Sierra Leone National Anthem with his High We Exalt Thee? verses, he came to be known as the author of the Sierra Leone National Anthem.

Fyle was appointed as an Education Officer and School Inspector by the Ministry of Education in 1960. He was the youngest School Inspector on record at that time. Four years later, in 1964, Fyle became a foundation staff member of the newly opened Njala University College. Still determined to advance in Linguistics, Fyle completed postgraduate work in Linguistics in 1967, at the University of California at Los Angeles.

When he returned to Sierra Leone, he became Senior Lecturer at Fourah Bay College, where he attained his Professorship. He became the head of the Department of English and Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1977–1978.

Professor Fyle, now Master of Languages and English, was offered Secretaryship of the West African Linguistic Society, an organization whose international Congress Fyle had organized at the Cape Sierra Hotel in Freetown in 1974. He rejected the offer, opting instead for the language specialist position for UNESCO in January 1978. In 1988 he became World Coordinator of Mother Tongue Languages and Vice President of Research.

With Professor Eldred Jones, Fyle co-authored the Krio-English Dictionary, which The Times newspaper (London) referred to in 1980 as "blazing a worldwide trail" in modern linguistic study and lexicography.

“	Rising from lecturer (1964) to professor and faculty dean (1977) Fyle revolutionized the teaching of languages within the University of Sierra Leone. He scientifically established Sierra Leone's' Lingua Franca, Krio, as a true Language. He also pioneered the establishment of the Department of Linguistics and Sierra Leone Languages. At UNESCO, he was responsible for the development of over 2000 Languages in 52 African countries and their use in communication and education. His remarkable success ensured his appointment (1988) as UNESCO's World Coordinator of Mother Tongue Languages, as well as Vice President of the International Association of research in Mother Tongue Education.	”
—Marquis Who's Who in the World

After retiring in 1993, Fyle returned to Sierra Leone and started producing school books in the four major languages of Sierra Leone which the Government had sanctioned for use in education: Mende, Temne, Limba and Krio. He produced and published 24 school textbooks. In 1995, Fyle established Lekon Publishing Company in Sierra Leone. Five years later, in 2000, Lekon New Dimension Publishing in Yonkers, New York. This company was the one that published Sorie Conteh's The Diamonds. His last novels, These Old Colonial Hills and The Alpha were also published by the same company. Blood Brothers, an earlier novel of his, was nominated for the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Professor Clifford Fyle died on January 18, 2006, in Yonkers, New York.

Education

Clifford N. Fyle attended the Methodist Boys High School in Freetown, Sierra Leone. At Fourah Bay College, which was then an accredited college of the University of Durham, England, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Languages and Mathematics at the age of 20.^[1] He then started his career as an educationist after completing a Diploma in Education.

In 1958, at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, he obtained an MA in Education and two years later a Bachelor's degree in English with honours.

In addition, in 1967, he completed postgraduate work in Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the Indiana University, Bloomington.

References

1. ^ "CLIFFORD NELSON FYLE, Father of Sierra Leone National Anthem". Biographies. http://www.sierraconnection.com/biographies.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-09. 

• http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20057424.shtml

External links

• Biography

Persondata
Name	Fyle, Clifford Nelson
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 29, 1933
Place of birth	Freetown
Date of death	January 18, 2006
Place of death	Yonkers, New York