HARRIS, WILLIAM WADE

William Wade Harris (c. 18665-1929) was a Liberian “prophet” whose reputation rests on his remarkable feat of evangelism in the Ivory Coast and Western Ghana during 1914. He was born a member of the Grebo tribe in the Cape Palmas region, where he was educated as a Methodist. Later he became a member of the American Protestant Episcopal Church, whose mission employed him as a teacher-catechist.

PHOTO CAPTION: William Wade Harris. SOURCE: EA Library

All the Kru peoples, including the Grebos, resented the dominance of the “Americo-Liberian” Government and raised frequent small rebellions. During the first decade of the 20th century, the British Government was at intervals solicited to give its protection to these tribes. These initiatives were encouraged by E.W. Blyden, and it seems to have been his influence which led Harris to hoist the Union Jack at Paduke in February 1909. Harris was immediately put into prison.

A year later the Grebos rose in active rebellion but were soon suppressed. Harries emerged from prison, convinced by visions of the Archangel Gabriel that he had a prophetic mission to drive the traditional gods and spirits from the Coast and preach the one true God.

After several years of preaching in Liberia, he crossed into the Ivory Coast late in 1913, and preached in some of the coastal towns, burning fetishes and baptising people. Around April 1914 he entered Ghana where he created a sensation in the region from Half Assinie to Axim.

He baptised many thousands of people and encouraged them to join one of the churches. At Axim, he met J.E. Casely Hayford. Hayford recognised in Harris a man of God who could revitalise Africa spiritually and he encouraged the prophet to make authoritative rulings on such African institutions as polygamy.

Returning to the Ivory Coast in 1914, Harris enjoyed a mass success. The Ivorians flocked to him from many sections of the country, while his work carried to hundreds of villagers by English-speaking Protestant Africans formerly resident in neighbouring territories. It has been estimated that his converts in this country, which had hitherto been almost solidly faithfully to the traditional religion, numbered 120,000. The area along the eastern half of the coast was converted en masse.

The movement in several areas assumed political importance since it was believed that Harris, whose charisma had inspired fanatical confidence, would have the colonial disabilities imposed by the French removed. It was popularly rumoured also that Great Britain intended to annex the colony. The result was that in December 1914 the movement was suppressed and Harris was expelled.

But the movement did not die out completely. In 1919 the French authorities decided to support the Roman Catholic Missionaries to bring the Harris Converts into the Catholic Church. This plan was not entirely successful, since Methodist Missionaries from Britain made some converts, while others remained independent.

Harris himself never ceased to evangelise in Liberia and even visited Sierra Leone. He had a steady success, though he never repeated his 1914 triumph. As he grew old he antagonised the Christian Churches by commending polygamy for Africans. Despite this, he gave his blessing to Christian missionaries wherever they were working among his converts. He died at Cape Palmas in 1929.

GORDON M. HALIBURTON