Early Newspapers in the History of Journalism in Nigeria: Iwe Irohin (1859-1867)

Abstract

Although, printing started as early as 1846 in Nigeria with the setting up of a printing press in Calabar by the Presbyterian mission, the first newspaper did not emerge until 1859 when an Anglican Missionary, Reverend Henry Townsend of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) established what is now generally agreed to be the first newspaper known as Iwe Iroyin Fun Awon Am Egba Ati Yoruba which literally translated means information newspaper for the Egba-speaking people and the Yorubas. Reverend Townsend had earlier established a printing press/school atAbeokuta in 1854. This was exactly five years before the inauguration of Iwe Iroyin. The printing press and school eventually served as an avenue for the training of qualified printers and subsequently journalists. The paper being the first newspaper has come to be referred to as the Pace Setter; Pioneer, Light, Pathfinder; Harbinger and so on. Before the arrival of the newspaper and others after it, there was a wide scale of illiteracy among the natives which was a great handicap to the missionaries in their bid to spread the gospel of christianity. One of the ways this problem was tackled was by the establishment of newspapers, and Iwe Iroyin was one of them.