About Us
Crescent Bearers (1939), Lagos (1939), Lagos
Our Founders Objectives
Our Founders Objectives
Crescent Bearers (1939), Lagos (“Crescent Bearers”) was founded on 11th November 1939 by a group of 16 young Muslim men whose families were indigenous to Lagos Island.
The Crescent Bearers’ founding fathers sought to promote the acquisition of western education by Muslims for collective improvement and upward social mobility in a colonial society, in which Muslims not only experienced marginalization but were also typically held up to ridicule and suffered social opprobrium for their religious beliefs and cultural attachments.
It was this lack of reciprocity and mutuality that the Crescent Bearers (1939), Lagos was founded to oppose and eliminate; in order to ensure respect and recognition for Islam and Muslims in the mainstream cultural, political and socioeconomic life of the evolving modern sector of Lagos.
This objective of educating Muslims has remained at the core of the activities of the Crescent Bearers since its founding, and has served it well. It has enabled the Crescent Bearers bridge the sectional divide and competing tendencies not only among its members, but also between the various Islamic sects in Lagos, while upholding and propagating the lofty and fundamental principles of Islam as a philosophy of life and social organization.
View Founders List Download Our Surat
A Brief History
The strategic import of the Crescent Bearers founding fathers’ foresight looms large when set against the fact that in the Lagos of the early twentieth century, access to western education was limited. Such education was provided mainly in Christian missionary primary and secondary schools, and in public schools. These schools typically had low enrolment of Muslim students, with some of them, who were enrolled in Christian missionary schools, converted to Christianity. The schools provided the pool from which qualified clerical, secretarial, and higher cadres of administrative and professional staff were recruited into the colonial civil and public service, and into expatriate private and merchant companies in Lagos. It was also from these schools that admission was secured by qualified students to undertake higher education in professional fields such as Accountancy, Banking, Journalism, Law, Medicine and Teaching. That there were few Muslims in these professions in the 1930’s was not unconnected with the low enrolment of Muslims in the missionary primary and secondary as well as public schools.
This foresight of the founding fathers of the Crescent Bearers, must also be viewed in the broader context of a rising movement among the Muslim Ummah across Nigeria to take the issue of Islamic and Muslim education in a colonial dispensation seriously. The movement was a response to the threat that the content and pedagogy of western-type education, especially at the secondary school level, anchored on the Christian faith, posed to the growth and survival of Islam, in the long run. This was the background to the emergent movement in Muslim circles in Lagos for the reform of the colonial educational system, to take into account their interests and apprehensions. It was also to provide the impetus for Muslim sects in Lagos to set up their own primary and secondary schools, as well as teachers’ training colleges to provide access to western education to the Lagos Muslim, in an environment where the pedagogy of teaching would be informed by Islamic epistemology, ethics, and metaphysics.
Read More
Our Vision
Fostering the lofty ideals of Islam via mutual understanding, interest and co-operation among members to promote the total education of the Muslim child by way of scholarship awards to deserving Muslim students of LAGOS STATE origin
OUR MISSION.
Through focused intervention across various tiers of education and capacity building, we will enrich lives and create livelihood opportunities for the LAGOS Muslim and actively contribute to the social and economic development of the LAGOS community in which we operate. We strongly believe that acting responsibly and contributing to the well-being of society is integral to the values we are desirous of adding and creating.
We remain committed to leading with purpose and are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. We are confident in our ability to seize these opportunities as they develop, and navigate challenges that come our way
Crescent Bearers (1939), Lagos
Faith in Action, Community at Heart
A pioneering Islamic organization dedicated to education, charity, and community development while preserving Islamic values and uplifting the Muslim Ummah.
View Our ActivitiesOur Founders
Meet Our Founders: The Pillars of Vision and Dedication Who Laid the Foundation for Our Legacy.
Late Bearer Mobolaji ODUNEWU
First President, Crescent Bearers (1939), Lagos.
Late Bearer I.A.S. ADEWALE
Late Bearer Nurudeen Alabi KEKERE-EKUN
Late Bearer Atanda FATAYI-WILLIAMS
Late Bearer Kafila Bolaji Atanda SHOMADE
Late Bearer Ade THANNI
Late Bearer Tajudeen A.B . OKi
Late Bearer Abdulwahab Olanrewaju WILLIAMS
Late Bearer Hamzat .O. Balogun
Late Bearer S.A. FASHOLA (died OLORUNNISOLA)
Late Bearer M.R.B. OTTUN
Late Bearer R A. GBAJUMO
Late Bearer S.M . ONIGBANJO
Late Bearer M.N. Ola ABOABA
Late Bearer M.O EKUNSUNMI
Late Bearer K.A. FASHOLA
