Michael Crowder (9 June 1934 – 14 August 1988)^[1][2] was a British historian and author notable for his books on the history of Africa and particularly on the history of West Africa.^[3][4]

Michael was born in London and educated at Mill Hill School. After earning a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Hertford College, Oxford in 1957, he returned to Lagos (he had previously been conscripted to the Nigeria Regiment in Lagos from 1953 to 1954 for his British national service^[5]) to become first Editor of Nigeria Magazine in 1959.^[5]

Michael commenced his career as a secretary at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. In 1964 he was Visiting Lecturer in African History at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1965.

While in Nigeria from 1968 to 1978 he was appointed as Research Professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University). Afterwards, he became Professor of History at Ahmadu Bello University and finally as Research Professor in History at the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos in the 1970s. He worked as an editor for the British Magazine History Today after his return to London in 1979. He was also Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the LSE, and Professor of History at the University of Botswana in the 1980s while he worked as a Consultant Editor until his death.^[6][7][8][9]

• The Story of Nigeria (1962)
• Eze Goes to School, co-authored with Onuora Nzekwu (1963)
• West Africa Under Colonial Rule (1968)
• West African Resistance (1971)
• West Africa: An Introduction to its History (1977)
• Akin Goes to School, co-authored with Christie Ade Ajayi (1978)
• Colonial West Africa (1978)
• The Cambridge History of Africa (1984)

• John Fage, another early Africanist specialising in West Africa
• Anthony Kirk-Greene
• Ibadan School