Dr Florence Mahoney

Dr Florence Mahoney (nee Asi Peters) was born in Bathurst (Banjul), The Gambia. She is one of the three daughters of Lenrie Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary all of Sierra Leonean origin. Her two sisters are Bijou, a nurse and journalist and Ruby a retired UN administrator who passed away in May 2008. Her two younger brothers are the late Dennis Alaba Peters (died 1996), who loved cinematography and who has acted in major series and movies both in the UK and the USA, and the late Dr Lenrie Peters (1932-2009), a surgeon and a celebrated and renowned poet and novelist.

Dr Mahoney attended the St Mary’s Anglican Primary and then the Methodist Girls High school before completing her secondary education at the Elphin’s Boarding school for girls at Derbyshire, the United Kingdom.

She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in History (Hons.) degree in 1951 at Westfield College, London University and a year later a Diploma in Education at Oxford University. Between 1960 and 1963, she will engage in historical research and would obtain her doctorate (Ph. D.) at the School of Oriental and African studies, London University. She taught History at The Gambia High School for a number of years. From 1972-73, she will be Fulbright Professor of African History at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

She has occupied several positions of honour particularly relating to the church both nationally and internationally. She has conducted lectures, seminars and her works have been a source of reference for many scholars in African history.

She is married to Dr John Mahoney and they have three sons: Omotunde, Sola and Ayodeji.

Some of her publications:

1. Stories of The Senegambia (1982)
2. The Liberated Slave and the Question of the Return to Africa (2001)
3. Creole Saga: The Gambia’s Liberated African Community in the Nineteen Century (2007)
4. “Gambia Studies”: A Signare (Mulatto Lady) (published date not yet available)

Her Thesis (unpublished)

Government and Opinion in The Gambia, 1816-1901 (London, 1963)