Remembering Pastor Daniels Ekarte

26 Oct 2023

Toxteth Library

Pastor George Daniel Ekarte was a minister and community activist from the Calabar region of Nigeria who arrived in Liverpool about 1915 and established the African Churches Mission in Hill Street,  Toxteth  in 1931, in which he not only conducted services but also fed and clothed the poor of the community, and housed seamen and others denied accommodation due to the colour of their skin.

He also provided a home for the unwanted children of local white women left behind by their fathers, African American servicemen who returned home when World War II ended. As a radical supporter of pro-independence and anti-racist movements in the African Diaspora, he was regarded as troublesome by the Establishment, and therefore received no state or voluntary support, not even from the Anti-Slavery Society. Nevertheless, he and his mission soldiered on for over thirty years, until the dilapidated building was finally demolished by the Council in 1964.