Raymond Harold Prince, the Canadian Psychiatrist who met the Head of Witches in Abeokuta, 1958

Dr Raymond Harold Prince, a pioneer in transcultural psychiatry, was born on the 27th of September, 1925 in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. As a child, Dr Raymond was fascinated by birds, trees and flowers, and could identify them all.

He was brought up in a religious home but later became an atheist. He sought to escape his Baptist upbringing, though oddly, he spent his life studying religious experience and this made him visit Nigeria where he spent two years.

OldNaija gathered that in 1957, Dr Raymond Harold Prince was giving the unusual opportunity of meeting the head of witches in Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria. This was to gain more knowledge for his study and more insight into his field of work, transcultural psychiatry.

His study on “how the Yoruba people treated mental illness” was allegedly funded by the central intelligence agency (C.I.A). His daughter, Susannah Prince, said “His stint studying how the Yoruba people treat mental illness was funded by an organization proved later to have been a front for the Central Intelligence Agency, which was interested in mind control at the time.”

Some of his works include Were Ni: He Is a Madman (1963) and To Tell the Truth (1956). Dr Raymond Harold Prince later spent two years in Jamaica, where he studied the Rastafarians. He died on the 12th of May, 2012 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada. His works can be found at McGill University, Canada where he worked as a professor of psychiatry.

Thanks for reading, OldNaija.com

References:

• Raymond Harold Prince – The Globe And Mail
• Egba People – Teslim Opemipo Omipidan, OldNaija
• Raymond Prince Obituary – Legacy – Obituaries