Edward Wilmot Blyden (3 August, 1832 - 7 February, 1912) was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician in Liberia and Sierra Leone. He was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (then under Danish rule) to free parents on August 3, 1832. Blyden arrived in Liberia in 1850 and was soon deeply involved in its development. Blyden married Sarah Yates an Americo-Liberian mulatto who was from the prominent Americo-Liberian Yates family. Sarah Yates was the niece of Liberian vice president, Hilary Yates and she gave birth to three children with Blyden. Blyden later on (in Freetown, Sierra Leone) had a relationship with Anna Erskine an African American from Louisiana who was also the granddaughter of the mulatto President of Liberia James Spriggs-Payne. Blyden had five children with Anna Erskine and his descendants in Sierra Leone are descended from this union. He died in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on February 7, 1912 and was buried at Racecourse Cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Blyden's descendants still reside in Freetown, and one of his descendants is the controversial Sylvia Olayinka Blyden who is also an editor of the Awareness Times

Blyden believed that Black Americans suffering discrimination had a role to play in the development of Africa by leaving America and returning to the African continent. He was critical of African-Americans who did not associate with Africa