Elwin Dale LeBaron[1] (October 8, 1934 – December 3, 2009)[2][3] was a Canadian scholar of the Latter Day Saint movement and a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU).
from BYU, LeBaron worked as a teacher and administrator for the Church Educational System in Alberta, Wyoming, and Utah.
[3] Funding was approved through the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU for LeBaron to conduct interviews and collect oral histories and other documentation on the account of Africans in the LDS Church.
He collected oral history interviews in about ten countries — South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Zaire, Ciskei, Transkei, Swaziland, and the island nations of Mauritius and Reunion — to preserve knowledge of the beginnings of the LDS Church there.
The book contained interviews with 23 black converts from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana and Zaire, which were the first African countries to receive LDS missionaries.