Ghana where spices were traded and one of his traders complained about the way she was being treated by the Awori's. The Oba of Bini then sent a trade expedition by sea. Ironically, the leader of the expedition arrived in the evening at a time when the people who were predominantly fishermen were either wading into the water or getting into their boats to gather their catch. He declined to engage them further and returned to what is now called Benin City where he reported to the Oba of Bini that they were attacked. This prompted the Oba of Bini to constitute a war expedition led by Ado, a Bini Prince to go to Lagos and demand an explanation. This was over 650 years ago.
However, on getting there, they were well received. The people were so enamored with Ado they asked him to stay and lead them. He agreed on the condition that they surrendered their sovereignty to the Oba of Bini to which they agreed. The Oba of Bini was told this and he gave his permission for the expedition to remain.
The Eletu or Odibo = Later on the oba of bini sent some of his chiefs and Eletu Odibo was one of them to assist Ado
The Obanikoro family = Obanikoro also was on of the chiefs from present day bini city and was asked to help Ado govern the Awori people
The Ashipa family
You see back in those days apart from the Bini language, the language used in the palace then for administration was Yoruba (particularly the Ijebu dialect) unlike now so it was easy for families to intermix with the people. Even when the whites first visited Nigeria, they saw some Ijebus heading for Bini city and asked where they were going. It is on record they said "We are going to see the Oba of bini for political issues". Note a bini/Yoruba subgroup such as the Itsekiris can communicate effectively in Ijebu dialect and not any other dialect but Ijebu which is a Yoruba subgroup.
Now this brings me to the topic "Who are the real Lagosians ?"
Are the real Lagosians ‘saro’ descendants from Olowogbowo, or a member of an old Brazilian family from Oke-popo or “Aguda”, or a member of old chiefly families-like Oluwo, Bajulaiye, Ojora, Oniru, Oshodi etc. could a Lagosian be one of the Muslims who have lived in Obalende since the end of the Asante wars. (Member of the West African frontier Force of Captain Glover in 19th century) or is it one that lives on Siriki street near the central mosque? In the sense and according to the school of thought, any of these people can be called true lagosians, yet the cultural spectrum the groups cover reveals the variety and heterogeneity of Lagos.
To understand this view or conclusion of these notable scholars on Lagos, one must appreciate that the answer lies in the history of Lagos itself. A code study will reveal two key factors that are interwoven, that is the development of the city and its society and added to these two, was also the element of trade.
Foundations which were based on the various successive waves of immigration that was intra and inter continental. Each wave of immigration from the earliest beginning brought about the creation of various settlement on the island. Increase and rapidity of these waves which were as a result of different but interrelated events, brought about an expansion that was to spread beyond the island to its environs.
Each group of immigrants concentrated in the areas or quarters named after them. They also brought with them their various religion and culture, which they practiced. All these elements of geographical space, religion and cultural practice, have survived and became woven into the rich tapestry of the heritage of the Lagosians. Descendants of the settlers who were born and grew up in Lagos have no connection with the places of their past ancestry. The most information they have is from ‘stories’ passed down through the generations as attested to by a Lagosians, Mrs. Efunjoke Coker (M.F.R), in her autobiography.
The majority of the immigrants came from the surrounding Yoruba area and the hinterlands, bringing new religions the Ogboni cult, Islam for instance was introduced in the 18th century, new institutions and customs (from Benin and elsewhere). These development of trades, both peaceful and slave trade brought first of all the indigenous people of the surroundings and hinterlands and later the Portuguese, French Dutch and British and further wave of repatriated freed slaves from the Americans, Liberia and Sierra Leone. These people Brazilians, Caribbean and Europeans brought aspect of their cultures, Christianity and Western Education.
From the first wave of the settlers in the 15th century to the first half of the 19th century, four (quarters) were separated from the Europeans, the educated Africans (Saros & Akus), the Brazilians and the indigenous community. By far, the earliest and the most important and without which the other quarter could have existed was the Isale-Eko quarter, here that the aboriginal Aworis descendants of Olofin of Isheri led by Aromire carefully settled in dry choice sites.
This nuclear settlement was between Itolo and Idumagbo lagoon including Ebute Ero in Isale Eko. With the help of place names and oral tradition, the extent of this important (quarter) of Lagos may be delineated. It must have been extended to Ofin area to Ebute Ero, the heart of Isale Eko to that part of Lagos named Victoria street after Queen Victoria of England during the colonial era renamed Nnamdi Azikiwe after independence. The original was Ehin Ogba (behind the fence) indicating that it was outside the inhabitant part of town, according to oral tradition, it was indeed the dumping ground for corpses of paupers and those class of children regarded as mysterious ‘Abiku’ ( born to die). The unceremonious burial being regarded as a kind deterrent to these children from dying so often. It was jungle then and seldom traversed. The history of Lagos had been chequered affected by the powerful influence of Dahomey on the West and Benin on the East. According to P.D Cole and A.B Aderibigbe, the expansionist policy of these kingdoms, forced more people living between them to emigrate to Lagos.
The Aworis were soon joined by other Yorubas, there was the considerable Ijebu population at Idumagbo, substancial body of immigrants from Ota who first came in search of trade at Obun Eko, but eventually settled at Idumota named after them. An extension of the premier, but with its own distinctive feature was Ofin. Its main center was Itolo squre with the Onitolo and the descendants of the earliest inhabitants. Outside this centre was Offin Ile in Ijebu Remo territory. The unique feature of this whole area was the internal water way formed by the Offin canal, the Elgbata creek and Itolo, which made the canoe an effective means of transportation. The second stage was marked by the military encounter between the invading army from Benin and Olofins men of Iddo Island. There was a protracted struggle until the era of Oba Orhogbua of Benin sent his grandson Eskipa (Ashipa in Yoruba) to further consolidate Benin influence and to firmly establish a vice royality. Authorities are divided in opinion, whether the new government was first based at Iddo and was moved by the third king in the dispensation Gabaro to Lagos Island, or whether it was from the beginning of this existence that it seized the Island of Lagos, avoiding Iddo Island with its tradition of resistance to Benin influence.
According to the ‘Idejo” source-they, the Bini people, did not conquer them- they were invaded to settle disputes among the sons of Olofin. According to this source, the facts that the Obas of Lagos ‘owned’ no land in Lagos which is disposed of exclusively by the Yoruba Idejo chiefs, and that the Idejo chiefs did not perform any administrative duties on behalf of the Oba and took to the mainland in time of war leaving the Oba to defend Lagos, do not suggest an original Benin conquest. They suggest a shadowy tributary relationship, occasional intervention in an Obaship that quickly became indigenously Yoruba and independent in Lagos. Lagos external relations where conducted with no reference to Benin. According to Benin source, Oba Orhogbua, during his punitive expedition against recalcitrant vassal states in about 1550 made his war camp (Eko) on Lagos Island and from there attacked his enemies for many years. Anyway the origins of the Benin connection is obscure and laden with controversy. It probably originated in a vice- royalty from the mid 16th century.
It is strongly believe that the king and his retinue of Benin adviers and warriors first pitched their camp in the area known as Enu Owa with the celebrant Oju Olobun’ now a ‘national shrine’, but at the beginning a spiritual symbol of supremacy of the Oba of Benin. The truth of this belief is attested to by the fact that the coronation of an Oba is not regarded as valid, without the performance of ‘kikam’ (ikanse) at this same place. That Lagos derived its name “Eko” from Orhogbuas camp should not be seen as contradicting the claim of Yoruba sources that Olofin and his subjects regarded Lagos as “Oko” farm. Oba Gabaro did more that start a tradition. By choosing for his permanent abode, the very site for which Aromire had made his ‘red paper’ farm3, this Oba showed remarkable political acumen. A new regime had indeed arrived but was housed on the soil prepared by Aronire, the first settler on the Island and the son of Olofin, whose sway the new order has come to displaced. This was a visible evidence of the factor of continuity and change in history. Indeed it had been pointed out that ‘Oko” and ‘Eko’ marked two distinct periods and waves of immigration in the history of Lagos, the earliest Awori Yoruba settlement and rule, and of Bini hegemony, ‘Eko’ supplanting ‘Oko’ once the Bini were in the ascendant.
The similarity between the two words must have facilitated this transition in the minds of the people. Also a new nucleus of chiefs, royal courtiers and warlords was established, not based on possession of land like the Idejo, but on service to the Oba. They all lived, each in his own Iga, a lesser version of the Oba’s palace. The area of Isale-Eko, thus delimited, was the hub of Lagos politics. Its focus was the Iga Idungaran. Here dwelt both the Awori and bini aristocracies. Despite the conflicting myth both aristocracies made adjustment between Yoruba and Benin political structures and traditions. The local Yoruba aristocracy reserved the right to opt out of the political struggles in which the political struggles in which Benin counterpart might engage. This right was always threatened by increased intermarriage and the growing power of the Oba. There was the considerable Ijebu population and there was the hard core settlers from Idoluwo Ile, who came with the Obanikoro, head of the Ogalade Class of Chiefs who gave their name Idoluwo to their present abode.
Here dwell also the most influential of those who took part in the peaceful commerce. Although the 18th and 19th centuries saw the beginning and dominance of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade, it is often erroneously assumed that the more natural kind of commercial trade did not play a vital role in the relationship between Lagos and her neighbors. The available oral evidence against that, on the contrary, the nucleus of the system of periodic markers could be discerned in the proceeding the era of the slave trade even at the height of the slave trading period the ‘legitimate’ type of trade, especially in the articles of domestic consumption, held its own. The antiquity and indispensable nature of Ebute Ero and Obun Eko market for trade of large area of Lagos hinterland, was of the most notable Lagos market, for peaceful commerce, it also acted as a forum for social activities other than commerce – in the Roman sense of the word. The periodic markets of Badagry patronized by the people of Lagos and the surrounding countries no doubt, received greater prominence after the British ‘pax’ but were not created by it. The market noted for the profusion of foodstuff brought to Lagos by traders from Potto Novo is now immortalized in the street named Poto Novo Market Street. It should not be thought that effects of Bini hegemony were limited to the aristocracy. The ordinary citizens must have felt the impact of the changes that came in its wake. Even right from its formative stage, there was systematic consultation between the Oba and his Chiefs, for example the institution of ‘Osa Iga’, when important chiefs were expected at the palace and at which important affairs of the state were discussed. The absence of chiefs from this particular meeting was interpreted a san act of rebellion against the king. There was the ‘Ilupeju’- literally a meeting of the whole town – which enable proposals from the Oba to be published and commented upon by eminent personalities in the community. The strong tradition of the ancestors worship in the religion, the different order or class of chiefs surrounding the court of the oba, are Bini elements, and important strands in the web of traditional culture of Lagos.
Two principle factors are responsible for the rapid rise in population and the importance of Lagos as the commercial center in the second half of the 19th century; one was the abolition of the slave trade and the consequent introduction of the British preventive squadron to patrol the West Coast. This increased the risk and cost of the Atlantic Slave trade from the traditional West Coast slaving ports and thereby help in rise of small towns like Lagos and Badagry, which were till then, not heavily frequented points on the coast, therefore not heavily patrolled by the squadron) it offered traders relatively safe and cheap ports for the evacuation of slaves. More so the hinterland of Lagos was quite disorganized, during the early part of the 19th century. Oyo Empire was breaking up a result of its own internal inadequacies, conflicts, and pressure of the Fulani from the North. This pressure led to general disorder in the interior, it also brought about the fall of the Oyo Empire in 1835, and the resultant rise of Ibadan a military power. These circumstances brought about more waves of migration of those escaping from the wars, to find refuge in relatively peaceful Lagos, such as the Egbas, Egbados and Aworis. Inn terms of population, various parts of Lagos itself and the mainland benefited vastly from these movements of people. These circumstances first acted in the interest of Lagos and Badagry, which now prospered. However this advantage eventually became a liability of another kind in that it strengthened the stand of those ready to bring pressure on the British government to use the pretext of the illegal ( and in the 1850’s diminishing) trade in slaves, to reduce Lagos to a colony by mid 19th century.
The second factor in this development was the gradual opening up of the interior for both missionaries and business. The activities of the missionaries in Abeokuta area were already extensive prior to the reduction of Lagos in 1861 Reverend Townsend (agent of the church Missionary Society), Mr. Robert Campbell (later of the Lagos Press) and Mr. Samuel Crowther Jnr had all been seeking expanded roles for missions and for the returning slaves in the Abeokuta area. Indeed it is well known, both Christian and business pressure was behind the final decision of the B5rirish government to support Akintoye and his Badagry allies against king Kosoko. Their activities in Abeokuta hinterland and the prospect of intermediary trade between Abeokuta and Lagos led to the increase in the number of rescued or emancipated slaves from Sierra Leone and Liberia, Brazil and Cuba who either desired or could be encouraged to return to their homes in Yoruba land. The creation of the British ‘Pax’ in 1861, when British annexed Lagos, further accentuated the influx of peoples to various parts of the colony. The prevailing peace in British Lagos, induced a large number of Yoruba to forsake their homeland plagued with internecine was and to seek their fortunes in the colony. An example, after the destruction of Ijaye town, as result of war which ended 1862 a large number of Ijaye refuges found a new home in the Oke Arin section of Lagos named Ijaye court and Ijaye Street after them.
A much more important exodus of people to Lagos was occasioned by the upheaval Abeokuta, the expulsion of the missionaries and converts locally known as ‘Ifole’ in 1867. so great was the number of the refuges, that Governor Glover had to settle them at Ebute-metta on the mainland inn the quarter now known as Ago Egba, the Egba camp. There were other quarters Isale-Eko, which judged by their names, were originally farms, Errko and Oko Faji. These areas seemed to have served the interest of the inhabitants of the Isale Eko quarter. but the distinction between town and farm usually maintained rigidly in order parts of Yuroba land by a town wall, was fluid in Lagos, and farms soon began to assume the appearance of settled ‘quarters’. The transformation was generally started by influential Chiefs of Isale Eko who in search for more dry land for their clientele (the domestic of oral tradition) eventually turned farmland into more permanent abodes. Ereko was to be completely transformed into a princely dominion with an Iga of its own, by the intransigent Kosoko, after his rapprochements with the new British authorities and his consequent return to Lagos in 1862. Some of his followers who returned with him from Epe settled at Epetedo between 1862 and 1868. Epetedo means settlement of Epe members, notable among these retunees was Oshodi Tapa, Kososko’s war general. Tapa Street is named after him. Oba Faji, had the unique distinction of being owned and named after a woman Chief Fajinola, who emigrated from Imahi in Egun with her husband and her only daughter Samota. She was a native doctor invited bu Oba Akinsemoyin. She was unhappy because she preferred to settle where she could find an Iroko tree to worship. Oba Akinsemoyin begged chief Aromire for a piece of land to be given to her. On getting to Faji, she found a female Iroko tree. She settled there and started worshiping there. Near the iroko tree, is now her Iga, known as Iga Faji, named after her, but shortened to Faji. Oko faji, owned and governed by this very wealthy lady was a very large family stretching from present Faji market to the Trinity Methodist Church Tinubu. It was within the same quarter that another distinguished lady, Efunroye. Tinubu played her remarkable economics and anti-British roles, roles for which the British expelled her from Lagos, to her native Abeokuta, but which also, won her the admiration of succeeding generation and an honored place in the history of Lagos. Place names (Faji Market, Market, Ita Faji, Tinubu Street, Tinubu Court, Tinubu Square) now proclaim the significant of the activities of Faji and Tinibu in this quarter of Lagos and should serve as a warning to historians, who often ignore the vital roles played by women in African societies. The continues growth of two new types of quarters, which were exclusively settled by freed slave and also British occupation of Lagos, influenced Lagos society ty to a significant degree. It brought in its wake a large number repatriates from Sierra Leone, Brazil, Cuba who were to have a great influence on the structure and nature of the society. Their return profoundly affected the history of Lagos. The Sierra Leone and Liberians were known as ‘Saros’ or ‘Akus” the Brazilian, and Cubans as ‘Agudas’
The Agudas were mainly Catholics, skilled artisans and crafts men (in trades such as masonry, carpentry, mechanics, bakery and confectionery)who had purchased their freedom and returned home to their country origin’ the Akus or Saros’ were slaves (or descendants of slaves) rescued by the British naval squadron that patrolled the high seas on the lookout for slaves. The Saros emigrants were mainly missionaries (Protestants, teachers and clerks) and traders. All returned emigrants had their homes in one of the hinterland kingdom, Ijebu Egba, Ekiti, Oyo0Ibadan, Nupe, Edo, Hausa, Fulani, Boguwa, Kanuri. Most were probably shipped from Lagos but none seem to have been Lagosians. Separated by distance, the “Saro” at Olowogbowo area and the “Agudas” at Portuguese town (popo Aguda) brought with them different but complimentary skills the former the benefits of the grammar-school- type of education with little emphasis on its practical application, the latter the rich experience and expertise in crafts-manship. These qualities were to make the communities very important in the future development of Lagos. Whether they were repatriates from the Americans, from Liberia and Sierra Leone, or simply educated immigrants from Egbaland, these people were a force in setting Lagos apart, as the youngest and fastest growing community, on the West Coast of Africa.
Educated and sophisticated, they constituted themselves into a unique community maintaining ties with the Yuroba homeland and yet sharing a great deal with the small but prominent and prosperous European community, which by 1890, according a cross of that year unnumbered just about 150, half of them British. It should not be imagined, however that Lagos was the exclusive preserve of the Africans, indigenous or immigrants. A small European quarter was already in evidence near the coast. Situated in an area called ‘Ehingben’ by the local people, who valued it mainly as a place for refuse disposal and therefore beyond the pale of responsibility, this insipient “European’ area must have excited the curiosity of the local people concerning the sense of judgment of the ‘white man’. They could understand the first phase of this European enterprise when it consisted only of ‘piers’ or trading wharfs, but when by the end of the 1850s, the once neglected Ehingbeti was cleared and with construction of the ‘Broad’ road, it was transformed what we call the Marina and Broad Streets. The Marina became a promenade fronting the lagoon where merchants built their stores and luxurious dwellings with important timber, marble and prefabs for the glorious life-sustaining breezes “Markets have been regulated, soldiers and police force organized, and a race course established, schools, courthouses, hospitals, government house and barracks built, and a cemetery
(which drives a brisk trade)”.
The Marina had access to the priers and so to business, it faced outward from the center of native residences, and was occupied by the Europeans. In short, it became one of the best area in colonial Lagos. An unprecedented value was henceforth placed on ‘land fronting the sea; and the struggle for possession of land in this formerly despise area of the town. Some of the successful Yorubas who lived side by side the Europeans were Henry Pratt, Ben Dawodu, R.B.Blaize, J.S.Leigh, Samuel Crowther, E. Campbell. They were the select few. This struggle for land fronting the sea was to find its highest expression in the latter day scramble, on the part of eminent Nigerians, for the land on Victoria Island, which was, in time past the haunt of humble and itinerant fishermen.
To be continued.............
