HISTORY OF
BADAGRY
This
ancient town of Badagry was founded around 1425 A.D. on lagoon off the Gulf of Guinea, its protected
harbour led to the town becoming a key port in the export of slaves to the
Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean, which were mainly to Salvador, Bahia in
Brazil.
Before
its existence, people lived along the Coast of Gberefu and this area later gave
birth to the town of Badagry. The name originated from the fact that the people
of Badagry’s means of livelihood are farming, fishing and salt making due to
the availability of trees and presence of ocean water respectively. The natives
believed that Badagry was founded by a famous farmer called Agbedeh who
maintained a farm which became popular it was named after him.
The
word Greme meant farm in Ogu language and a visit to Agbedeh’s farm brought
about the word and Agbedegreme and its usage meaning agbedeh’s farm. It was
then coined to Agbadagari by the Yoruba inhabitants and later corrupted to
Badagry by the European slave merchants before the end of the seventeenth
century.
Badagry
is located an hour from Lagos and half-hour from the Republic of Benin. The
town of Badagry is bordered on the south by the Gulf of Guinea and surrounded
by creeks, islands and a lake.
Badagry
is a monarchy headed by the Wheno Aholuship, a kingship head by the Akran of
Badagry and his seven white cap high chiefs. The white cap chiefs administer
the eight quarters into which Badagry is divided; they include Ahovikoh,
Boekoh, Jegba, Posukoh, Awhanjigo, Asago, Whalako and Ganho. These quarters and
the families that ruled them played prominent roles in brokering slave trade
with the Europeans and Brazilians.
The
ancient town served mainly the Oyo Empire, which comprised of Yoruba and Ogu
people. Today, the Aworis and Egun are mainly the people who reside in the town
of Badagry as well as in Ogun State in Nigeria and in the neighbouring Republic
of Benin.
SLAVE TRADE.
The
trade began in 1440 with Prince Henry, the navigator of Portugal. By 1593,
12,000 slaves had been sold to labour markets in Italy and Spain.
The
slave trade became the major source of income for the Europeans in Badagry.
Slaves were brought from all nooks and crannies of Nigeria mostly from raided
villages. War captives were also brought to Badagry for auctioning.
One
horse was traded for 25-30 slaves in the 1440s and the value of African slaves
rose from six to eight slaves per horse. By the 16th century, there were over
32,000 slaves in Portugal.
Along
the line, Seriki Faremi Williams, an African slave appealed a bargain with his
buyers. He agreed to supply slaves to the foreigners in exchange for his
freedom. The Nigerian, specifically of the Yoruba tribe to be exact, got his
wish and was immediately set free to begin business. He returned to Badagry and
built the Brazillian Baracoon with the mission to transport as much slaves as
possible. He raided villages and captured their natives and sold them to the
middlemen who eventually re-sold them as slaves to European slave merchants.
The
baracoons were small rooms where up to 40 slaves were kept, all in upright
position for days before they were shipped across the lagoon via the ‘’point of
no return’’ into the waiting ships. The group of houses, now mostly
residential, were all at one point or the other used to keep slaves waiting to
be transported. Vlekete square, founded in 1510, was known to be the slave
market in Badagry.
The
slave merchants began to work on his intelligence and that of African Leaders
involved and enticed them with material gifts. Slaves were then exchanged for
merchandises as little as whisky, tobacco, rum, cuppino glass, canons, iron
bars, brass, woollen, cotton, linen, silk, beads, guns, gun powder, mirrors,
dry gin, and other assorted spirits. Because they knew it was of paramount
importance to these natives.
Historically
speaking, Badagry was the first and last port of call. When the ships arrive to
pick these slaves, they would be brought out from the rooms in which they were
put and taken to a place called ‘The Point of No Return’. This process involved
the crossing of slaves through the ocean that links the Badagry port to this
point. When the slaves have been crossed over, they would walk about 20miles to
the point.
In
between, they would each approach a coven where they would drink from a well
that contained a silver shiny liquid claimed to be water and recite a verse.
This initiation would wipe out there memory so as to avoid foreknowledge of
their whereabouts. The curator further explained that these slaves immediately
loose their memory and do not regain it until they reach their final
destination. Only few ones make it to the New World and maybe luckily, back.
The
town became host to European slave traders. It grew to an important commercial
centre flourishing on the export of slaves through the creeks and lagoon.
Effort
to stop the obnoxious trade received a major boost when the treaty for the
abolition of slave trade was signed in March 1852 between England and Badagry
chiefs. Some cannons of war were donated to the chiefs to be placed at the
coastal area to fight other European countries that were still coming to get
slaves. However, the trade continued illegally and the export of slaves
steadily increased. The Brazilians became the major slave mer-chants during
this period. However, in 1888 the last ship left Badagry to Brazil and this
marked the end of the trade in Badagry, Brazil and around the world.
HISTORICAL
SITES
Badagry
is a thriving tourism site that attracts people of African descent from all
over the world who want to experience the history of the slave trade.
Badagry
wants to share these historic sites, landscapes, cultural artifacts and relics
of human slavery with the world. They are preserving buildings, sites and
memories of this iniquitous period so those tourists can unearth the dark
impact of this era. Places of interest include;
·
The Palace of the Akran of Badagry and its mini ethnographic
museum. The kingship so influential that
one of longest commercial avenues (a 2.14kilometer stretch) in Ikeja, Oba Akran
Avenue, was named after it.
·
The First Storey Building in Nigeria constructed by the Anglican
missionaries. It was built in 1842 by Rev Bernard Freeman and other
missionaries. The building was also occupied by the returnee slave, Samuel
Ajayi Crowther, the first African C.M.S Bishop who translated the Holy Bible to
Yoruba.
·
Relics of slave chains in the mini museum of slave trade, cannons
of war.
·
The Vlekte slave Market, established in 1502 and the Slave Port
established for the shipment of slaves before the l6th century.
·
Christian mission work (as a religion of the so-called white):
Ø The early
missionaries cemetery established in 1845, the District Officer's Office and
Residence.
Ø The site
where Christianity was first preached in Nigeria at Badagry in 1842 by Rev
Thomas Birch Freeman of Methodist Church, then is now the "Agiya Tree
Monument" beside the Badagry Town Hall. The local myth is that it is a
place for saying answered prayers.
·
The first educational system of Nigeria as a British colony
started in Badagry, where the first primary school was established by the
Wesleyan mission (Methodist Church) in 1845 and named Nursery of Infant Church
which later became St. Thomas’ Anglican Nursery and Primary School. The town
was annexed by the United Kingdom and incorporated into the Lagos colony in
1863. It became one with Nigeria in 1901.
·
The first secondary school in Badagry was built over one hundred
years later called Badagry Grammar School in 1955 due to misunderstanding
between the Missionaries and the natives that made them leave the town
unceremoniously. In 1863 the town was annexed by the United Kingdom and
incorporated into the Lagos colony. In 1901 it became a part of Nigeria.
·
Badagry Heritage Museum built ion 1963
·
Seriki Williams A bass Brazilian Barracoon built in 1840’s (Slave
Cell)
·
Seriki Faremi Williams Abass Slave relics Museum.
·
Grave Yard of Seriki Faremi Williams Abass (Paramount Ruler of
Badagry (1895-1991).
·
Badagry Slave Port built in 1510
·
Mobee family slave relics museum.
·
Slave Point of No Return ( Slave Route on Gberefu Island)
·
Permaculture forest farm (Environmental Education and Natural
Trail adventures on Gberefu Island – Point of No Return Island).
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