Badagry: Remembering the Chief Town of Nigeria’s Colonial History By Emeka Esogbue

Badagry: Remembering the Chief Town of Nigeria’s Colonial History

By Emeka Esogbue

For those who know, it is not surprising that August 23 of every year has been earmarked for the commemoration of International day for the remembrance of the Slave Trade and it’s Abolition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and cultural Organization (UNESCO). What is however, surprising is that the relevance of Badagry, the mother and chief city of Slave Trade activities in Nigeria appears to be gradually slipping into oblivion by the day. Just how did this happen?

BADAGRY- THE GEOGRAPHY, THE HISTORY

Badagry, traditionally known as Gbagle is a coastal town situated between Lagos State and Benin Republic. This city, according to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia is situated on the Southwest Coast of Nigeria, bordered by the Gulf of Guinea to the South. It is 43 miles, Southeast of Lagos and 32 miles, west of Seme, a border town in Benin Republic. Badagry is particularly situated on the bank of inland lagoons, a system of creeks and waterways that navigable. Yewa River provides water inflow to the lagoon. 

The recorded history of Badagry states that the land presently known as Badagry was acquired by a European trader locally called Yovo Huntokonu who many other sources identify as Hendrik Hertogh, a Dutch trader. He was said to be fleeing wrath of an African chief. On reaching Apa, another settlement, which was then under the sovereignty of Oba Alapa, he was given a farmland to use for trading. In 1736, Huntokonu would establish a trading post which encouraged growth around Badagry main town as eastward migrations into Badagry started. 

Historically, Badagry has since the 16th century to 1886, when the Slave Trade was abolished been the final point of departure for indigenes who were sold into slavery thus the importance of the bubbling coastal town to Africa, Europe and America. The name ‘Badagry’ definitely echoes slave trade due to the roles the indigenes of the community played while taking advantage of the strategic location of the town. Such is the importance of the town to yesterday’s trade in humans.   

THE SLAVE TRADE – ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND ABOLITION   

The Slave Trade also called ‘illegitimate trade’ was a trade in human beings. It has been argued that for Africans, slavery though often labeled ‘domestic servant’ was as old as the African continent but it only became internationalized by the Europeans. Nevertheless, Africans from West Africa and Central Africa never found their way to Europe or the Americas in the name of slave trade. Mention must be made of the AD 650 to AD 1900 when Islamic traders are estimated to have exported about 10 million slaves into Northern Africa, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and India according to Joe Carter. These persons were shipped across the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.    

According to Joe Carter, an Editor of The Gospel Coalition, Editor of NIV Lifehacks Bible and Author of The Life and faith Field Guide for Parents, the first slave voyage direct from Africa to the Americas is believed to have sailed in 1526 but before then, Africans were brought over directly from Europe, and native inhabitants of America were enslaved by European explorers. Carter has also quoted the writing of famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, on his first day in the New World. Columbus had reported in his journal that he had to order six of the people of the West Indies to be seized because he believed they would make good servants. 

Within this era, millions of Africans mostly from West Africa and Central Africa were forcefully taken to Europe and the Americas where they were made to work in plantations for their masters who bought them. Lack of adequate records make the determination of actual number of people taken from Africa to Europe and America difficult. However, shipping records estimate that about 20 million Africans were within the period captured and sold to enslavement. This number was successfully delivered alive to the other side of the world and unaccountable number of more died resisting their slavery and eventual journey into the world of the unknown. 

METHODS ACQUISITION

The method of acquiring slaves depended largely on Africans that enforced as Europeans were never in the hinterlands to acquire slaves themselves. Once induced with other articles of trade that exchanged with humans such as mirrors, guns, umbrella etc., Africans acquired and gave away slaves to the Europeans who were often on the coast. Some methods of slavery acquisition are:

• Organization of wars by communities 
• Capture of unsuspecting persons
• Selling of debtors who could not defray the debts owed by them
• Selling of persons already dedicated to deities such as Osu in Iboland
• Selling of persons reported to deities and found guilty  
• Selling of persons held as compensations 

It was finally; in 1807 that slave trade was abolished throughout the British Empire on the strength of Slave Trade Act. In what appeared to be acceptable by a few other European countries, The King of Denmark, Christian VII, owing to the influence of Britain, signed a decree that banned slave trade in his country in 1792. Other countries such as Austria, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Sweden all submitted to the Vienna Declaration which officially banned the trade in Europe.  Interestingly, the treaty to end slavery is still being signed. With about 99 countries signing the treaty since the 1926 Convention to suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery, the most recent country to sign this treaty is Zambia which signed the treaty in 1973.

To the Europeans, the abolition of slavery eventually came to pass on religious and humanitarian grounds through the tireless efforts of The Quakers often identified as the first religious group to commence activities towards ending it before being joined by the Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterian’ on one hand and William Wilberforce and others alike, many African scholars share the view that abolition of slave trade necessarily came due to the industrial revolution that was sweeping across Europe at the time. To these scholars, indeed, the transformation from agriculture to industrialization which necessitated the use of machine compelled an end to slave trade. 

THE BADAGRY COLLECTION OF SLAVE TRADE RELICS

That the strategic location of Badagry enabled it to contribute to the activities of Slave Trade cannot be emphasized. It was from this point that millions of people from different parts of the country and beyond were forcefully shoved into available ships from where they found themselves in Europe and America. Since this aspect of the community’s history has been already exhausted in this work, the area concentration will be paid today’s importance of the town to tourists. All of these are listed below:

• Badagry Heritage Museum: This museum is located around Boekoh Quarter which further lies around Land Road. Inside this museum are images and relics that convey experiences of slaves. They tell the story of what truly transpired at the time and are simply reminders of the past.  
• Mobee family House: This is a reminder of Chief Sunbu Mobee, the man that traded many of his people to the Portuguese. The air breathed inside the Mobee house simply corroborates the angle some writers on the illegitimate trade that West Africans also played roles in selling their brothers and sisters to Europeans as slaves. Eventually, it was Chief Mobee’s son who ascended the throne that ended the trade in 1886.
• The Brazilian Slave Barracoon: This served as a prison where slaves were kept, negotiated and sold before they were matched into the waiting ship. It lies close to the close Slave Port which made it easy to bundle them inside the ship. Inside this Barracoon are articles exchanged for slaves such as umbrella, jug, ceramic plates and others. 
• Gberefu Island: The inhabitants of this island were greatly endangered in the slave trade era since slave trade warriors under the command of Chief Mobee raided and young men who were inhabitants of the island.
• The Point of No Return: The Point of No Return provides a narrow dusty passage to the ships that convey slaves to the journey of the unknown. There are also shrubs and palm trees on its path. Once on this point of the entire trauma that confronted them, the chances of returning home became impossible. It is located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean where it was easy to move slaves into waiting ships. It was here that the captives were finally handed the Europeans. Unfortunately, the Point of No Return was the slave’s last stop on the African continent since he is bundled inside the ship down to America. 
• The Vlekete Market: One of the buildings standing on that point was built in 1502 to serve the interest of slave traders. It also served as a court where offenders were tried. From this market, slaves were moved to the Barracoon already explained here. 
• The Spirit Attenuation Well: The Spirit Attenuated well provides the lesson that spirituality was also a major element of slave trade for the dealers. Although it is claimed that some slaves were charmed to make their capture easy, this well corroborates the spirituality aspect of it. This well which stands on Gberefu island of Badagry is said to have been charmed by shamans and chiefs. Slaves destined for America were made to drink from the water to make them lose their memory of Badagry. The effect of the psychological memory loss lasts three months in which the slave remembers nothing about his past except his past predicament whatsoever. However, indigenes hold the claim that for a century running no one has drunk the water of the well. 
• The Apia Monument: The site marks the physical position of a tree where Christianity is said to have been first preached in Nigeria. Although the tree has since been felled by storm, the site is preserved as a monument for visitors. 
• The First Storey Building: This is believed to the first storey building in Nigeria. It is constructed in 1845 by the European Missionaries with burnt bricks and corrugated sheets said to have been brought from Europe. There are two Bibles inside the building – the first printed Bible in English language and the first printed Bible in Yoruba language said to be 174 years and 172 years respectively.  

CONCLUSION 

From today’s evaluation, it would seem the Badagry of yesterday is different from Badagry of today. Now lying near neglect, the Badagry that once served the colonial administration of the country, evidenced by the First Storey Building appears to be lacking government presence now. Although Badagry, the coastal town of Southwestern, Nigeria was important to both Africans and Europeans during the slave trade era, it now only offers grand history of the past with historic sites of Slave Trade and debut of Christianity in the country.  

However, beyond this, the Nigerian government needs to get its presence felt in this town to integrate it with the rest of the communities of Lagos State. Only this will restore the importance that the town and its people once enjoyed. At least, the inhabitants should see sense in belonging to the modern era despite the rich history they enjoyed in the past. 

This development will go a long way in restoring the hope of indigenes whose claims bother on their neglect on modern policies of the government. Perhaps too, the ongoing construction of the long-stretched Lagos-Badagry Road, when completed will go a long way linking the historic city to the rest of the people of Lagos State.   

Originally published in Integrity Watchdog Magazine

by Emeka Esogbue