Salami Agbaje

Salami Agbaje, industrial magnate of the Ibadan colonial era, son of an early Muslim convert from Iseyin was born in Lagos in c.1867. Agbaje acquired an Islamic education to the exclusion of a…

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Ara Suicide

Ara Suicide; In August 1855, the mass suicide in Ara, an Ekiti town, to prevent their enslavement by the ravaging Ibadan army. The act of suicide was first committed by Chief Elejofi, the…

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Africanus Horton

James Africanus Beale Horton was a pioneer Nigerian medical doctor of full Igbo parentage, born in Sierra Leone in 1835. His father had been settled in Freetown like many freed slaves following…

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Ephraim town, showing with King Eyo of old Calabar, Honesty's Canoe and British royal steam sloop Rattler c.1850, around the year Blood Men was formed in Calabar. Eyo ended human sacrifice of slaves.

Blood Men

Blood Men is a society of Igbo slaves in the Calabar oil palm plantation formed in 1850 to oppose their encroachment and oppression in the Delta especially the use of their brethren in human…

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Amodu Tijani’s Case

Amodu Tijani’s case against the secretary to the government of Southern Nigeria was the watershed legal event in 1921 by which the ownership of Lagos lands was decided in favour of natives….

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Efunroye Tinubu

Efunroye Tinubu was an amazon and Lagos merchant of the 19th Century who lent support to military efforts, and thereby became a powerful force in the politics of her time. Efunroye, in Oladipo…

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Ibadan in 1941

Ibadan Lights Order

Ibadan Lights Order was an order in 1941 for the diminution and cessation of lightning in the city of Ibadan during the Second World War. In this order, every outdoor light was required to be…

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James Pearse

James Pearse was a Lagos clergyman of the late 19th Century who was tutor to distinguished persons like Ademola II, Alake of Egba, Eric Moore, Adebesin Folarin and J.K. Coker. Pearse was born in…

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Augustus Otonba-Payne

Augustus Otonba-Payne

Augustus Otonba-Payne was a key figure in Lagos Colony during the reign of Queen Victoria of England. Otonba Payne was born 1839 in Sierra Leone. His father was captured from Ijebu Ode during one…

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Alimotu Pelewura

Alimotu Pelewura was an activist trader of pre-colonial Nigeria, who, though illiterate, led women successfully in their struggle against unjust taxation and for suffrage. Pelewura was born in the…

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