General History of Nigeria

Landuji Oshodi

Landuji Oshodi, known as Oshodi Tapa, was a powerful chief and war minister of King Kosoko of Lagos. Oshodi Tapa was born 1780 to a Nupe royal family, though he was recorded by some colonial…

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…

Arugba-Ifa

Arugba-Ifa was the mother of Onigobi, the Alaafin and one of the several wives of Oluaso, whose reign was among the most successful in Oyo Empire. She was instrumental in the introduction of Ifa…

Ashipa

Ashipa whose leadership lasted between the years 1600 and 1630 is regarded as the founder of the Lagos dynasty. He is believed by some to be a son of Oba Overami II of Benin but others assert he…

Amuniwaiye

Amuniwaiye was the Oyo king, appearing to be he only good Alaafin after many short despotic reigns. The hope of his people in him however did not take long before it was dashed. Amuniwaiye, though…

Losii Osokale

Losii Osokale was the Egba chief from Ake, commissioned by Maye, the head of the Oyo-Ijebu-Ife coalition that subdued the Egba people prior to their migration to Abeokuta, to determine the…

Alex Taylor E.J.

Alex Taylor was a Lagos lawyer, cheered in his lifetime as the “cork of the Nigerian Bar”. Alex Taylor was born 13 April 1876 and had his elementary education at Port Novo, proceeding to Lagos…

Gbadebo I

Gbadebo I, original name, Tegumada Ademola was the sixth Alake of Egba land who ruled from 1892 to 1920. Alake Gbadebo was born in 1854. His father, Okukenu, was the first Alake after the Egba…

Akarigbo Oyebajo

Akarigbo Oyebajo was the first educated ruler in Ijebu. Born in 1866, he ascended the throne in late 1891, just a year before the British conquest of Ijebu which brought him to prominence. The…

Ajisafe Kayode Ajayi

Ajisafe Kayode Ajayi was an historian and poet born in 1875 as Emmanuel Olympus Moore. The patriotic zeal and cultural renaissance in him prompted the change of his name to a fully African one in…

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