Ikeja Airport. July 30, 1966.
Photo by Al. J. Venter
Source: Biafra's War- 1967-70 by AL J Venter (pub. 2015).

Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna the Brigade Major of the Second Brigade based at Apapa, Lagos, 1960s. Source: Onitsha Ado N'idu

3 months after overthrow, former Nigerian head of state,Gen Gowon pictured queueing for lunch at Warwick University canteen (1975)

Sir Shina Peters and Prince Segun Adewale paid a visit to Sunny Ade as a part of the activities marking the 2nd annivarsery of their band (1979). Source: Lagos weekend.

Sunny Ade kisses the hand of Adewale in appreciation of the superstar contribution to development of juju music scene.

19 yrs old Nigerian athlete and student of University College Ibadan, Emmanuel Arinze "Emma Vancouver" Ifeajuna (1935-1967) on a boat cruise in Vancouver, Canada in 1954 during the Vancouver Commomwealth Games. Ifeajuna, aged 19, was not a contender until he surprised everybody at the national championships in late April of 1954, less than two months before the team were due to depart. His jump of 6ft 5.5in, the best of the season, took him straight in alongside Nafiu Osagie, one of the 1952 Olympians, and he was selected. The high jump was on day one of competition in Vancouver and Ifeajuna wore only one shoe, on his left foot. Ifeajuna brushed the bar at 6ft 7in but it stayed on; he then cleared 6ft 8in to set a Games and British Empire record, and to become the first man ever to jump 13.5in more than his own height. This first gold for black Africa was a world-class performance. His 6ft 8in – just over 2.03m – would have been good enough for a silver medal at the Helsinki Olympics two years earlier. Source: Africanworld.

General Yakubu 'Jack' Gowon Taking Lunch In The Canteen Of Warwick University , England 1975. Source: Bridgeman Library

REVEREND MARY MITCHELL SLESSOR, Obongawan Okoyong (Queen of Okoyong) - 1848-1915.

Mary Slessor was born December 2, 1848 in Gilcomston, close to Aberdeen, Scotland. She was second of seven children of Robert and Mary Slessor.

In 1876, at 28 years of age, Mary was sent to Calabar region by the Presbyterian Church. She was warned by the mission house in Scotland that witchcraft and superstition were prevalent. The ritual sacrifice of children, and twins in particular, was customary among the people she would be ministering to, but Mary was undaunted. She wanted to go deeper into Calabar, malaria forced her to go home to Scotland and recover. She left Calabar for Dundee in 1879. She was in Scotland for 16 months before heading back to Africa.

While in Calabar, she confronted a lot of issues, one of which was the widespread human sacrifice at the death of a village elder, who, it was believed required servants and retainers to accompany him in the next world, and the lack of education or any status for women, the other being the birth of twins which was considered an evil curse.

In August 1888, she travelled north of Okoyong, an area where missionaries were previously killed, but Mary was sure that her teachings, and the fact that she was a woman, would be less threatening to unreached tribes than male missionaries had been. Unlike other missionaries, Mary lived as part of the tribe, learned to speak Efik, the native language, and made close relationships wherever she went. Mary Slessor went to live among the Efiks and the Okoyong which lived in Calabar in present day Nigeria. There she successfully fought against the killing of twins at infancy. Mary Slessor was a driving force behind the establishment of the HOPE WADDELL TRAINING INSTITUTE founded in 1895 in Calabar, which provided practical vocational training to Africans.

In 1913, she was awarded the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Rev. Mary Slessor suffered failing health due to malaria for over 40 years which eventually took her life on 13th January 1915, aged 66 years. She was buried in Calabar with full military honours, attended by the Provincial Commissioner and other British officials.

Eight year old Chinedum Jaja-Wachuku welcoming Britain's Princess Alexandra with a bouquet of flowers on the eve of Nigeria Independence in 1960.

Source: Nwabueze Nwokolo.

Before 1953
2 ½ inches high Yoruba Thorn Carving of an old man with a pipe. Carved by Justus D. Akeredolu.

This genre of "thorn carvings" was invented by Justus D. Akeredolu (1915–83). In the mid-1930s, while working as a crafts teacher in government schools in Nigeria, he started experimenting when carving the handles of name-stamps made from the large thorns of the silk-cotton tree. After studying museum work in Britain on a scholarship, Akeredolu returned to Nigeria in the 1950s, where he worked as an assistant for the Antiquities Service, mainly restoring sculptures of wood, bronze, and stone. Even after losing an eye in 1963, he continued to carve.

Akeredolu taught this art form to his apprentices and to other craft schools. His works are especially fine: they tend to be made of a single block of light wood, very detailed, and are usually signed. Later carvers often made the figures from separate pieces, combining light and dark woods, and were slightly larger and somewhat cruder. Because they were made of separate pieces, they could be more easily mass-produced. But just because of their larger size, they could be more elaborate, often containing two or more figures set on a wooden base. These miniatures illustrate a wide range of everyday Yoruba customs: hoeing, herding cattle, climbing palms, pounding food, making pots, smithing, dressing hair, playing games, drumming, dancing, and studying the Koran.

These inventive figurines are compelling examples of Yoruba artistry, and the Museum is fortunate to have such a large collection made by the creators of this genre.

Source: Ira Jacknis, Research Anthropologist hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu

It was extremely pleasant to be back in Yoruba.

The really gentlemanly manners, the extreme courtesy and hospitality of these people, are more marked than I have ever seen elsewhere in Africa.

At a distance from the town you are approaching, one of the highest Chiefs deputed by the local King will meet you mounted on his war-horse, a diminutive pony smothered with quilted housings and juju or charms to avert danger from horse or man.

As the cavalcade approaches in its gorgeous trappings — for these Yorubas affect robes of costly cloth, velvet and damask, and caps of plush — the head of the deputation will dismount, and, with great gravity and precision as befits his years and his stiffening joints, will slowly proceed to lay himself completely flat on the ground and rub his venerable face in the dust, the while inquiring how you have fared on your journey, how you slept last night, and such other courteous phrases as may occur to him.

He then conveys his King's greetings and welcome, and tells you of his delight at the honour conferred upon him by your visit. Painfully the old man rises, and all the other prostrate forms rise with him ; his attendants hold his stirrup, and he mounts, and the cavalcade is reformed and leads the way.

Having courteously asked your permission, leave is given to the escort which accompanies him, and presently volleys are heard from their ancient muskets, and a mimic warfare is carried on in celebration of the event of the day.

To me there was a sense of incongruity in the obeisance of these courtly old [savages], in their robes of snowy whiteness or of brilliant colours, before a dirty, tattered, and unimportant-looking individual like myself; but the contrast was a pleasant one after the amenities of Borgu.
...

We passed on through the large towns of Iseihin and Oyo to Ikirun ; where I met Commissioner Bower, who was engaged at the time in negotiations with the Emir of Ilorin, regarding the adjustment of his frontier towards the Lagos protectorate

An Expedition to Borgu, on the Niger by Captain F. D. Lugard

Royal Geographical Society

September 1895

It was extremely pleasant to be back in Yoruba (contd)

Britain as the Royal Niger Company in 1886, had negotiated over 300 treaties with native chieftains by 1894 and placed nearly 500,000 square miles of Nigeria, as far north as Gando and Sokoto, under British protection.

A military government was established. An efficient constabulary was organized from the Hausa tribes. The headquarters moved north to Lokoja in 1889; and a treaty made with France in 1890 fixed the boundary roughly between the British and French spheres of influence by a line drawn from Say on the Niger due east to Lake Tchad.

But the western boundary of Nigeria — the Lagos-Dahomey hinterland — remained undermined.

The officials of the company were busy consolidating their holdings and developing the trade of the region, when the news of the arrival of Captain Decoeur in the vicinity of West Nigeria reached them.

Captain Lugard who had distinguished himself in East Africa by saving Uganda for Great Britain, was ordered to the Nigeria frontier. By forced marches he reached Borgu, Nikki, Kishi and Gambaga and made treaties Cith the chiefs there, while Captain Wallace was renewing the alliances with the Kings of Sokoto and Gando in July, before Captain Decoeur's appearance on the scene in October.

Thus in the initial moves of the contest, the Niger company scored first.


French Colonial Expansion in West Africa, The Sudan, and the Sahara by Harris, Norman Dwight (August, 1911)

The people of Borgu - Bariba

The Borgus are decidedly the most interesting people of the Middle Niger, being the sole [pagan] tribe which has successfully resisted Mahommedan invasion.

For years did the Fulas of Sokotu and Gandu attempt to conquer the country, desisting, however, in the end in the firm belief that the blessing of their prophet was not with them in fighting against this strange people.

They themselves ascribe their invincibility not so much to their fighting powers as to their religion, which they affirm is that of "Kisra, a Jew, who gave his life for the sins of mankind."

They are most indignant, and perhaps justly so, at being called pagans, considering themselves in every way far superior to the Mahommedans. They say that their forefathers were originally settled in the north of Africa, and were driven thence about the 8th or 9th century by the Mahommedan conquerors.

They claim connection with Bornu, and it is to be remarked that, as Bariba is the native name for Borgu, so also the native name for Bornu is Berebere or Baribari. The two tribes, therefore, before they were driven south, possibly formed part of the Barbary States.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that Borgu and Bornu established order and a regular form of government in their present provinces ages before any other tribe of these parts dreamt of such things, and to this day both have remained unfettered by the Fula yoke.

The Borgu people are much feared by their neighbours since they have frequently proved their bravery in the field. Their arms consist of spears and arrows, the poison on the latter being very deadly, and they have been able to hold their own with these weapons even against the forces of the King of Dahomey, armed with muskets.

Notwithstanding their warlike qualities, they devote their time almost entirely to agriculture and trade, and their knowledge of medicines is proverbial : " whatever disease cannot be cured in Bariba land can be cured nowhere else " is a common saying amongst the other tribes of the Western Sudan.

- Their country is known as Bariba, Barba, Burgu, or Borgu. Its boundaries are — on the north, Gurma ; on the east, the Kworra and Yauri ; on the south, Yoruba, Nupe, and Shabe ; on the west, Sugu.

" The Hausa call the Bornu people Berbere. Barbu is the ancient name of Borgu." — Barth. Barth has a lot to say about this interesting subject. The capital of Borgu is Bussa, where Mungo Park lost his life. It is situated on the right bank of the Kworra, some 650 miles from the sea.

" Masudawdki goma na Burguwa tun issa kore masudawaki dari na Filani, ten Burgu horsemen are enough to defeat one hundred Filani horsemen," is a Hausa proverb.

" Ekpa Burgu de noshe gaya, the Burgu arrow is very poisonous," expresses the Nupe's views of their neighbours, while in Yorubaland old women say "Oluru gbani lowo ogu Bariba " God deliver one from a Bariba war."

* photo from Sporting trips of a subaltern by Glossop, Bertram Robert Mitford (1906 )

Up the Niger
by Mockler-Ferryman, Augustus Ferryman

Published 1892

Group picture taken at a conference for Local Government in Africa held in Cambridge, England 1958

(Sitting) 2nd right - the Emir of Abuja Malam Suleman Barau, 4th right - Chief of Dikwa in Borno State; center sitting - Mayor of Port Harcourt. (Sitting) 1s left - Miakano Dutse, the Minister of Local Government (Northern Nigeria); 3rd left - Alhaji Sanni Digadi Makama Sokoto. (Standing) 2nd right is Mr. D.A. Ogbadu

My name is John Brown.

How I came to take it, I will explain in due time. When in Slavery, I was called Fed.

Why I was so named, I cannot tell. I never knew myself by any other name, nor always by that; for it is common for slaves to answer to any name, as it may suit the humour of the master.

I do not know how old I am, but think I may be any age between thirty-five and forty. I fancy I must be about thirty-seven or eight; as nearly as I can guess.

I was raised on Betty Moore's estate, in Southampton County, Virginia, about three miles from Jerusalem Court house and the little Nottoway river.

My mother belonged to Betty Moore. Her name was Nancy; but she was called Nanny.

My father's name was Joe. He was owned by a planter named Benford, who lived at Northampton, in the same State.

I believe my father and his family were bred on Benford's plantation.

His father had been stolen from Africa.

He was of the Eboe tribe.

Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England

Edited by L. A. Chamerovzow

Published 1855

Maxim Guns in Benin.

While the attention of the world has been attracted to Crete and the action of the powers of Europe, England has been quietly sawing wood in other directions. She has just concluded one of her little wars.

The Benin campaign has attracted little attention, but it has brought under English dominion more square miles of territory than there are square feet in Crete, and almost as many people as there are in the whole of Greece.

While England bombards the Christians in Crete, she has made war upon the King of Benin because he was a heathen.

A force of marines and infantry has been sent to the heart of the Benin country armed with Maxim guns and dynamite for the purpose of "advancing Christianity" in the wilds of Africa, and these same troops, now that they have returned to England, are likely to be dispatched to Crete to make war upon the Christians there.

New York Journal and Advertiser, April 11, 1897

12 m.p.h. Speed Limit

Generally the road surface is good, especially in the dry season, but is said that a speed of 70 miles per hour has been attained between Ibadan and Iseyin in a 60 h.p. touring car driven by one of the officers of the West African Frontier Force.

The vans are limited to a speed of 10-12 m.p.h. by the order of the Governor, and, as a faster means of conveyance is not provided for passengers by the public service, they have rather a weary time of it during the heat of the day.

The Commercial Motor.

7th March, 1912

Cuban Slaves in England

On the 1st of July ultimo the African Steam Navigation Company's new ship, the Candace, sailed from Plymouth for the West Coast of Africa.

Amongst her passengers were twenty-three self-emancipated slaves, namely, eleven men, eight women, and four children, who had been brought from Havannah to Southampton, on the 7th of June, by the West-India Mail Steamer, the Avon.

Their stories:-

Ignatio Moni is about 41 years of age.

Was brought direct from Lagos and landed at Havannah, at Castilio Principe, in Tacon's time. There were 350 more slaves, men and women, on board, of whom six died during the passage.

The cargo was taken to tbe barracoons of Don Manuel Barriero, a negro-trader, since dead. Deponent was sold to a builder named Don Antonio Mayo, who re-sold him, two months after, to a farrier, one Don Pedro Moni, whose name deponent took. Remained with him until within the last nine years.

Deponent had taken a wife, also a slave, and both set to work to buy themselves off. Deponent purchased her first. Paid five hundred dollars for her.
Her mistress wanted seven hundred, but deponent appealed to the Syndic, who compelled her owner to take the five hundred dollars.

Bought himself for a similar sum. After this, worked as a porter on the wharfs and quays. Saved enough to pay the passage of himself and wife, which cost him two hundred dollars.

Expects to find his mother and brother at Lagos. Has heard of them within the last eight or nine months from new slaves landed at Havannah.

Catarina Bosc, wife of the above deponent.

Is about 41 years of age, and has been about twenty years in Havannah. Was taken from Lagos by a Spanish slaver, with some 600 more. Only two died on the passage, that she knew of.

Shortly after her arrival, was sold to a merchant named Bosc, in whose service she remained, as cook and laundress, for four years and a half.

Bosc then sold her to a negress named Rosalia Aguirre, a seller of provisions in the streets, and who kept an eating-house. Rosalia was a Caravali.

Deponent remained with her five years and a half, when her husband, Ignatio Moni, bought her for five hundred dollars.

* Cuban Emancipados, England, 1855 from liberatedafricans.org

The Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend.

1853-1855

Joseph Ogundamisi. He is the father of controversial journalist Kayode Ogundamisi.

1960s

A busy street in Lagos, Nigeria 1935. Publisher. Unknown

Ademola II - The Alake of Egbaland at Trowbridge 1937

Sir Kitoyi Ajasa(1866- 1937) Lawyer and Newspaper Proprietor.
He was born as Edmund Macaulay in Lagos. Ajasa attended CMS Grammar School Lagos and Studied Law in London. He was called to the Bar in 1893. Ajasa served as an unofficial member of the Colonial Legislative Council fro 1906- 1933. He founded 'The Nigerian Pioneer'- one of the earliest Newspapers in the country. In 1929 he became the first Nigerian to receive a Knighthood. Ajasa was father of the notable Lady Oyinkan Abayomi wife of Sir Kofo Abayomi.

Nigerian playwright, poet and critic Wole Soyinka. Source: Black World/Negro Digest Nov 1969

Rt. Revd (Dr.) SETH KALE OON. MBE. WITH PRIME MINISTER TAFAWA BALEWA AT THE ARCHBISHOP'S COURT MARINA LAGOS 1963

Cyprian Ekwensi, in full Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi (born Sept. 26, 1921, Minna, Nigeria—died Nov. 4, 2007, Enugu), Source: Black World/Negro Digest Oct 1964

Igbo novelist, short-story writer, and children’s author whose strength lies in his realistic depiction of the forces that have shaped the African city dweller.

"Ekwensi was educated at Ibadan (Nigeria) University College and at the Chelsea School of Pharmacy in London. His early works include the novellas When Love Whispers (1947) and The Leopard’s Claw (1950), which combine a fascination for urban life with earnest exhortations to avoid its pitfalls. People of the City (1954; rev. ed., 1969) is a commentary in a journalistic style on the problems of corruption, bribery, and despotism as seen through the eyes of a crime reporter and dance-band leader in Lagos".

Olabisi Ajala (RIP): A collage of pictures from his book- An African Abroad; pub. 1963 by Jarrolds Publishers (London) Ltd. Pictures taken between 1957 and 1963.

Former president of Nigeria Dr Goodluck Jonathan ( b 20/11/1957) Before he entered politics in 1998, he worked as an education inspector, lecture and an environmental-protection officer.

Postcard of Carter Bridge dated by the sender 14 Feb 1967

The blurb on the back reads:

" Lagos Island, the capital of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is cut off from the rest of the country b the lagoon. The only link with the mainland is Carter Bridge, built in 1928 and which is 128 yards long. It caters for the constant stream of traffic that pours into Lagos Island from all over the country. To ease the traffic congestion on Carter Bridge, the Federal Government has decided to build a second bridge over the lagoon. The picture shows Carter Bridge and small canoes that ferry people and foodstuffs from the mainland to the Lagos Island".

Child carrying wrapping leaves in large calabash. Nigeria 1970. Source: Eliot Elisofon

Gani Fawehimi at a Bauchi Prison

The taking of Kano

The accounts given here show that the city which the force has entered is no mere collection of native huts, but is the huge civilised capital of a flourishing country. We have taken over a new India, a fact to which Canon Charles Robinson alludes in his "Nigeria, our Latest Protectorate (Horace Marshall and Son), which contains an interesting description of Kano.

“A resemblance between Nigeria and India,” he says, “may be pointed out in respect not only of climate but of general culture and civilisation. The Hausas, for example, are no more [savages] than were the majority of the peoples of India at the time when English rule was finally established among them.”

Particulars of the British entry into the city were contained in the following telegrams:- From Governor Sir F. Lugard to the Earl of Onslow.-- Received Colonial Office, February 13, 1903. Fifty miles from Zaria, February 8, Kano occupied by Colonel Morland, February 3. Lieutenant S. B. B. Dyer, 2nd Life Guards, severely wounded, sword cuts, wrist. Wounded all doing well. Captain J. Farquhar, R.A., slightly wounded.Twelve rank and file wounded. Town uninjured. No one hurt except combatants, of whom 300 killed. Emir had proceeded with 1,000 horse northward Sokoto."

The Sphere; an Illustrated Newspaper for the Home

February 28, 1903

Jukun (Kororofa)

Early history. —Under the name of Kororofa, their capital, this once powerful tribe is often referred to in the history of Bornu and Kano.

Leaving aside the Hausa myth of Biram's seven illegitimate children, of whom Kororofa was one, we begin to hear of this tribe in the thirteenth century.

In the Kano chronicles it is mentioned that Yahia, the first Mohammedan king of Kano, extended his sway to the borders of Kororofa.

In the sixteenth century Kororofa ravaged his kingdom, and laid siege to Kano itself. Vague traditions as to this are still current among the Jukun.

In the reign of Ben el Hadj Omar of Bornu, a.h. 1055-1095, the Bornu chronicles seen by Dr. Barth mention that the capital was besieged by the Jukun and the Twareks.

There is little doubt but that this [pagan] state existed during several centuries, and suffered the rises and falls common to all the Soudan states.

Bornu appears to have kept up constant intercourse with Kororofa, and this state was the only one looked upon as their equal by the Jukun. An almost autonomous Jukun colony existed in the Bornu capital and in Bida, whilst a colony of Beri Beri lived in Kororofa.

The title of Zenua or ambassador still survives, borne by Malam Awdu of Wukari.

At one time or another this kingdom extended from the twelfth meridian to the Niger, south to the Cross River, and north to the borders of Bornu and the varying limits of the central Hausa states. It included the whole of the Arrago kingdom of Doma, the Igbira kingdom of Panda, and the dominions of the Attah of Idah on the lower Niger.

Lieutenant Mizon wrote in 1894 that they had probably conquered to the Ocean, and had certainly been in touch with Europeans.

In d'Anville's map of Africa, 1727, "Courourfa" is shown as occupying the country south of Bornu and Zanfara.

* 1787 Map of Africa from UCT Libraries Digital Collections

F. R. Ruxton, Resident, Muri Province

Journal of the African Society

Published 1908