The immigrants of African descent who began arriving in Lagos and Badagry in the early nineteenth century included not only Afro-Brazilians, but also Afro-Cubans, Afro-Americans, Afro- Canadians (freed slaves from Nova Scotia) and Sierra Leonians (Saros). Of these the Afro-Brazilians and the Saros constituted the largest and most dominant groups. The Afro-Brazilians were the descendants of African slaves (mostly from West Africa and Angola) taken to Brazil. They returned to West Africa between the 1820s and 1890s. Collectively, in Nigeria the Afro-Brazilians and the Afro- Cubans were referred to as `Brazilians' or Aguda (Yoruba word for Catholics) probably because the majority of both these groups were Catholics. The Saros were the descendants of Yoruba slaves from southwestern Nigeria. Some of these slaves were on their way to the Americas to be sold but were rescued by the British anti-slavery squadron along the West African coast. They were then resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which was founded in the eighteenth century by an Englishman named Granville Sharp. Other Saros were African slaves (mostly of Yoruba origin) who have been in England since the early seventeenth century. They were repatriated to Sierra Leone after the abolition of slavery in Great Britain. After Lagos was ceded to the British by Oba Dosunmu in 1861, many more Saros were encouraged to return to Yorubaland by the colonial administration. The Saro community lived in the Saro quarter alongside the Afro-Brazilian community in the Brazilian quarter of Lagos. Like the Afro-Brazilians, they also produced a significant genre of architecture and a distinctive creole culture during the nineteenth century. The Saro architectural style was largely based on a combination of the British colonial style and the Yoruba traditional spatial arrangement. Although the Saros contributed immensely to the development of architecture in Lagos, they were not nearly as renowned for their building design and construction skills as the Afro-Brazilians were. This study is concerned primarily with the architecture created by the Afro-Brazilians as distinct from the Saros, whose architecture undoubtedly merits study in its own right.

https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/handle/10443/883

Afro-Cubans (Lucumi) in Havana and Afro-Brazilians in Bahia represented the African diasporas of the New World, while the Aguda ( or Amaros), who made the journey in the opposite direction to Lagos, represented another diaspora – the Aguda were a mix of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian – an Afro-Latino diaspora in Africa. In between the two were the Saros (liberated or repatriated African slaves from various parts of West Africa, mainly Sierra Leone and Ouidah) and Brazil and Cuba who formed another category that moved between the different points on the West African coast. All these made up the Afro-Atlantic diasporic landscape that developed in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/lucas/activ…

In the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of ex-slaves of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian descent and emigrants from Sierra Leone established communities in Lagos, Ibadan and other regions of Nigeria. Many ex-slaves came to Nigeria following the emancipation of slaves in Latin America. Many of the immigrants, sometimes called Saros (immigrants from Sierra Leone) and Amaro (ex-slaves from Brazil later became prominent merchants and missionaries in Lagos and Abeokuta.
http://www.wearethefuture-ng.com/Nigeria…

Saros or Creoles in Nigeria during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century were freed slaves who migrated to Nigeria in the beginning of the 1830s. They were known locally as Saros (elided form of Sierra Leone) or Amaros: migrants from Brazil and Cuba. Saros and Amaros also settled in other West African countries such as the Gold Coast (Ghana). They were mostly freed and repatriated slaves from various West African and Latin American countries such as Sierra Leone, Brazil and Cuba. Liberated "returnee" Africans from Brazil were more commonly known as "Agudas". Most of the Latin American returnees or Amaros started migrating to Africa after slavery was abolished on the continent while others from West Africa, or the Saros were recaptured and freed slaves already resident in Sierra Leone. Many of the returnees chose to return to Nigeria for cultural, missionary and economic reasons. Many (if not the greater majority) of them were originally descended from the Yoruba people, and so because of this, they were mostly regarded as a part of the ethnic group that the Yoruba constituted in the Nigeria of the era. The newly arrived immigrants resided in the Niger Delta, Lagos and in some Eastern Nigerian cities such as Aba, Owerri, and Onitsha. Though, many were originally dedicated Anglophiles in Nigeria, they later adopted an indigenous and patriotic attitude on Nigerian affairs due to a rise in discrimination in the 1880s, and were later known as cultural nationalists.

Unlike the Saros who were principally from Sierra Leone, the Amaros, who were sometimes called Nago in Brazil (Nago, indicates Yoruba ethnicity) were liberated slaves from Brazil and Cuba. Returnees from Brazil and their current day descendants were and are more commonly called "Agudas". They went to the New World as slaves from different sub-ethnic and ethnic backgrounds but approached relationships among themselves as equals. They came back to Nigeria, principally to re-connect with their fatherland. In Lagos, they were given the watery terrains of Popo Aguda as their settlement. They were not brought up in the Anglican faith like the Sierra Leoneans but chose Catholicism, the dominant religion in Brazil. By the 1880s, the Agudas comprised about 9 % of the population of Lagos. It should be remembered that some of the Agudas were Muslims. Some of the Catholic Brazilians also worshipped African Orishas which they had also worshipped in Brazil.

The ex-slaves were notably technically skilled artisans and were known for the distinctive Brazilian architecture built in their settlements and later in the Lagos environs. During the time, modern European architecture was not only meant to be a nice abode but also a dominating advertisement to show Africans of a different style and culture. However, in due time, the Brazilian style emerged as a viable alternative and modern style used by African contractors working on public and large private jobs such as the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos and the Mohammed Shitta Bey Mosque. The Brazilians introduced to Nigeria elaborate architectural designs, two story buildings and bungalows with stucco facades. The Brazilian returnees also popularized the use of Cassava as a food crop. They had pioneered trade with Brazil in the mid nineteenth century. But by the 1880s, ruinous competitors and an economic
Source(s):
downturn had forced many to abandon the export trade. Agriculture soon became an avenue to supplement shortfalls in economic activity. They also introduced Cocoa Plantations together with Saro, J.P.L. Davies.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110506143546AAyUl2u

Andre Uweh: @the poster, your emphasis is only on the Yoruba recaptives. History tells us that not only yoruba groups were resettled in Lagos. Make it general please.

alj harem:

Which other group ?

thanks

Andre Uweh:
There were Ndigbo who were resettled n Lagos and this group helped with the propagation of xtianity in Igboland. Trust me, not only Yorubas were resettled in Lagos.

Andre Uweh:
There were Ndigbo who were resettled n Lagos and this group helped with the propagation of xtianity in Igboland. Trust me, not only Yorubas were resettled in Lagos.

alj harem:

Andre Uweh LOL

My brother I respect you but please STFU !!! Nothing connecting Lagos and Igbo together other than Nigeria. No Igbo settled in Lagos as a returnee slave. Saro people have no connection with Igbos. Bawo ni, eku ile etc are not Igbo words

Every single family that settled in Lagos has been recorded. There are no Uche and co in the book. Even other Yorubas that are not indigenous to Lagos can be pointed out not to talk of Igbos.

Ajayi Crothwer is not an Igbo man o !!!.
You must be silly for yourself to think that only Yorubas were resettled in Lagos. Yes Ajayi Crowther was not Igbo but he was not alone in his missionary activities in Igboland. He wporked with Igbo recaptives and some of this recaptives had been renamed European/Christian names. The likes of Horton, Taylor etc who helped with the spread of xtianity ion Igboland were freed-slaves from Sierra Leone via Lagos.

Thanks

Andre Uweh:
You must be silly for yourself to think that only Yorubas were resettled in Lagos. Yes Ajayi Crowther was not Igbo but he was not alone in his missionary activities in Igboland. He wporked with Igbo recaptives and some of this recaptives had been renamed European/Christian names. The likes of Horton, Taylor etc who helped with the spread of xtianity ion Igboland were freed-slaves from Sierra Leone via Lagos.

alj harem:

Na wa o !!! See this ideeeiot. Taylor that was Igbo but could not even translate his own language into writing. You must be a mor.on to think Taylor who you think is an Igbo man really care about this.

Taylor did not settle in Lagos rather he was in port harcourt or something. Every single family in lagos or settled in lagos have been recorded. Even Family names that have migrated from one part of Lagos to another have been recorded not to talk of Igbo person.

It is this same stu,.pidity and lies that has held the Igbo people back for years. Not the civil war.

You ideeiot, read about life of Taylor and show me where he ever got to Lagos, here is an Igbo man like you

http://www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/taylor_jc3.html

every single "mama i dey go lagos" is never and would never be an indigene of Lagos even other yorubas too. Get that into your thick skull and make it embedded there. Maybe after we form our individual countries but if we are still Nigeria, then forget.

Unless you are Ogu, Awori, Egba, Ijebu all of which are yorubas. Just forget it and look for something better to do with ur life. Thank you

Again every single slave dropped in Lagos has a family record and can be traced back. There is no single Igbo or what mess not. Thanks

Andre Uweh:
Are you mad or what. How on earth can you believe that only Yorubas were resettled in Lagos. The recaptives were renamed and came to Lagos with foreign names. So it will be very difficult for you to see names such as Okereke, Okafor, Okonkwo, Okorie etc.
By the time the recaptives arrived from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, there were already native tribes in Lagos which you mentioned, but the recaptives mostly were not of those ethnic stock in Lagos. There were Egbas, Ibadans, Edes, Ijeshas, Igbos, Nupes, Edos, etc.
This recaptives having become xtians in new world or Europe, now helped with the expansion of xtianity in modern day Nigeria.
I know that the expedition to christianise Igboland was led by Samuel Crowther, but he worked alongside some other returnees whom were of Igbo origin.
Once again, only a fool such as Alh Harem will disagree with this fact.

Andre Uweh: ^^For how long must you keep fooling yourself here. The Scottish missionaries who pioneered christian evangelism in the east did so with the help of recaptives who first settled in Badagry and later to Abeokuta. To accomplish this task, the Scottish missionaries dispatched with returnees of Igbo and eastern Nigerian stock who will be better suited in their mission.
If there were no Igbo ex-slaves in Badagry, how could have the Scottish missionaries chosen people who understand the language and the ways of the natives of the east?.

Ajayi, J.F (CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN NIGERIA. (1841-1891. LONGMANS, 1965.

alj harem:

Maybe you are the one fooling yourself here because you cannot just talk/make claims without evidence. I would be a fool to believe ur crap when I have my own facts and not just talking. Now tell me the names of the families that were returnees ? Anyone that is Igbo among them

Having a full English name does not deter them from knowing they are Igbo and his origin can be traced. There are no Igbos in the record, stop this stu.pidity already brother.

alj harem:

Andre Uweh LOL

My brother I respect you but please STFU !!! Nothing connecting Lagos and Igbo together other than Nigeria. No Igbo settled in Lagos as a returnee slave. Saro people have no connection with Igbos. Bawo ni, eku ile etc are not Igbo words

Every single family that settled in Lagos has been recorded. There are no Uche and co in the book. Even other Yorubas that are not indigenous to Lagos can be pointed out not to talk of Igbos.

Ajayi Crothwer is not an Igbo man o !!!.

Thanks

BlackPikiN:

Ohh shut up. There were Igbo slaves returness from other countries that settled in lagos. esp from Sierra Leone and Liberia!

tpia@:
What am i saying.

Slaves from the area in question were routed through both east and west.

Even north sef.

BlackPikiN:

Ohh shut up. There were Igbo slaves returness from other countries that settled in lagos. esp from Sierra Leone and Liberia!

tpia@:
What am i saying.

Slaves from the area in question were routed through both east and west.

Even north sef.

chipmunkey: @tipia . I know my history books and i make valid jugdements based on facts on ground and not sentiments. Not many slaves were traded across Ijaw land for obvious reasons(transportation through the creeks) unlike other coastlands of west Africawhere slaves could easily be marched through to the ports. European merchants however found a good substitute for slave trade which was palm oil before the likeß d of Mary slessor ÄÑD öther missionari€ß made their way tö CÄLÄBÄR.

chipmunkey: Slaves where not shipped through Ijaw land for obvious reasons(the creeks) and European merchants soon found a more profitable venture in Palm oil which was exchanged for Rum and Whiskey.
The highest casulities of the slave trade are people located in towns and villages not very far from the Atlantic coast. Such villages were constantly raided and the people sold to slave merchants after marching on fóot to the nearest slave camp.