₦airaland Forum

[size=14pt]The Lagosians who do not have any other home or place to call their homes on this planet


&


Contemporary migrants who earn their livelihood in Lagos but still go home to their places of origin annually at festival periods to their kith and kin. [/size]

[size=14pt]Part 2



The Lagosians
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Lagos Island was a truly metropolitan habitat for many and different peoples from the various continents of the world. The Lagosians were a cosmopolitan people, yet many Lagosians had never stepped beyond the island. It was a curious, unique and exciting mixture of opposites. Every body, as it were, was there. And they all were comfortable to various degrees. No matter your economic plight in the course of living, you never came to Lagos and ever dream of returning home. Indeed, we have a saying, “Eko gb’ole, o gb’ole.”
It is very convenient to classify Lagosians into two groups:

[size=14pt]THE LAGOS WE LOST.
Preface by Dr Abayomi Ferreira.

For anyone who is intrested.
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Truly, the real and proper Lagos is irretrievably of the past. Eko in her original and delectable complexity, yet innocent simplicity is gone and lost and can no longer be regained. For Lagos was complex in its multiciplity of peoples, ingenious access by various individuals to its economic possibilities, unique cultural potentialities but its social expressions made these various communities that defined Eko to find it easy to live, to enjoy life and to attain fulfilment of living virtually like nowhere else on this planet. We can only recollect and reminisce. Whenever we try to recall the Lagos we have lost, we are talking of Lagos Island, Eko. Anything beyond is either Oke Odo i.e. Iddo, Otto, Ijora, Oyingbo, Ebute Meta, Yaba, Idi-Oro (all these beyond Idunmota, after the Carter Bridge), Agege and all the way to Ilu Oke. As children in the forties, we crossed the Carter Bridge only once in a year, on Easter Monday to celebrate with cousins who lived at Oyingbo and whom we would not set our eyes upon until the next Easter Monday. Beyond the Five Cowries Bridge is Ikoyi where the colonialists lived and Obalende contiguous to the part of Ikoyi where we buried our dead; and of course, there is also Apapa, a place we did not know if any people lived there.

Eko was socially unique and totally self-sufficient. Those places beyond the lagoons (ikoja osa) were the suburbs that Lagos could very well and indeed did without. They were truly subordinate to Lagos for their very existence whilst we lived in Lagos as if they never existed. We lost Lagos with the advent of the independence of Nigeria from British rule. Funny enough, we were the only colony whilst the rest of the country was a protectorate of the British Crown. The peoples of the protectorate who by sheer numbers and nothing else dominated the political terrain of Nigeria pursued a pre-independence political programme of conspiracy of denial on us and claimed effectively to their possession and political control Lagos and permanently deprived the people of the glorious Island of any political and economic self-identity. Thus was lost gradually the social character and self-identity that was peculiar to the Island.

The West Indians

[size=14pt]although small in population size also have their own carnivals, usually held at the Christmas period. The West Indian carnivals, singing, dancin and attired in beautiful and sexy skimpy attires mimicry of fanciful avian and animal appearances add a lot of colour to the social life of Lagos.
I will also mention the Igbo masquerades and Ojuju Calabar, each group with its peculiar attractiveness that entertain the Lagosians particularly at the Christmas period.

,
No matter which festival is being celebrated by whichever community, all Lagosians take part fully and usually enjoy together as one people
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[size=14pt]There were other splinter groups of calabar, Igbo's and delta tribes uroboho and itsekeri, but the difference most of these groups tend to go home for festivity xmas unlike the saros, the tapa's, the west indians and the Ara Oke's. So back to your point someone that came to Lagos today cannot claim to be a lagosian since of course he still knows where his father home is. The Tapa's never went home.[/size]

Isale Eko people do celebrate a very unique festival known as Oro.

[size=14pt]The Oro celebrants parade the town in the dead of the night. They are never to be beheld by non-initiates, particularly women. I have never seen one although we used to hear them through their incantations as they passed along the street in the night. You dared not step outside to behold an Oro. [/size]

Another festival that is unique to Lagos is the Gelede festival.

[size=14pt]This festival was imported from among the Ijebu waterside people who happen to be the immediate northern neighbours of Eko people. It is noteworthy that of all the peoples from the hinterland, the Ijebus and Egbas are not called Ara-Oke by Lagosians. Gelede is a masquerade that is attired in a woven mat that is cylindrically wrapped round the person in the masquerade. The person inside is not seen at all. What spectators behold is a moving cylinder of mat that simply moves at an incredibly fast speed along the road. The Gelede celebration seems to have disappeared completely from Lagos. I cannot recall seeing or being told of any Gelede festival in the past 35 years at the very least. We seem to have actually lost all of the Geledes. [/size]

Eyo Festival

[size=14pt]One festival which is celebrated only once in a while but which all Lagosians always wish to see is the Eyo Festival. The Eyo festival is a fantastically attractive sight to behold. It is a truly indigenous Lagos celebration. Indeed, the Eyo does not cross the Carter Bridge. He does not step out of Lagos Island. It is a mass display of masquerades with every one participating attired in sparklingly white robes with the hems sweeping the ground as the Eyo gracefully moves through the streets, and also variously embroidered in different types of equally white laces or damask materials. Every Eyo wears a beautifully decorated hat that distinguishes his family of origin.

The various groups move in family clones with the family members dressed in family aso ebi singing, dancing and the Eyo greeting spectators with the touch of his sceptre, a broad and decorated carved piece of wooden staff. The Eyo greeting of “Ee surukuru” accompanies the touch of the sceptre as a special style of greeting! Women are not expected to walk along the street in the presence of Eyo. The Eyos are specially named according to the family origin of the group. Members of the celebrating families congregate in party setting in front of the family compound feasting, drinking, singing, entertaining friends and visitors. It is a great festive occasion. The celebration of the festival is normally fixed, proclaimed and decreed by the Oba of Lagos. When we were young, the first one I can recall was to mark the departure of Oba Falolu. That must have been in 1949.

My parents told me that the last Eyo festival celebration was held 25 years before then, at the time of Oba Esugbayi. I believe that one of the things we have lost of old Lagos is that the Eyo festival celebration has become too frequent and is being proclaimed for more insignificant occasions.
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Egungun festivals

[size=14pt]are held yearly with various families, particularly from among the Aworis and Brazilians, showing their family Egungun outfits, songs and dances. The Egungun annual festival normally runs continuously for weeks in August and September. From the compounds of families, the family Egungun also comes to display and process in town during important family celebrations of marriages, funerals and births. There is a Jorge Ferreira family Egungun tradition that was brought all the way from Brazil about 1873 when Papae Manoel Jorge Ferreira migrated from Salvador to settle in Lagos. He came originally bringing cows from Bahia to sell in Lagos, hence the name Cow Lane that was named after his trading site. The Egungun sceptre, outfit and paraphernalia are in the custody of the Ogidan family, which is in very close affinity and relationship with the Ferreira family virtually as blood relations. Both families lived together at Bamgbose and Tokunbo Streets. They celebrate family occasions and the Egungun festival as one.

The shrine of the Egungun is at one of the family compounds at Tokunbo Street. This type of arrangement for the maintenance and sustenance of the family Egungun tradition is typical of many such Lagos families. Indeed, a child of the family at its naming ceremony occasion is usually given an Egungun name. This practice, I want to emphasise, does not deride from the sacredness and purity of the involvement of the family in the Church as has been wrongly propagated in some quarters since the Egungun relationship is not one of worship or divinity. It has become a phenomenon of custom and nothing more. The Ogidans are seriously practising Muslims whilst the Ferreiras are mainly Roman Catholic although some young ones have migrated to the Pentecostal and similar faiths.[/size]

Festivals celebrated by Lagosians there is no known Bini festival or influence.

Igunnu, the annual festival of the Tapas in Oshodi Street.

[size=14pt]The Igunnu is a cylindrically designed very tall masquerade, about the height of a story building. They parade the town in groups dancing and entertaining excited onlookers with engaging acrobatics, bewitching swaying and dancing styles. The Igunnu palace is still one of the landmarks of Oshodi Street. There is the Igunnu statue on that street which is in the heart of the Brazilian quarters with whom the Oshodis have become fully integrated. The original Oshodi came from Bida in the Tapa country. They are traditionally a Muslim family although some of them have embraced the Christian religion.
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[size=14pt]America today consists of Anglo American, German American, Italian American, Latino, African American , Chinese, Vietamanese and Japanese American they are all Americans today. They are not Germans nor English or Japanese. The indigenious people too are called Native Americans.

Same thing is Applicable, true the Bini's had their kingdom in the 1600's and of course one would expect such vast kingdom to encompass and cover coastal areas like Lagos and Dahomey. On that basis there was at a time a Bini influence in the SW coastal areas. But that is where any influence ends.

The Ara-oke's OR Yoruba's from the hinterland's added their own influence in lagos, I read someone's post up there that the Bini's brought urbanisation to Lagos, needless for me to say much the South Western part of Nigeria is still be the most urbanised corner of Nigeria a record they have held since the 1800's.[/size]

[size=14pt]There are more than 50 towns with a population of 50,000.00 people in SW Nigeria, and I believe the SW has about 80 million of Nigerians 150 million population, we should invite a neutral body probably the UN agencies to come and count us and determine once for all that the Yoruba's are the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, I am sure I would be vindicated.

How can Bini a town which in the 1950's population census was not up to the first 10 most populous town in the SW be the one that influence the growth of Lagos, anyone with an iota of a brain cell would know the growth of Lagos can only be influenced by urban dwelling Yoruba's from the hinterland, they did not only influence the institutions in Lagos they also made sure their language was the adopted so was their customs such as obaship and other traditions.
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[size=14pt]The Egun's of today are now by default Yoruba's due to the essesive influence of the Yoruba's in their culture. 95% OF Egun's speak Yoruba as their first langugae and second language. The Egun's in Lagos are different from the one's in togo or Benin republic because their language has not only evolved from standard Egun, it as being peppered not only with Yoruba but also with English just as many other Nigerian languages.

Meanwhile the Egun's in Togo and Benin for all we care might be speaking gookly-gloog because they speak an Egun peppererd with french which would not only be foreign to a Lagos- Egun speaker but it would be greek.[/size]


THESE ARE THE LIST OF THE TRIBAL COMPOSITION OF Lagos as of the late 1940's to about 1958.

1. Binis - they have invariably disappered all together with no name OR street name to show any influence, at best the influence of Bini can be seen as good as insignificant not worthy of a discuss.

2. Nupe they call tapa- they live around the ita-faji area of Lagos Island in the 1940's and 1950's, would you refer to this people as Gwari's OR Nupe's today without a backlash from the respondent. The POPULAR Oshodi family were an off-shoot of this clan.

3. The Ara-oke's - Yoruba's from Odua, Kwara, Igbira, Kabba e.t.c

4. the Saro's- Freed slaves from Nova scotia and Serra-leone, the thompson's, lawson's, coles, Macauleys.

5. Brazillians, freed slaves from Brazil- Da-silva, Da-Rocha, Pinnereho, Santos, Domingo's

6. The AGOYEN of the "famed Ewa AGOYEN" MAINLY Ewe's from Ghana, Togo and Republic of Benin.

7. Egun's- in the 1940's and 1950's they use to be wash men, they come to your house ask if u have any dirty cloth that needs to be washed. They and the Ewe'e use to do this.


[size=14pt]The mordern day Lagosian just like the mordern day American is not a Bini man, it is an insult to put such a darming in a society as diverse and verse as Lagos Island, it was a melting pot of several tribes but all were seen and referred to as one Lagosians, with one language, one custom and tradition. Another plus to the Lagosians was the introduction of the standard Yoruba spoken today, that is Yoruba language devoid of any accent known as Yoruba -Eko. It was reminiscent of the American English developing out of the British English.

The Ibadan's, Egba's, Ondo's, Owo's , Ijebu's, Ekiti's all have their accents but Lagos which was the great melting pot spoke accentless Yoruba. This is because the English Bible was coverted to Standard Yoruba Bible by Bishop AJAYI CROWTHER A Nova Scotiian who translated it in the 1830's. That singular act led to the growth of standard Yoruba as it is spoken today.[/size]

State Police , IMO, should actually move us closer to good Governance. The security of lives and property is a very serious consideration for most Nigerians. Currently , even Jang and the various Police commisioners in Plateau State are full of excuses after every crisis. Jang is always blaming the FG. With State police Jang would have to perform or be removed. Scores of people dying would be grounds for impeaching a Governor if he , as per State Police, is the ultimate authority on the success or failure of security in a State.


As thing stand , too many corrupt and underperforming Governors prefer the current arrangement because it enable them to blame the FG for poor security in their States while the likes of Fashola continue to agitate for State Police.

[size=14pt]It took less then a week for hutu malitia to kill 800,000 tutsi's, to leave arms and all other military hardware in the hands of men who are as vindictive as Jang who is clearly running an ethnic regime would be a bad precedent.

The man is not any different from Milosvechi of Serbia who believed in Greater Serbia. Jang is a die hard Berom nationalist who is not ready to compromise.[/size]

The same Branson who spoke so ill of Nigeria and Nigerians and divested his investment in Nigeria - this is the same person Nigerians are praising to high heavens-.

[size=14pt]Any International Businessman worth his salt would liquidate their assets in Nigeria and sell up to any risk averse  Nigerian entrepenuer who knows how to manoaver themselves in that jungle,  at least the Nigerian knows the risk of investing in their own country. What happened to all the foreign capital invested in our stock markets gone down the drain. What happened last week at the NSE broke like an arse hole, money siphoned away by greedy and fiddling managers.

If Jimoh Ibrahim is still in business in 10 years time, I would give him a token credit knowing that no matter how long he postpones the stay of execution of his latest business gimmick it is bound to fail sooner rather than later. Was it not only last year when he was mentioned as one of those who drew huge loans in our banks without collataral.

This man is a big scam, when unscrupolous traders like him are giving undue advantage to import scrace items as a monopoly concern, who would not make money running a business like that.

He is just a buy and sell merchant whose contribution to the GDP is neglible, he is not really productive OR helping the economy,  if he manages to en-mass 100 OR $200 million dollars after all that wheeling and dealing they that screaming from the roof tops,  they are worth several billion dollars. Only a fool would fall for this man's cheap bait.

Make una open una eye don't buy his shares when he comes to the market, b4 warned is before win.  [/size]

[size=14pt]I think it is high time Ganiyu Adams step in. Not vastly educated but a man that believe in Oduduwa Republic and the earlier we achieve this the better. With Buhari saying Nigeria might break up in the next few years, the Yoruba's should start taking their own destinies in their hands.[/size]

According to Ibrahim, “Air Nigeria is going to be the dominant flyer in Nigeria. We have ordered for two more aircraft to boost our fleet. This will increase our fleet of aircraft to about eight.  [/b]An additional two aircraft will be coming before the end of August. [b]This will increase our fleet to 10

[size=14pt]I know BA has in excess of 1000 Aeroplanes, Virgin Atlantic is no where near BA but I would not be over exergerating in saying they have in excess of 300 planes. Yet Mr Ibrahim  whose total planes would be 10 by the end of August thinks he is bigger than Branson. Bigger in what sense probably manhood-wise,  blackmen have always being known to be well endowed, on that basis I agree with Messers Jimoh Ibrahim.  [/size]

[size=14pt]State Police, probably when democracy has run a good cause of 100 years. By then hopefully men of integrity and honour would be manning and calling the shots in our Governor's mansion. But today with people like Jang runnng amok in plateau it is a no -no.[/size]

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This is a case of Medecine after death. An offence commited in secular Abuja[/size]

Your President was less than 5 miles when this man was commiting the offence. 

Your IGP was less than 5 miles when this man was commiting the offence.

Your Cheif Justice and AG(Chief Law Officer indeed) for the nation was less than 5 miles when this man was commiting the offence. 

Your 108 Senators and 450 odd Reps men where less than 5 miles away when the offence was commited, 

Your Service Cheifs where less than 5 miles from where the offence was commited. 

[size=14pt]There has being a systemic failure with regards to those who are tasked with Up-holding the rule of law[/size].


[size=14pt]Some of the officials who were suppose to apprehend this man whilst commiting this offence in broad day light were busy helping themselves to vintage wine and the best Tuwo North of the Niger and Benue Rivers on the said day of the offence. 

This case is an wholesome indictment on the whole apparatus of Goverment, if it were a parliamentary democracy we are pratising,  a vote of no confidence can easily be passed on this Goverment for unwanton dereliction of duty.[/size]

[size=14pt]It would have being a good idea, if the 2nd year is optional, so that those that have found jobs after the first year can go and take up those jobs, their employers would be required to inform the NYSC of such recruitment. I think the 2 year scheme suggested by David Mark should be used as a precursor for a 5 year un-employement c-um work for your benefit new graduate unemplyement scheme.
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[size=14pt]The scheme should work along this lines.[/size]

[size=14pt]1. 1st year compulsory for Graduates, salaries should be increased to aboutN25,000.00 a month.


2. 2nd year compulsory for all those who have not found a permanent job Salary would be N25,000.00 a month.


3. 3rd year Un-employement benefit by proxy kicks in, but the key to obtaining this benefit is stay in the scheme and get paid N20,000.00 a month, the salary would not be as high as the first and second year, one must be reminded this is a benefit and not a right. The 3rd year is 100% optional if you are not in the scheme you don't get the benefit.


4. 4th year also Un-employement benefit by proxy, 100% optional, Salary drops further to about N17,000.00 A YEAR.


5. 5th year and the last year for any graduate to opt for the scheme. Salary drops to N14,000.00 A YEAR. By this time any graduate that knows his onions should have gotten a permanenet job in their various primary assignments.
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[size=14pt]We have to Understand there is a serious gross under-employment in some states in the North, many at times places of Primary Assignment beg corpers to stay put,  but most corpers from the South would rather want to work in Banks, Oil and Gas , and telecome which are businesess mostly concentrated in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
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[size=14pt]For instance Yobe Goverment had to import Egyptian Doctors at $250,000.00 per annum, it later came to light by one of their collegues who was disgruntled that he who was a real Doctor was paid the same  amount in salary as Lab Technicians from his country.

Meanwhile our graduates who schooled in Nigeria would not take jobs in Yobe, Jigawa, Kebbi and Zamfara amongst other States I am aware and I know these State Goverment would not be offfering our graduates these mouth watering Salaries but then our graduates should be able to negotiate soemthing a lot better than what obtains in the South.

I remember when my Brother finished Medecine at UI, he had to work for N15,000.00 A MONTH DOING D/C in one private Hospital at Ibadan.

Meanwhile if he were to take up appointment in Yobe or Zamfara State he could be pocketing N100,000.00, which I know is a far cry from what the Egyptians are earning but considerable better than what those shylocks in the South are paying. This should be way forward for Graduates.[/size]

http://oyostate.gov.ng/political-appointees

[size=14pt]For arguments sake let us use the conservative figure of 53 appointees based on the 1st 53 appointees(see link above) we all know it is more than this. Now multiply this figure by 36 states knowing Bauchi State has about 93 appointees, democarcy don kill Nigeria oh. [/size]

http://www.riversmonorail.com/about/


Rivers monorail renderings and design if it is ever built.

[size=14pt]How come both the orderly and driver did not have their own fire arms, we are talking of a General here and not some low cadre officer, at least there should have being 3 fire arms in that car.

Can you imagin armed robber's stopping IBB, I know it is not comparable, IBB being an ex-President but then both men are rtr Generals in ther Army some other personnel should be doing their bidding not oga pulling out his pistol and finishing the job.  [/size]

[size=14pt]This is very good read take your time and read it Beaf. Lagosians are not from only one tribe, majority are Yoruba’s, but over the centuries there have being so many other tribes such as the Brazillians, the Egun’s, the Tapa’s OR Nupe of Niger State, the Ewe’s, the Agoyen of the famed “Ewa Agoyen”, the Ara oke that is Yoruba’s from the Odua States they all leave in harmony in Lagos Island.

Over time the sons and daughter’s of these migrants all speak Yoruba Eko as their mother tongue, many of them don’t even know where their father’s home town is hence Lagos Island being the only place they know and claim.

The Egun’s in Badagry might not be Yoruba initially but because they have lived amongst Yoruba’s for over 200 years they are considered Yoruba’s.

Would you consider somebody with a name like Olusegun Da-Silva Yoruba OR not. Going by your defination of Egun this chap is a Brazillian. The Eguns in Lagos State has being Yorubalized and cannot be the same with Egun’s in Benin, Togo, OR Ghana.[/size]



THE LAGOS WE LOST.
Preface by Dr Abayomi Ferreira.


Truly, the real and proper Lagos is irretrievably of the past. Eko in her original and delectable complexity, yet innocent simplicity is gone and lost and can no longer be regained. For Lagos was complex in its multiciplity of peoples, ingenious access by various individuals to its economic possibilities, unique cultural potentialities but its social expressions made these various communities that defined Eko to find it easy to live, to enjoy life and to attain fulfilment of living virtually like nowhere else on this planet. We can only recollect and reminisce. Whenever we try to recall the Lagos we have lost, we are talking of Lagos Island, Eko. Anything beyond is either Oke Odo i.e. Iddo, Otto, Ijora, Oyingbo, Ebute Meta, Yaba, Idi-Oro (all these beyond Idunmota, after the Carter Bridge), Agege and all the way to Ilu Oke. As children in the forties, we crossed the Carter Bridge only once in a year, on Easter Monday to celebrate with cousins who lived at Oyingbo and whom we would not set our eyes upon until the next Easter Monday. Beyond the Five Cowries Bridge is Ikoyi where the colonialists lived and Obalende contiguous to the part of Ikoyi where we buried our dead; and of course, there is also Apapa, a place we did not know if any people lived there.

Eko was socially unique and totally self-sufficient. Those places beyond the lagoons (ikoja osa) were the suburbs that Lagos could very well and indeed did without. They were truly subordinate to Lagos for their very existence whilst we lived in Lagos as if they never existed. We lost Lagos with the advent of the independence of Nigeria from British rule. Funny enough, we were the only colony whilst the rest of the country was a protectorate of the British Crown. The peoples of the protectorate who by sheer numbers and nothing else dominated the political terrain of Nigeria pursued a pre-independence political programme of conspiracy of denial on us and claimed effectively to their possession and political control Lagos and permanently deprived the people of the glorious Island of any political and economic self-identity. Thus was lost gradually the social character and self-identity that was peculiar to the Island.

The Lagosians

Lagos Island was a truly metropolitan habitat for many and different peoples from the various continents of the world. The Lagosians were a cosmopolitan people, yet many Lagosians had never stepped beyond the island. It was a curious, unique and exciting mixture of opposites. Every body, as it were, was there. And they all were comfortable to various degrees. No matter your economic plight in the course of living, you never came to Lagos and ever dream of returning home. Indeed, we have a saying, “Eko gb’ole, o gb’ole.”
It is very convenient to classify Lagosians into two groups:


The Lagosians who do not have any other home or place to call their homes on this planet


Contemporary migrants who earn their livelihood in Lagos but still go home to their places of origin annually at festival periods to their kith and kin.
The Lagosians in the first group are in four subgroups:
The Aworis who live in Isale Eko; they are the majority population of Lagos.
The Brazilian descendants who live in the Brazilian quarters
The Saro descendants whose ancestors came from Freetown in Sierra Leone and live at Olowogbowo, Apongbon and Breadfruit area of the Island
The children born in Lagos of migrants whether from the Nigerian hinterland (Ilu Oke) or the West African coastline countries of Dahomey, Gold Coast, Togoland, Liberia and Ivory Coast (Aganyins, Ajases and Kurumos). Their parents still went home periodically but these Lagos children did not have the opportunity to acquire any familiarity with the place of origin of their parents. Their first language is Yoruba Eko although they were also articulate in the mother tongue of their parents.
In the second group are peoples from various parts of the world, awon iru wa, ogiri wa. They live and work in Lagos, contribute immensely to the social life of the island, but they still go home at festival periods. They invariably return finally to their original homes at retirement.

A good percentage of this group are the parents of the children described above. They are:
The Ara Oke people from the Nigerian hinterland, particularly Ilorin, Oyo, Ilesa and Ogbomoso. They live in areas of the island, Okepopo, Oko Awo and Oke Arin where they sell their merchandise, usually items of food, yam, plantain and vegetables from their home territories. Later, many of them switched to retail imported small building materials, which they buy from the European companies. There are also migrants from the lands of the Igbo people, Urhobo, Ijaw, and Nupe. They are mainly traders in food and other items of daily use that are invariably brought from their places of origin although the Igbos deal in imported European products.
The Aganyins, Ajases and Kurumos had travelled into Lagos along the great and ancient road skirting the West African coastline and migrated from Ivory Coast, Liberia, Togoland, Gold Coast and Dahomey.

The Aganyins and Ajases live mainly at Araromi and Lafiaji areas with a few of them spilling across the lagoon to the adjacent fringe of Obalende. They are traders and artisans including washer men and home helps. They are easily identified with their shiny black and beautiful skin as well as the decorative hair plaiting styles of their beautiful women.
The Koras are the Syrians and Lebanese who with some sprinkling of Indians dominate the textile trade business. They live along Ereko and Victoria Streets stretching from Tinubu Square through Ereko to Idunmota. Their shops are situated on the street level floor of their residences. Although, they live a segregated life from the Eko people, their children invariably grow up speaking the Yoruba Eko.
There were the British colonialists who only worked in the colonial civil service with offices at Onikan, Broad Street and Race Course. Some of their kith were the managers of British shops and businesses that dotted the Marina and Broad Street. They merely worked in Lagos, but they lived at Ikoyi.
There were some young professionals of West Indian origin, engineers, technicians and nurses who worked in the colonial service, particularly in the electricity, public works and health departments. They occupied the middle grade posts of those departments. They lived in government quarters built in the premises of the various operational units of the departments.


Although, these many peoples live in well-designated parts of the island the compactness and smallness of the geography of Lagos and the speed of local dissemination of popular information and news ensured regular social interactions. The only fully and socially segregated peoples were the British colonialists, their private sector countrymen who all lived at Ikoyi, and to a lesser extent, the Koras, Syrians, Lebanese and Indians who live at Ereko and Idunmota. Otherwise, the Lagos people enjoyed frequent opportunities and occasions to mix socially.
Taking A Walk Through Lagos.
The streets were few and we were able to walk from one end of the island to the other. We should very conveniently commence our walk through Lagos from Ita Tinubu, otherwise called Tinubu Square. The dominant feature in this historic centre of Lagos is the Supreme Court that was demolished in 1959 to give way for the Central Bank of Nigeria in anticipation of the birth of the new and independent country of Nigeria. I was very much pleased to view a well-framed photograph of the Supreme Court displayed in the lobby of the Nigerian High Commission at Northumberland Avenue, Westminster, London when I visited on Thursday 18 May 2006. As coincidence would have it, five days later on Tuesday 23 May 2006, I was approached by the author of this book Wale Akin and requested to write this document on “The Lagos We Lost.”

There was no fountain at Tinubu Square. The fountain is a present from the Kora community, the Syrians and Lebanese shopkeepers of Ereko and Victoria Streets to Nigeria at Independence in 1960. Before independence, Ita Tinubu was a small circular space that served as an intersection of four Lagos major roads: Bamgbose Street that runs in a north easterly direction from beside the Ola-Iya family house which is today preserved as a National monument to the Brazilian Quarters, Broad Street that passed from the Secretariat, a one storey colonial icon, headquarters of the Colonial Service of Nigeria that was the tallest building in Lagos and ipso facto Nigeria and the African Hospital and making a right angled loop to run westward from Tinubu Square towards Breadfruit, Olowogbowo and Apongbon, Victoria Street running from the square northwards to Ereko, Idunmota and Carter Bridge, and Alli Street that angles very acutely from Bamgbose Street to Ita Faji where we have an old market, Oja Ita Faji and the Massey Hospital, the first maternity in Nigeria. Important architectural landmarks on the outer margin of Ita Tinubu are the Supreme Court, Kirsten Hall that was the residence of Herbert Heelas Macaulay, a great icon of the struggle for Nigerian independence and the Central Police Station. These three and other less significant buildings were demolished to provide space for the Central Bank.

The Marina runs in a generally parallel alignment to Broad Street until we reach Olowogbowo where Broad Street impinges perpendicularly to end on the Marina. The Marina’s main attraction to Eko people were the ships that come in from the sea to discharge and load at the Marina Quays situated at the Apongbon end of the Marina where there was also the Customs Department. There were no Apapa Quays then. The walkway of the Marina also provided the strolling venue in the breezy evenings for lovers. During the day, it was the home of the departmental stores. I recall the biggest of them all, Kingsway Stores that stretched all along Martins Street from the Marina to Broad Street. Kingsway boasted the first ever-mechanical escalator in Nigeria. It was a most fascinating attraction for children who accompanied the older ones to the shops on Saturdays. Later, UTC Stores at Apongbon and Leventis Stores on the Marina also installed their own escalators.

This technology has disappeared from the Nigerian scene with the advent of Nigerianisation of commercial businesses in independent Nigeria. Other European owned commercial businesses in this commercial sector of Lagos included Gottshalck, Paterson Zochonis, G B Ollivant, specialised outfits such as Kingsway Chemists and of course the always mighty UAC, a creation of the Lever Brothers. Chellarams and J T Chanrai later joined these European outfits at the Marina. These are owned by Indian merchants and had their beginnings at Ereko Street and Victoria Street. At the point where the Marina changed name, Broad Street ended on it in a perpendicular fashion. And there, civilisation virtually stopped.
Contiguous northwards to this area of the major arteries of Lagos are Apongbon, Olowogbowo and Breadfruit, which serve as the residential area of the Saro descendants. They are mainly Christians of the Church of England denomination. Some of them are Methodists, some Baptists and a sprinkling are members of the Unitarian denomination. Many of them worked as clerks in the colonial service, shopkeepers and assistants in the departmental stores whilst the women were teachers. The Saro women were very strict disciplinarians. The fear of Mama Saro in her long gown was the beginning of wisdom for children who had them as neighbours.

We continue our walk along the Marina, which technically and nominally ends where Broad Street abuts perpendicularly on it. Still walking along the continuation of the street by the lagoon, we get into Ebute Ero, the market area for foodstuffs brought in from the hinterland, to Ebute Elefun the site of the traditional jetty for canoes that ply between Lagos and Ajase (Porto Novo), Agbadagiri (Badagry) and Ikorodu to arrive at Isale Eko, the home of the Aworis who are mainly fishermen. They go fishing on various sections of the lagoon. Lagosians prefer the lagoon fish (eja osa) for their soup to the fish from the sea (eja okun). Some of the Isale Eko people are of the Muslim faith but the majority belong to the faiths of indigenous religion such as Ifa, Awo Opa, and Egungun. Isale Eko is the most indigenous and least developed part of Lagos. It is the seat of the Eleko of Eko, his chiefs, and advisers constituting the sole traditional authority on Lagos Island. The British accessed Lagos from Kosoko 1861 in the course of a family struggle to the throne to create the Colony of Lagos as the only true colony in the area that became the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Isale Eko, an area of narrow winding streets, in some places with open drains (gutters) running through living areas, very indigenous in essence and character gradually fades demographically, socially and culturally through Okepopo and Oshodi into the Brazilian Quarters. The Brazilian descendants occupy a well laid out territory with the main streets being Tokunbo, Bamgbose, Igbosere, Campbell, Odunlami, Kakawa and Catholic Mission Streets. Regular cross streets to provide a well-laid territory interlock these long streets. Mainly of the Roman Catholic faith, there is also a substantial Muslim population, all of them being descendants of migrants from Salvador and other parts of the State of Bahia in Brazil. The original returnees were expert artisans: builders, masons, carpenters, iron welders, painters who built the very unique architectural masterpieces that remain a part of the pride of Lagos today. Such buildings include the Holy Cross Cathedral, Mosalasi ****ta Bey, Water House the first place in Lagos to have potable water delivered mechanically by a pumping machine, and that is the home of Candido da Rocha a fabulously rich Brazilian immigrant.

Many people in the community used to go to the Water House to buy water. I recall that we the children because of the whip he would carry and apply to us whenever we passed in front of the door of Water House feared Baba da Rocha. One of his daughters became my grand aunt by marriage. The Roman Catholic faith, which was built on the foundation of the immigrant Brazilians provides a common base for the Brazilian descendants on one side and the Aganyins, Ajases and Kurumos on the other who are the immediate neighbours of the Agudas as the Brazilians are referred to in Lagos parlance at Lafiaji where many Brazilian families also have their home.
The Social Life of Lagosians


Social life and the inevitable integrative consequences that readily go with it is the prominent feature of what makes Lagos not only unique as a place but Lagosians simply unbeatable as a people who enjoy relaxation. The evening walks on the sidewalks of the Marina, the Onikan swimming pool open to adults and children alike and the nearby Onikan Recreation Gardens provide well-utilised facilities for human socialisation. The Race Course was busy every Saturday with the elite patronising horse racing. The Race Course was an open space of grassland surrounded by the circular horseracing track that is delimited by two white painted concentric wooden fences. The section of the open grassland where children played football daily from morning till evening is completely denuded of grass. We played on sand.

The large piece of open territory was surrounded by some of the few tarred roads on Lagos Island. On the outer periphery of the surrounding roads, forming a ring of government buildings were King’s College on Catholic Mission Street, Posts and Telegraphs Department (P&T), Public Works Department (PWD), and at the Onikan Street side the Swimming Pool and Onikan Boys’ Club. The dull concrete mass which now dominates the Race Course where no horse racing no longer takes place is a creation of the Gowon military dictatorship as a fallout from the new oil money that awashed Nigeria in the early seventies. Of course, the place had been named Tafawa Balewa Square at Independence in 1960 in honour of the first Prime Minister of Nigeria. During the week, Odan as the Race Course is known in Eko language was the arena for youth football and games. We know the place as Odan and I recall Iya-Odan whose food we usually awaited with glee any day we went to the Race Course to play. As soon as she arrived with her girl assistant, both of them carrying their wares, the shout goes round Odan, “Iya-Odan ti de o!” She in response called us “Omo Odan.” There were other playgrounds in other parts of Lagos including Oko-Awo playground, which we called Toronto or Oju-Olomo-O-To, as well as the playgrounds at Ita Alagbaa, Evans Square and Campos Square.

They were all venues for children’s games and pranks during the day and social parties for the adults in the evenings. Of course normal parental control discouraged kids from going to the playgrounds for parental fear of bad influence, but invariably, whenever mummy wanted the kid, particularly the boy to send on an errand, she could only find him on the playground, a success by the parent that usually resulted in some form of punishment for the child.

In addition to these open playgrounds for the young, we had formal social clubs where young persons learnt boxing, practised athletics, basketball, netball and other games. I recall Oko-Awo Boys and Girls’ Clubs, Lafiaji Boys and Girls’ Clubs. There were periodic competitions among these clubs. Trophies were available to be won. These clubs were the recruiting and grooming grounds for successful athletes of the immediate future including Hogan Bassey, the World featherweight boxing champion, famous boxers as Jack London and Speedy Twitch, Modupe Odukoya the world class sprinter, Titus Okere, Teslim Balogun (Thunder Bolt for his hammering straight shots that regularly beat any and all goalkeepers), Henshaw of Marine whose heavy shot at the goal was reputed to have made a goalkeeper to vomit blood on the ball hitting the latter’s chest, Dan Anyiam, the last three being top class footballers and many other sports successes of later years. Further, there were the informal street social competitions among the various residential areas of the island. Competitions in games, particularly football and athletics among Lafiaji, Ita- Faji, Okepopo, Olowogbowo areas were quite regular. The winners usually went through the island in joyous processions with songs like:
“Oke, t’a l’oke
Okepopo ga juwon lo.”

Or “Oke, t’a l’oke
Lafiaji ga juwon lo.”
It all depends on the area that is victorious. No hassle.

Cricket and athletics were regular events at the Race Course. The annual Empire Day athletics competition brought the primary schools on Lagos Island into healthy competitions on 15 May every year. The non-competitors usually looked forward with intense interest and anticipation, not necessarily because of the honours at stake but happily because of the free food including chicken to be distributed free at the end of the competition to all school children in the Colony of Lagos. I never heard that the colonial government ever so feted the children of the Protectorate on Empire Day. Association football was regular pastimes at the Association Grounds at Onikan. That was the only stadium, so to say, in Nigeria. There was none anywhere else.

The Syrian businessmen operated cinema houses, Corona Cinema at Alli Street, Rialto Cinema at Offin Street and Casino Cinema at Broad Street were the popular spots. Theatre plays by the Ogunde Theatre Company were staged at the Glover Hall along Victoria Street. Quite dominant is the informal social activities that go on at most weekends, parties by families naming the newborn, or celebrating marriages or burying the dead. These are the regular platforms for musical outfits like Ayinde Bakare and Tunde Nightingale whose footsteps were subsequently followed by the likes of Victor Abimbola Ola-Iya, Bobby Benson, Roy Chicago and Fela Ransome-Kuti and the Koola Lobitos. Of course gramophone records were released regularly. The highlife music of E T Mensah of Gold Coast was very popular among Lagosians. Popular nightclubs existed along Broad Street, although these were eventually outpaced by such spots at Oke-Odo as Kakadu, KKD at Alago-Meji and Bobby’s place at Idi-Oro. Lagosians do enjoy themselves.

“E ma gbadun, e ma rocky
Omo jaiye jaiye ni wa, k’a ma gbadun.”
The regular social enjoyment does not replace working hard by the people to earn a living. The same song continues
“Ti nba ji lowuro,
Ma gba ibi ‘se mi lo
T’osu ba pari,
M’a tewo gbowo jaburata.
M’a w’oso asiko
M’a fi bata to joju be
Omo jaiye jaiye ni mi,
K’in ma gbadun.”


Essential components of social life and relaxation in Lagos include the annual festivals that are celebrated by the various communities but which virtually the entire population of the island regard as their own and therefore participate fully. These include
Meboi, the extremely popular Aguda Brazilian celebration whereby masquerades dance around the island, dressed in the appearances of various animals: tiger, bear, lion, elephant, etc, the people singing along accompanied by the Kokoma and steel bands. It is a celebration that came with the Brazilians from Salvador in Brazil. It is normally celebrated during the Easter festivities.


Igunnu, the annual festival of the Tapas in Oshodi Street. The Igunnu is a cylindrically designed very tall masquerade, about the height of a story building. They parade the town in groups dancing and entertaining excited onlookers with engaging acrobatics, bewitching swaying and dancing styles. The Igunnu palace is still one of the landmarks of Oshodi Street. There is the Igunnu statue on that street which is in the heart of the Brazilian quarters with whom the Oshodis have become fully integrated. The original Oshodi came from Bida in the Tapa country. They are traditionally a Muslim family although some of them have embraced the Christian religion.


Egungun festivals are held yearly with various families, particularly from among the Aworis and Brazilians, showing their family Egungun outfits, songs and dances. The Egungun annual festival normally runs continuously for weeks in August and September. From the compounds of families, the family Egungun also comes to display and process in town during important family celebrations of marriages, funerals and births. There is a Jorge Ferreira family Egungun tradition that was brought all the way from Brazil about 1873 when Papae Manoel Jorge Ferreira migrated from Salvador to settle in Lagos. He came originally bringing cows from Bahia to sell in Lagos, hence the name Cow Lane that was named after his trading site. The Egungun sceptre, outfit and paraphernalia are in the custody of the Ogidan family, which is in very close affinity and relationship with the Ferreira family virtually as blood relations. Both families lived together at Bamgbose and Tokunbo Streets. They celebrate family occasions and the Egungun festival as one.

The shrine of the Egungun is at one of the family compounds at Tokunbo Street. This type of arrangement for the maintenance and sustenance of the family Egungun tradition is typical of many such Lagos families. Indeed, a child of the family at its naming ceremony occasion is usually given an Egungun name. This practice, I want to emphasise, does not deride from the sacredness and purity of the involvement of the family in the Church as has been wrongly propagated in some quarters since the Egungun relationship is not one of worship or divinity. It has become a phenomenon of custom and nothing more. The Ogidans are seriously practising Muslims whilst the Ferreiras are mainly Roman Catholic although some young ones have migrated to the Pentecostal and similar faiths.
One festival which is celebrated only once in a while but which all Lagosians always wish to see is the Eyo Festival. The Eyo festival is a fantastically attractive sight to behold. It is a truly indigenous Lagos celebration. Indeed, the Eyo does not cross the Carter Bridge. He does not step out of Lagos Island. It is a mass display of masquerades with every one participating attired in sparklingly white robes with the hems sweeping the ground as the Eyo gracefully moves through the streets, and also variously embroidered in different types of equally white laces or damask materials. Every Eyo wears a beautifully decorated hat that distinguishes his family of origin.

The various groups move in family clones with the family members dressed in family aso ebi singing, dancing and the Eyo greeting spectators with the touch of his sceptre, a broad and decorated carved piece of wooden staff. The Eyo greeting of “Ee surukuru” accompanies the touch of the sceptre as a special style of greeting! Women are not expected to walk along the street in the presence of Eyo. The Eyos are specially named according to the family origin of the group. Members of the celebrating families congregate in party setting in front of the family compound feasting, drinking, singing, entertaining friends and visitors. It is a great festive occasion. The celebration of the festival is normally fixed, proclaimed and decreed by the Oba of Lagos. When we were young, the first one I can recall was to mark the departure of Oba Falolu. That must have been in 1949.

My parents told me that the last Eyo festival celebration was held 25 years before then, at the time of Oba Esugbayi. I believe that one of the things we have lost of old Lagos is that the Eyo festival celebration has become too frequent and is being proclaimed for more insignificant occasions.


Another festival that is unique to Lagos is the Gelede festival. This festival was imported from among the Ijebu waterside people who happen to be the immediate northern neighbours of Eko people. It is noteworthy that of all the peoples from the hinterland, the Ijebus and Egbas are not called Ara-Oke by Lagosians. Gelede is a masquerade that is attired in a woven mat that is cylindrically wrapped round the person in the masquerade. The person inside is not seen at all. What spectators behold is a moving cylinder of mat that simply moves at an incredibly fast speed along the road. The Gelede celebration seems to have disappeared completely from Lagos. I cannot recall seeing or being told of any Gelede festival in the past 35 years at the very least. We seem to have actually lost all of the Geledes.


Isale Eko people do celebrate a very unique festival known as Oro. The Oro celebrants parade the town in the dead of the night. They are never to be beheld by non-initiates, particularly women. I have never seen one although we used to hear them through their incantations as they passed along the street in the night. You dared not step outside to behold an Oro.


The West Indians, although small in population size also have their own carnivals, usually held at the Christmas period. The West Indian carnivals, singing, dancing and attired in beautiful and sexy skimpy attires mimicry of fanciful avian and animal appearances add a lot of colour to the social life of Lagos.
I will also mention the Igbo masquerades and Ojuju Calabar, each group with its peculiar attractiveness that entertain the Lagosians particularly at the Christmas period.


No matter which festival is being celebrated by whichever community, all Lagosians take part fully and usually enjoy together as one people


Politics in Lagos.


Politics, clean politics was a very prominent feature of Lagos life. Lagosians are the most advanced, best-developed and leading culturally decent political people on the West coast of Africa. Politics is played on the basis of issues and ideas. It has been so before I was born. Political differences do not affect friendship or relationships. Before the 1952 Nigerian general elections when the rest of Nigerians outside Lagos and Calabar first experienced electoral politics, which sadly is the historical watershed for the retrogressive application of tribalism, parochialism and regionalism into political practice in Nigeria, Lagosians had been holding popular elections for about 30 years. The first election in Lagos was in 1922. I recall the Lagos Town Council elections of 1949.

There were two political parties, the Democratic Party and the Area Council. Open campaigns and rallies were held daily at the various squares: Oko Awo, Evans Square and Campos Square. Contestants campaigned from house to house. Political lectures and addresses were delivered regularly at the Glover Hall. Over the years, political giants of the calibre of Herbert Macaulay, Dr J C Vaughan, Samuel Akinsanya, and later Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo regularly treated Lagosians to modern politicking and decent political campaigns.

There were no murders, no bribery and no violence. Their aso ebi and the songs they rendered whilst on processions were the identifying features of political party groups. Members of the victorious party and those of the defeated party invariably celebrate the outcome of elections together at the drinking bars and in their homes. I recall when in 1949, the Democratic Party defeated the Area Council at the Town Council elections, the victory procession was phenomenal and the victory song was:

Demo l’o l’Eko o, Demo

Area Council l’o l’Agege o.
There were no beatings, or fights, or murders, or arson, or kidnapping. The entire city, irrespective of party affiliation celebrated the outcome of the election together. The only way to know the members of the Democratic Party was the aso ebi they wore to mark the cleanly earned electoral victory.
Security and Safety of Life in Old Lagos
Of course, there were criminals, but not the killing type. They never carried guns. Murder was rare and big news if ever it occurred. The occasional street rogue stole washings that had been left on the lines to dry when the mummy of the house had gone to the market and the papa of the house was at work. Our windows and doors did not have burglar proofing. I remember that I used to do my home work from school, sitting by our sitting room window until bed time at about 10 00 pm. That was usually after I had finished the house chores allotted to me. When I was to retire to bed, I would merely lower the lower half of the glass window, which had a wooden frame, and hook the lock located at the inner side of the lower edge of the frame.

The door that led from the sitting room to the street was made of wood and all I did was to hook the lock behind and apply the padlock. No iron bars, no burglar proofing. The police was visible as two policemen, olopa as we called them with their opa or gbongbo, on regular patrols on the streets. They were very friendly and they knew the people who lived in the areas they patrolled. They also knew the criminals in the neighbourhood. We never saw soldiers on the streets, although we knew of their involvement in Burma during the Second World War for we had uncles who were in the war. I recall my very first sight of a soldier. I was standing alone at the big gate of our residence at Bankole Street, which was the rear entrance to our compound.

The front gate was at Apongbon Street. Suddenly a soldier rode a big motorcycle across and made a sudden u-turn directly in front of me. His uniform, the size of his motor-cycle, the sudden change of direction and the deafening sound from the engine of the motor-cycle scared the hell out of me, making me to scamper straight into our bedroom, leaving the gate at Bankole Street wide open. I still do not know who shut the gate! That was in 1945. I never set my eyes on any soldier in uniform again until the military politicians invaded our national polity in January 1966!

Yes, we lost Lagos. My duty in this exercise is to write an introduction. I have done my duty. I am certain the book must be a treasure to whoever owns a copy not only to read but also to keep as a valuable memento.

Akingbola knew that all law enforcement agency have their hands full presently with 'Jonathan contesting or Jonathan not contesting saga' currently enveloping our beloved country Nigeria that was why he came back boasting and barking like a victor that is sure he will win.
Anyway, following the trend in Nigeria, when presidential election is approaching that is the time alot of attrocities is committed because many people will be concentrating on the masquerades i.e the contestants and all the diversion associated with it.
Akingbola, sing and dance while it last b4 the masquerade dance is over.

[size=14pt]I think Ibru probably enconraged him to come back. Edwin Clerk, Jonathan’s right hand man is pulling the strings, don’t be surprised he would walk.[/size]

[size=14pt]We should have Bounty hunter’s in Nigeria. For every armed robber and kidnapper you gun down you get a handsome a pay cheque.

Since our police are almost always running the opposite direction when these marauder’s are operating, bounty hunters I am sure would be running towards the action as No action-No pay cheque and subsequently pikin and wife no go chop.[/size]

[size=14pt]Come to think of it where is Madame Ibru and the other guys they arrested last year. If a Chinaman can prefers our judicial system,  why won't a well heeled Nigerian like Akingbola.[/size]

Would that include the Bini man, Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu I?

[size=14pt]If it is true the Oba said that, it means he is drunk on Apeteshi. Why should I listen to morden day Oba's when it is clear some of them don't know their left from their right, the history of Oduduwa and the Yoruba's is greater than any of those Naira seeking royals. Today even a LG Goverment chairman according to goverment hirachical arrangements are above Oba's.

Taking pronoucement from today's obas should be taking with a grain of salt,  and any irresponsible yearnings by the so called royal father's should be validated.

In the not too past an Oba was fighting in broad day light, an antics a drunking under graduate would not indulge in, are these the people you hold their every word with a kind of reverence as something one should be proud off, it is clear you are a worse simpleton than those illetrate oba's.[/size]

[size=14pt]

It would silly for a Bini man to say Yoruba's evolved from Bini instead of vice versa except of course that Bini  man is drunk on Apeteshi.[/size]

Egun dancer's during an egungun festival in the Republic Benin.- Written in french thus.


http://alainchatenet.over-blog.com/1-album-290326.html

[size=14pt]Eguns is a short form - the full name of egun's is egungun and egungun is Yoruba.[/size]