₦airaland Forum

Ojuntana:
You mean Lagos started to exist in 1891
I am surprised there are no Binis in Lagos but there are Hausas and Nupes

The Yorubas via the Oyo Empire, the Nupes and Hausas have traded with one another for centuries. Culturally and ancestrally, Sango's mother was a Nupe woman.

The Hausas in that official 1891 census of Isale Eko (Lagos Island) were majorly those who worked for the British Colonialists as soldiers and they settled around Obalende but they were NEVER indigenes. The Nupe presence too on Lagos Island is as as result of a Nupe Prince Balogun Oshodi Tapa who was capture in Nupe land and sold into slavery as a boy but when he was about to be moved onto a slave ship in the slave port of Isale Eko, he escaped and ran into a shrine where Ifa divination gave instructions that he should be set free. That was how he ended up being the butler (or Oshodi) to the wives of the Eleko of Eko in the palace. It's his descendants that largely made up the Nupes population on Lagos Island in the 1891 census although they have intermarried into Yoruba families and have become Yorubanized in name and language.

AndroBlaze:
For those who keep wondering why Yorubas who can trace their identity from other states carry Lagos matter "ontop their head", this is a scientific/historic lesson why, as you can clearly see they have outnumbered the people who now solely claim "Eko" for ages ( which again becomes clearer when you understand that Eko actually means "camp" )

Also, if you understood history, you will know that Ibadan is also another melting pot of Yorubas from everywhere.

The name EKO is a shortened Yoruba word for "EREKO" which means "pepper farm" BECAUSE Lagos Island or Eko was used by the children of Olofin Ogunfunminire as a pepper farm and for settlement. As a man who has maternal roots on Lagos Island, I can tell you here and now that NOBODY of Lagos Island origin knows Eko as a war camp.

The "war camp" fable is a historical fabrication and historical revisionism from some young Edo people online who you will find posting on some Edo Websites, on Wikipedia which even the founders warmed is NOT credible because Wikipedia gets constantly can vandalized and historical FACTS distorted.

Second, the Eko people (An Awori group on Isale Eko or Lagos Island), Ijebu, Ijesa, Egba, Awori, Egbado (Yewa), Ekiti, Ilorin, Ogu, Oyo, etc, counted in the 1891 census on Lagos Island are all Yoruba subgroups and ancestrally related to one another via Ile Ife in Osun State through migrations.

Konquest:
The EKO people of Isale Eko (Lagos Island) being refered to in the 1891 census results of Lagos Island are the Awori subgroup of Yorubas who are the original indigenes of Lagos Island (or Isale Eko which is the original Yoruba name). As a man who has direct maternal roots on Lagos Island, I can tell you that historically, Eko does NOT mean any "war camp" but EKO is just the shortened Yoruba word from EREKO meaning "pepper farm" BECAUSE the ancestor of the indigenous Awori people of Lagos and Ogun States, Olofin Ogunfunminire was a Prince of Ile Ife who migrated over 700 years ago from Ile Ife to what is now Lagos Island and Iddo Island via Isheri and shared the lands of Eko (Lagos Island) for farming and settlement among his biological children. The famous White Cap Chiefs of Lagos Island (the IDEJOS or White Cap Chiefs) are the direct descendants of Olofin Ogunfunminire and they are the real land owners NOT even the current Oba of Eko (Eleko of Eko) whose current palace is built on leased land belonging to Chief Aromire and his descendants.

Pls go read the post again.
Awori was already mentioned as 9.5%
So if isele Eko are Awori, why separating?.
Please Eko was given to Lagos by Benin. There is nothing like Ereko
U guys just like to twist history

OredoPikin2:
Pls go read the post again.
Awori was already mentioned as 9.5%
So if isele Eko are Awori, why separating?.
Please Eko was given to Lagos by Benin. There is nothing like Ereko
U guys just like to twist history

I don't have to read the original post again as I FULLY understand where your confusion is emanating from and I will EXPLAIN to you with more CLARITY.

For your information, I have STRONG maternal roots leading to Lagos Island and as a history veteran of several decades, I have a vast knowledge of global geopolitics and Lagos' history from the pre-Victorian to the post-Victorian eras.

Second, the Ekos are the same people as the Awori people. I knew when I first saw that 1891 census figure over 40 years ago in the archives and books on Lagos Island history in one of my home libraries that some people who are NOT Yoruba or NOT well-grounded on the history of Isale Eko (Lagos Island) would down the road get confused thinking WRONGLY that Eko people are different from Awori people.

It's just like you taking census figures in 2025 of the percentage population of Ikere "tribe" living in Ikere-Ekiti and the collective percentage population of Ekitis from several other towns living in the same Ikere-Ekiti.
Ikere [50%]
Ekiti [30%]

Benin [50% of Benin people living in Benin City. Benins are part of the larger Edos people]
Edo [30%]

EKO [25%]
AWORI [9.5%]


The reference to the DISTINCT percentage population of the Eko and Awori people in that 1891 census was just for the sake of convenience by the Colonial authorities to show that the Ekos are the original Awori indigenes of Lagos Island [while the other Aworis are indigenes from ANY of the other Aworis communities leading right into Ota in Ogun State]. The indigenous Aworis of Lagos and Ogun States are Yorubas descended directly from Olofin Ogunfunminire a Prince of Ile Ife who migrated over 700 years ago under the guidance of Ifa divination while following the movement of the AWO (or sacrificial plate on water) hence the name of the Yoruba subgroup AWORI meaning the "sacrificial plate has sank" in Yoruba language.

Last but NOT least, it's a historical FACT that there was some Benin presence on Lagos Island but it was peaceful settlement and trade and NOT by armed conquest (several advanced history books corroborate this FACT from the former Governor General of Nigeria, Sir. Allan Burns' book the "History of Nigeria" and more). Since the Yorubas recognized that the Benin-Edos' Benin Royal Palace has ancestral blood ties with Ile Ife, they welcomed them in their midst with Ifa divination being done to guarantee stability. Many of those few Benin family lineages have been subsumed into the larger Awori Yoruba (Eko) family lineages through marriage but they still trace their links in their orikis.

Even the land on which the current Eleko of Eko (Oba of Lagos Island) has his palace on is owned by the Aromire family for centuries. The REAL land owners on Lagos Island are the IDEJOS or White Cap Chiefs (that you see with the Oba of Lagos Island NOT the Oba). The IDEJOS or White Cap Chiefs are the direct male descendants of Olofin Ogunfunminire, a Prince from Ile Ife now in Osun State, who founded the Awori subgroup of the Yorubas of Lagos and Ogun States. They are the ones who named the Lagos Island "pepper farm" or EREKO (shortened to EKO). Every indigene of Isale Eko (Lagos Island) knows the meaning of Eko to be a farm NOT the bogus and highly annoying historical revisionism we see on Wikipedia and other random Websites. Period


For the records, the Aworis are currently indigenous to 17 of the 20 LGAs of Lagos State. The Ogus are indigenous to Badagry LGA (along with the Aworis). The Ijebus are indigenous to 3 out of the 20 LGAs of Lagos State namely Ikorodu, Epe and Ibeju-Lekki LGAs including Ajah.

Konquest:
You sound so highly ill-educated with your bolded comments. STOP the deliberate distortions of other people's cultures and well-documented histories passed down through books written centuries back and from the oral traditions. Second, Eko is the shortened form of "Ereko" meaning "pepper farm" was already named by the indigenous long before the first Portuguese explorers arrived that arrear of Yorubaland to refer to it as Lagos (named after the Lagos in Portugal).

Third, for your information the following indigenous Yoruba people are riverine and lagoon dwellers such as the Aworis of Lagos and Ogun States, the Ijebu people Lagos State from Epe LGA, Ibeju-Lekki LGA, Ikorodu LGA right into the Ijebu Waterside area of Ogun State, and the Ilaje folks of the crude oil and gas-rich ILAJE LGA of Ondo State are the great fishermen and swimmers of the Yoruba people because they live near the rivers, lagoons, and Atlantic Ocean.

But you just listed towns that never existed before the colonials.

Gerhards:
Lagos does not belong to Ogun, Osun, Ilorin, Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo States, it belong to every Nigerian, enough of this unnecessary disturbance on Nairaland

Lagos is for lagosians and they're not from the east, they're a combination of those states you mentioned.