History of Lagos
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[edit] History
This is a page on the History of Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and the second largest in on the African continent (after Cairo, Egypt).
[edit] Pre-colonial history
Lagos was originally called Eko, which stems from either Oko (Yoruba: "cassava farm") or Eko ("war camp"), by its Awori founders. The present day Lagos state has a higher percent of this sub-group who actually migrated to the area from Isheri along the Ogun river.
History has it that the Awori were actually from Ife and maybe due to another war, first down to Ibadan later Isheri. It seems that with this it can be seen that the Awori people are a people initially not taken to warfare. By the time of the earlier mentioned war, those from the hinter lands, like the Ekiti ran towards Isheri which at that time had more than one Olofin (Alafin)who were heads of probably respective settlements about 1400BC . With the fleeing people from the hinterlands most of them scattered again to different places, some to Iro, to Otta, Ado, others to Ebute Metta i.e three landing places - Oyingbo, Iddo and Lagos Island (Eko). The Olofin that brought those who went to Ebute-Metta was Ogunfunminire later known as Agbodere. With the full commencement of the war about 2000 moved to the nearest island of Iddo, others to Otto Awori or Otto Ijanikin towards modern-day Badagry. Those from Ekiti Aramoko came to Ebute-Metta, Iddo and then Ijora. The Olofin was said to have 32 children. His own known children are Olumegbon, Aromire, Oloto, Oluwa, Oniru, Onisiwo, Onitoolo,and Elegushi. Ojora, Onikoyi and Mogiso were not his biological children.
After the demise of Agbodere, the name Olofin became the name used to remember him while a title of Oloto was given to his seccessor. With one of his sons becoming the Oloto his other children parted ways to what is known as visible settlements in the present day Lagos. Aromire is likely to be the first to cross being said to have swam across the river. It is possible that is real name is not Aromire but due to the feat he became known as such.
It will take a harder detail to explain where was Lagos (geographic boundary) and Eko. Eko can be said to be the area found by aromire because the other areas that are now been generally referred to as Eko have names and heads which are the brothers of Aromire as earlier mentioned. Lagos also was initially the region called Lagos Island, comprising of the respective Kingdoms. With time Otto was absorbed into that collective name.
We can assume that Eko was given to it by its first King Oba Aromire. During its early history, it also saw periods of rule by the Kingdom of Benin. [1]
Eko was the land area where the king's palace was built. The indigenous people settled down in the southern part of Eko called "Isale Eko", Isale literarily meaning bottom, but must have been used to indicate downtown (as in Downtown Lagos).
Erelu Kuti begat Ologun Kutere, who became king, and Shokun his brother, who was given a Chieftancy house behind the king's palace called "Onile-gbale" (Land owner-sweeps your land).
The King dynasty started henceforth and the king's brother started his own chieftancy family behind the palace building.
[edit] Past kings
- King Ado
- King Gabaro (1720-1730)
- Eletu Kekere (1730-1734)
- King Akinsemoyin (1734-1779)
- Erelu Kuti(female)
- King Ologun Kutere
- King Adele (1806-1813), (1834-1836)
- King Eshinlokun (1836-1841)
- Oba Idewu Ojulari
- King Oluwole
- King Akintoye
- Oba Kosoko
[edit] Colonial-era and afterward
Modern-day Lagos was founded by Portugal in the sixteenth century, and was a major centre of the slave trade until 1851, when the United Kingdom, which had abolished slavery in 1807, captured the city. It was formally annexed as a British colony in 1861. The remainder of modern-day Nigeria was seized in 1886, and when the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was established in 1914 Lagos was declared its capital. Lagos experienced rapid growth throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a result of Nigeria's economic boom prior to the Biafran War. In 2002 much of Northern Lagos was destroyed as a result of the Lagos armoury explosion, in which a poorly maintained military base in Ikeja exploded, starting fires and a panicked evacuation of the cities Northern suburbs in which over 1,100 people died and 20,000 were displaced
Lagos was the capital of Nigeria from 1914 - 1976; then the capital was moved to Abuja. However, most government functions (especially the head of state) stayed in Lagos since Abuja was not developed enough. Abuja is a capital like Washington, DC in USA and Brasilia in Brazil in that it was built from scratch specifically to be a capital. In 1991, the head of state and other government functions finally moved to the newly built capital in a mass exodus (many sources incorrectly claim this year to be when Lagos ceased being the capital). [citation needed] The change resulted in Lagos losing some prestige and economic leverage. However, it has retained its importance as the country's largest city and as an economic centre.
