Category: History
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Maye was the commander of the joint army that waged war against the Egba tribe following the fracas at Apomu market in which the people of Owu were pitched against the Ijebu. Although Owu was originally involved, Maye’s army had extended hostility to Egba villages, thereby causing them to unite in a relatively safe place…
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Lamodi was the second Balogun of Egba army after Yisa who achieved renown for his military tact. Lamodi was from Igbehin, which was one of the Egba villages before the migration to Abeokuta. As a high-ranking army chief under the subjugation of the Oyo-Ijebu-Ife coalition, he was required along with a few other Egba nobles…
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Imagbon War was the designation given to the military intervention of the British colonial authority in Ijebu that led to the lost of independence of the kingdom. The final battle by which Ijebu fell took place on 19 May 1892 at the village of Imagbon. This short war that claimed the lives of up to…
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Okukenu was the first Alake in Abeokuta. Okukenu as an Egba noble (of the Eso military class) had earlier led other chiefs in addressing a petition to Queen Victoria of England requesting assistance in ending slave trade. This petition was replied in March 1849 with the Queen’s recommendation of the Christian religion as a means…
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Akitoye was the British protégé Oba of Lagos who signed an anti-slavery treaty with the Lagos Consulate in 1852. He was one of the sons of Ologun-Kutere, who was the favored son of Oba Akinsemoyin’s sister, Erelu Kuti. Akitoye’s first ascension to the throne was in 1841 but he was sacked by his nephew, Kosoko…
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Apati was the 19th Century Egba chief, one of the warlords who dominated the political life of the tribe from the time when the people newly settled at Abeokuta to the time when the first principal King of the town was chosen. Apati became a powerful figure in succession to the statesmanlike Sodeke but he…
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Theophilus Owolabi Sobowale Benson was a Lagos lawyer and prominent member of Nigeria’s pre and post independence aristocracy. Born in Ikorodu in 1917, Benson lived for 91 years, a life that is remembered for high attainment and personal style. He attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos and after working briefly in the civil service as a…
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Dosunmu, name spelt Docemo in the Victorian Lagos era, Oba of Lagos between 1853 and 1885. He was responsible for the cession of Lagos to the British crown, thereby making Lagos a colony. His denial, two years later, of this August 1861 deal earned him a levy and lost of his pension but more importantly,…