Lagos, Nigeria

Early Incursions

The intrusion of the Benin kingdom from the seventeenth century marked the first major external stimulus that shaped the fortunes of a community that rapidly developed into a melting pot of African and European elements. The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the establishment of British rule, two major developments of the first half of the nineteenth century, shaped the later development of the settlement. Declared a colony in 1861, it soon acquired the trappings of an outpost of Victorian Britain. Modern architecture, new food and dress styles, newspapers, the British legal and political system, formal schools, and Christian evangelization became the hallmarks of an emergent colonial city. As the seat of the nascent British administration, the missionary gateway to a hinterland wracked by the Yoruba civil wars and an increasingly important outlet for the (postslavery) forest produce of the hinterland, Lagos attracted voluntary and forced migrants from various communities in its hinterland.

Steady population growth was aided by an influx of returnee ex-slaves and their descendants from Brazil, Cuba, and Freetown (in Sierra Leone), founded in 1792 by the British to resettle former slaves. Many of the returnees, who still retained emotional ties to their Yoruba homeland, found refuge in Lagos. The émigrés brought various skills and cultural practices to an emerging city that welcomed and rapidly absorbed them. Lagos thus became the staging post for the expansion of British rule and values into the hinterland. Whereas the returnees from Brazil and Cuba were mainly artisans, those from Sierra Leone were essentially clerical in orientation. They became cultural intermediaries between the British and their indigenous counterparts and were, indeed, the purveyors of the British “civilizing mission.” It was through them that Lagos pioneered the development of Western formal and technical education, along with a new urban lifestyle. The Brazilians, on the other hand, introduced and popularized the now famous Brazilian architecture that still adorns the Portuguese/Brazilian quarter in the city.

British Rule

By the end of the nineteenth century, Lagos had become the capital of the Lagos colony and the chief port of Nigeria. The imposition of British rule in the Yoruba hinterland was formalized in an agreement of 1893. This facilitated the introduction of modern economic, legal, and political systems that underpinned the expanding British administration. The British law and order regime, [Page 428]complete with the road and rail transport infrastructure, fostered the development of produce exports. Primary produce and imports were channeled through the Lagos port, which became Nigeria's dominant seaport outlet beginning in the 1890s. By that date, Lagos had earned the sobriquet of the Liverpool of West Africa.

During the twentieth century, Lagos became the hub of Nigeria's politics, economy, and society following administrative amalgamations carried out by the British in 1906 and 1914. Urban amenities and an expanding colonial economy enhanced the urban status of Lagos and linked it more effectively to a widening hinterland. As expected, leading European firms established their head offices in Lagos, and the major shipping lines offered regular services between Lagos and European metropolitan centers.

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