Badagry is a historic town home to many historical sites in Nigeria, especially during the slave trade days. It is the cradle of tourism, held by a lot of people from various walks of life, the Lagos State and Federal Government of Nigeria, in high esteem.
It is on record that for over a century, Badagry was the exporting point in Nigeria, especially for slaves that were being exported out of the country.
Till date when one visits some parts of the ancient town, starting from Ajara Badagry to other parts which include Ajido, Ere, Wawu and boundary town of Ikoga, that is the boundary between Lagos and Ogun State, what stares the visitor or tourist in the face are the historical monuments.
LEADERSHIP FRIDAY observed that the palaces of the Akran of Badagry, Wawu, Jengen, Mobee and the Baracoon of Seriki Williams Abass, which is the relics of the slave trade in Badagry town, are unbeatable tourist sites any day.
The Aquatic Jungle, which is another important tourist site in Badagry, passes for a tourist destination. The essential feature of the jungle is the abandoned aircraft on the site which is used to educate the children about the components and significance of aircrafts.
The same goes for a place in the Badagry marina known as the Point of No Return which serves as a relaxation spot for visitors and a mini jetty where speedboat drivers tout for curious tourists desiring to embark on a voyage across the lagoon.
The Point Of No Return if nothing at all, re-enacts the agony of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that occurred over 400 years ago on the island of Badagry.
Talking about his town, Mr. Whesu Hodewu, a native of Badagry, said one notable feature of Badagry is that it is a very peaceful place and it is a town of many ethnic groups and religions.
He said oral and written history, passed to them by their fore-fathers, recorded that about four centuries ago, dispirited men, women and children plied the slave route now dubbed Point of no Return to an unknown fate.
According to him,” We were told that these slaves spend days, weeks, and months in the Brazilian Slave Baracoon, which is a cell or jail of sorts that was built by slave masters in Badagry and also situated along the Marina. They were conveyed across the lagoon to an indefinite destination where their fates were finally sealed. “
He explained that the Baracoon, that had no ventilation, harbours a minimum of 40 slaves who are confined to the solitude conditions until the next shipment that takes them to the plantations in the West.
“We were told that the slaves walked the journey, as they were being led, to the Point of No Return where middlemen waited to ferry them by canoe to the middle of the sea where the slave raiders, who would be the final buyers in Europe and the Americas, will further transport them to other parts of the world by ship,” Hodewu said.
On the graves that festooned a spot known as the Attenuation Well, he explained that the slaves were forced to drink from the well on getting to this spot and were immediately debriefed.
“History has it that a sip of water from this well normally made them think less of their homeland and made them less aggressive and submissive to their slave master who ferries them into the plantations in Europe and America.
Another Badagry indigene, Bamgbose Layode, explained that the Seriki Ifaremi Abass Williams National Museum, also known as the Brazilian Baracoon, which is a tourism hub in the Badagry province, was established by Seriki Abass who he said was given the name Abass by a Dhaomian who was initially captured, sold, gained freedom.
According to him, the slave camp served as transit point for captured slaves before they were sold to the slave masters, especially the Portuguese.
His legacy, he further pointed out, has endured till date due to his linguistic ingenuity demonstrated in his ability to communicate in these languages coupled with his local language (Yoruba).
This feat, according to him, endeared him to the slave masters who brought him back to Nigeria to assist them in the slave business before usurping power from the aborigines and dominating the area because of his influence and wealth.
“He acquired so much wealth and power and became the paramount ruler of the community in 1895. He married 28 wives and had 144 children.”
There is also the Badagry Heritage Museum that attracts tourists’ attention in Badagry .It was officially opened in 2002 by former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Museum presently occupies the historic building that was the first administrative office block in Nigeria. It was said to have been constructed in 1863, about 30 years after the abolition of the Slave Trade. It was used as the office of the District Officer from 1865 (when Henry F. Pilkington Esq., the first District Officer, assumed duty) until the departure of the last District Officer, G.B. Ollivant, who was posted in 1958.
It traces the story of Badagry’s association with slavery and takes the visitor through the horrifying history of the Slave Trade.
It chronicles the history of slave trade, starting with the capture of the slaves through to their ordeals in the hands of local chiefs and the European slave merchants; it ends with the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the slaves.
The nine galleries within the museum show case the stages, starting with Introduction, Capture, Facilitators, Equipment, Resistance and Punishment, Industry, Integration, Abolitionists and Badagry.
Amid deliberate efforts to wipe out centuries of torture and inhumanity, in the years following the abolition of slavery in 1833, historians testify that a lot of the infrastructure and equipment which supported the slave trade was destroyed.
As a result, the slave port was demolished along with the Portuguese fort. What followed was the closure of slave markets and many objects that re-enact the ordeals of the slaves like chains and shackles were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Lagos State government, in its effort to preserve the legacy of the past, has continued to strive to bequeath a robust history to the future generation and its efforts are being complimented by the Nigerian Cultural Commission.
Artefacts that look like trade documents, sketches, photos, sculptures and other salvaged historical records that documented Badagry’s unpleasant past are preserved in the museum’s nine galleries.
The good news about the ancient town of Badagry is the resolve of stakeholders to develop the tourism potentials embedded in the ancient town.
One of the plans to fast track the development of the historic town could be seen in the proposal by both the Lagos State and Federal Government to build a seaport in the Badagry axis.
Aware of the need to preserve the historic sites, they assured all that the project would not tamper with historic sites in the ancient town.
Throwing light on the proposed seaport, the state commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, assured that the project’s design would preserve slave routes and other historic sites.
He explained that the Atlantic shore, known as ‘Point Of No Return’, from where slaves were transported abroad and other historic heritages would be protected.
Hamzat said, “The slave trade took place along that axis, that is, the point of no return. We are trying to ensure that in building the port, that heritage is preserved, saying the execution of the project would also depend on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be carried out.
According to him, the design can be altered at any stage into the construction of the seaport if it jeopardises the EIA, pointing out that the bulk of the funds required for the project will come from the private sector.
He said the Federal Government has 20 per cent share of the project and 15 per cent share belongs to the state government. In line with the present political dispensation in the country, realizing such project will not only disabuse the minds of many Badagry indigenes who feel they are marginalized in terms of infrastructural development, it will make the axis an economic hub.
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