Category: Culture

Iga Iduganran

Culture, Social – Tradition, Tradition – Ceremonies

Iga Idungaran, the Lagos Oba’s Palace, is located along Upper King Street on Lagos Island. It is the most significant of the buildings representing the Pre-colonial Lagos. During the reign of Oba Akinsemoyin, the Portuguese, in return for their trade monopoly (especially the purchase and shipment of slaves) built a befitting palace for the Oba.…
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Asara

Culture, People, Tradition – Customs

Asara is traditionally known as Oduduwa’s appointed priest in Mecca who extended the worship of multiple gods to the disdain of Moslems, who were at the time, subdued. Asara’s son, Braima, who was opposed to this practise, had caused a riot that led to the great exodus of Oduduwa and his kindreds to Ile Ife.…
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Life Expectancy

Public Health, Research, Social – Welfare

Life Expectancy is an estimate of the number of years individual new born infants would live under the prevailing mortality risks within a population. Life expectancy is often indicated at the time of birth. According to UNICEF (1997), life expectancy for individuals in the least developed countries is 43 years, compared with the 78 years…
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Arugba-Ifa

History – General, People, Social – Tradition

Arugba-Ifa was the mother of Onigobi, the Alaafin and one of the several wives of Oluaso, whose reign was among the most successful in Oyo Empire. She was instrumental in the introduction of Ifa worship in the empire, but her aim for this, which was to secure a peaceful reign for her son, like that of…
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Falolu

Social – Tradition

Falolu became the Oba of Lagos in 1932 when he led by 4 votes in the 6-man panel of inquiry comprising of traditional chiefs, that was set up upon the death of the newly reinstated Oba, Eleko Esugbayi. His ascension to the throne had caused a momentary controversy on who to choose between him and…
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Amuniwaiye

History – General, People, Social – Tradition

Amuniwaiye was the Oyo king, appearing to be he only good Alaafin after many short despotic reigns. The hope of his people in him however did not take long before it was dashed. Amuniwaiye, though a graceful king, lacked the strength to preserve his honor when the secret presence of another man’s wife was entrusted…
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Americanism

Culture – Others, Fashion – Lifestyle, Philosophy – General

Americanism, the propensity of the Nigerian to lean towards American ideologies increased after independence from the British. However, the year 1938 marked the formal beginning of cultural relations with other countries by the United States government as well as the formal opening of the Ogbomoso People’s Institute (OPI) in Nigeria. This was the first school in…
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Alli Balogun

Lifestyle – Others, Religion

Alli Balogun was a Lagos politician and merchant in the 19th Century born in 1830 as Alli Makanjuola. Like his father, he was a slave dealer but he assumed a legal trade as supplier of local needs to European merchants upon the abolition of slavery in 1852. In his thirtieth year he had become rich…
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Folorunsho Alakija

Fashion – Lifestyle, Oil & Gas

Alakija Folorunsho is a business magnate and philanthropist. Folorunsho was born into a wealthy, polygamous family at Ikorodu in 1951. At the age of seven, she was sent, together with her younger sister, to a private school in Wales, returning to Nigeria just four years later to attend Muslim High School in Sagamu. On her…
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Akobi

Agriculture – Fishery, Culture, Social – Welfare

Akobi is the conical shape basket used for shrimp fishing in Iddo Island from the 16th Century circa. Akobi is usually made with strips of bamboo tree. When not in use, they are dried on rows of stakes on the lagoon. Lagos myth has it that Benin soldiers during their first military campaign retreated on…
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