23. Lagos

“In the early 19th century, in the Bight of Benin – an approximately 400 mile stretch of coastline beginning at Cape Paul, in present day Ghana, spanning the coasts of Toga and the Republic of Benin, and ending at the outlet of the Niger River in contemporary Nigeria was a time of internecine conflict… The history of Lagos in the bounded world of the Benin Lagoons, was set between the Atlantic world and the Yoruba Highlands hinterlands. Lagos drew much of its economic and political power from the lagoons that framed the cities to its east and west.

The image of Lagos… is of an uneven urban space superimposed on an island filled with swamps, creeks, small peaks and dramatic slopes framed by the shallow Osa or Lagos Lagoon. South-west of Eko, Kuramo Island (now Victoria Island) is separated from Lagos by the Odo Alarun, better known as the Five Cowrie Creek. South of this was the treacherous sandbar.

The Ogun River connects to the Benin Lagoons that flow parallel to the Atlantic Ocean which are protected by a narrow strip of land. Badagry, Porto-Novo, Epe and Ouidah were all older places, smaller cities framed by these lagoons. A few more miles farther south, the river led directly to the only natural opening on the Atlantic coast. It is precisely at this opening that the city of Lagos was founded on three islands: Eko, Ido and Kuramo… This was where Lagos was located as the only ‘natural harbour’ as Lagos evolved into the focal point of this linked set of cities.

(This was a potential opening past the notorious sandbar into and past the mangrove swamps and beyond where colonial British occupiers could investigate the interior, its Yoruba people and resources.) It was to become the gateway with ties to the towns and villages connected to it by the Benin Lagoons and the Ogun River. Of an inverted T-shape, Porto-Novo and Epe were the farthest points in the east and west respectively, linked by lagoons that run parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. Abeokuta is the northern vertex linked to the Atlantic by the Ogun River. Lagos accordingly developed at the junction of both the river and land routes.” *

Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi, in her most perceptive writing, addresses the mapping, history, places and politics of this African city in the 19th century.

Focusing on the local geography and mapping of residential and built areas, her analysis was based on a strategy of ‘walking cartography’ whereby in the modern age she has walked the streets, studied both street and place names and the lesser documented residential quarters of Idunmota, Faji and Ereko, and Alakoro, Elegbata and Oke Popo on Lagos Island.

She also focused on the intersections and junctions on the paths across Lagos and any known landmarks and monuments.

This search for understanding of the place in pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial contexts has required some ‘un-learning’ and ‘un-mapping’ with places that have become intentionally misrepresented or undocumented.

The method has, however, richly rewarded understanding of the origins of the place for Lagosians.

Now, modern Lagos is defined by the mainland, Eko (Lagos Island), Kuramo (Victoria Island), Lekki to the east and to the west features such as Tin Can Island and Snake Island in Porto Novo Creek to the west.

With major new land reclamation as Eko Atlantic, new infrastructure as the Third Mainline Bridge across the lagoon, modern developments are reconfiguring the city and the ever expanding megalopolitan area of Greater Lagos.

An increasingly urbanised equatorial region retains, however, its social and economic challenges with an extensive and ever growing informal sector with its own highly demanding requirements for sanitation and services.

*Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi – Imagine Lagos – Ohio University Press, 2024.