Badagry is a town steeped in myth and history of slave trade. It is also a town where the past and the present co-exist side by side.
It was, therefore, not surprising that on the day set aside for monuments internationally, people gathered in the ancient town to mark the day.
It was on Tuesday, April 29, the heritage professionals and staff of the National Museum, Lagos embarked on an excursion to Badagry in Lagos State. The tour was specially organized by the Heritage Monuments and Sites Department to commemorate this year’s International Monuments Day which is celebrated on April 18 each year by heritage professionals across the globe. However, this year’s celebration coincided with Good Friday, a public holiday in Nigeria. Consequently, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments chose April 29 to mark this special day.
As typical of the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) every year, the organization was able to come up with a brilliant theme, “Heritage of Commemoration”, for the celebration. This year’s theme is another step by the ICOMOS to draw the attention of the entire world, museum professionals and all the stakeholders in the heritage profession to the hundreds of declared monuments and world heritage sites across the world.
The theme is to draw attention to the complex and diversified form of heritage places such as living landscapes, buildings, or structures which are tangible carriers of the memory of a part of human experience. The authenticity and the integrity of these sites have impacted greatly for numerous years to the “commemoration and transmission” of value, including history.
The beauty, quality and the key elements of heritage/sites are enshrined in the history that surrounded their creation without which they would be valueless. Thus, the theme addresses those human constructions (in history) that were intentionally created with the aim of commemorating an event, a person or an idea.
It was these key elements that prompted the choice of the ancient and historic city of Badagry as a slight deviation from previous celebrations. The reasons seem to be quite obvious. Badagry, a town that belongs to the Egun, is strategically located within the precinct of the Nigerian borders close to Benin Republic and a vantage proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.
Historically, as a result of the location of the town, it was a theatre for some events in history, such as the slave trade, early Christian missionaries and early Western education. As a result of these events in history, the town today boasts of several historic/heritage sites that have made it a memorable place to visit for tourists, students, interest groups and museum professionals.
The tour of April 29 proved to be an adventurous one for the museum staff. About 55 members of staff made the trip led by the curator, Mrs E. O. Ekunke (Deputy Director). For a visitor to Badagry, the list of historic sites that could be visited seems to be inexhaustible. The town is a tourist destination par excellence.
Prominent places of interest visited by the museum staff include;
(i) The first storey building built in 1845 by the Anglican missionaries under the leadership of Revd. C. A Gollmer. The building enjoys the reputation of being the first storey building in Nigeria, apart from the historical record that it was inside the building that Bishop Ajayi Crowther translated the English Bible into the Yoruba Language in 1846.
(ii) The District Officer’s office (Badagry Heritage Museum): The building is of colonial architectural design built in the year 1863. It used to be the District Officer’s office, but it is currently known as the Badagry Heritage Museum. The building boasts of collections on the history of the notorious slave trade between Africa, Europe and the Americas.
(iii) Seriki Abass Slave Museum:-
Baracoon Musuem:- “Baracoon” is a Portuguese word for jail or cell. The cell was built in 1840 by Brazilian slave merchants. It was later handed over to their African collaborator, Chief Seriki Ifaremilekun William Abass, who was a former slave . The building now houses a museum where items such as slave chains, manacles and photographs are on display.
iv) Point of “no return”:- This was a spot on the Gberefu Island where it was said that once a captured slave crossed to that side of the Lagoon, there was nothing that could stop the slave from being shipped out of Africa. Usually, visitors are transported across the short stretch of the lagoon to have a feel of this notorious but historic spot.
v) The Vlekette slave market:- The market was established in the year 1502. As it is typical of several Yoruba markets, it held every five days though the merchandise was “human merchandise”. The market was named after the Vlekette divinity, the goddess of the ocean and wind worshiped by the people of the area. During the pre-colonial period, it also served as a customary court. However, the original building has been demolished by the state government authorities, though the shrine located on the premises is still standing. A modern building is being erected by the state government to be known as the new slave market museum.
The list of historic and memorable sites in Badagry is not limited to the ones discussed above. There are other significant places such as the Mobee Slave Relics Museum, canon guns at Wawu’s Palace, the District Officer’s residence, the first primary school in Nigeria built in 1843, to mention just a few.
The theme “Heritage of Commemoration” is not to celebrate or applaud the idea or the phenomenon of the slave trade, the personalities involved in the nefarious act, nor the inhuman treatment meted out without pity to captured slaves. It is also not meant to justify or lend credence to colonialism, nor the intrusion of early missionaries into the African traditional system and religion. Rather, it is to draw the attention of humanity to those institutions, buildings and the relics of slave trade in order to fully appreciate the suffering of Africans at that period of our history. Indeed history cannot be complete without talking about these issues that greatly influenced the history, the economy and the political development of the African continent.
The theme is also of great relevance since this year 2014 marked the centennial celebration of the World War 1 (WW1) which began in 1914 and raged until 1918. This is a sad reminder of a dark period in human history when the entire world rose against itself in a dastardly war that saw the destruction of human lives in their thousands.
The lessons of that war were lost as humanity again rose up in arms against itself during the World War (WWII). The incidence of slave trade, though it lasted many centuries, was perhaps comparable to the horrendous loss of lives during both wars which witnessed the deployment of sophisticated military weapons. Through these activities in history, institutions, buildings, weapons, and so on were developed and they are today categorized and appreciated as the heritage of mankind.
The town of Badagry is a living example of where such institutions abound. This was because following the abolition of slave trade, the Europeans changed their tactics and re-entered Africa as missionaries. This led to the building of churches, schools, cenotaphs and cemeteries, following the introduction of the Christian religion and western education. At the same time, missionary incursions into Africa did not stop the emergence of colonial rule which again led to the creation of colonial legacies such as buildings of foreign architectural designs for colonial officials as offices, residences, memorial cenotaphs and European cemeteries.
It is imperative that in order to fully appreciate and understand the roles that the slave trade, Christian missionaries and colonialism played in the historical development of Africa, the authenticity and the integrity of the institutions that emerged through these activities must be held sacrosanct. This is the responsibility of students of history, museum/heritage professionals, interest groups and indeed all humanity, hence the declaration of those ones with outstanding values as monuments, sites and the heritage of mankind.
Therefore, the onus is not just to celebrate another international monuments day, rather it is to commemorate those legacies that are part of our lives today through past human events, persons and ideas. Consequently, there should be a high sense of responsibility and commitment to identify, preserve and bequeath to posterity these institutions without which our history will not be complete.
T. A. Awoniyi, Chief Heritage Officer, National Museum, Lagos.
