Qualla: Badagry https://qualla.com/badagry en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Badagry https://qualla.com/badagry Badagry: Introduction https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit Dennett, R. E. (Richard Edward), 1857-1921, Public domain. The main god of Haiti's official Vodun religion is called Ogun-Badagri. The name carries an ocean of history in it. From this lagoon town on the Gulf of Guinea, an unknowable number of enslaved people were shipped to the Caribbean and the Americas, and the spiritual practices they carried with them took root in new soil thousands of miles away. Badagry exists at the intersection of profound sorrow and stubborn vitality: a place that served as a departure point for one of humanity's greatest crimes, and then became the gateway through which Christianity, Western education, and colonial administration entered Nigeria.

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Image: Dennett, R. E. (Richard Edward), 1857-1921 | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Badagry: Refugees, Traders, and the Lagoon https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit Louis Gabriel Whenayon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Badagry was founded in the early fifteenth century by Popo refugees fleeing wars with the Fon people of Dahomey. They settled on the north bank of the Porto-Novo runlet, an inland waterway connecting what are now the capitals of Nigeria and Benin. The lagoon's protected harbor pr...

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Image: Louis Gabriel Whenayon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-refugees-traders-and-the-lagoon.mp3 0:06 2 full Badagry: The First Sermon, the First School https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit en:User:Eman007, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1842, Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman preached what is recorded as the first Christian sermon in Nigeria at Badagry. The site where he stood is now marked by the Agiya Tree Monument beside the Badagry Town Hall. A year later, in 1843, the Wesleyan mission established the country...

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Image: en:User:Eman007 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-the-first-sermon-the-first-school.mp3 0:06 3 full Badagry: Destruction and Decline https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit User:Kaizenify, Public domain. Badagry's prominence did not last. In 1851, the army of Lagos attacked the town, and fire consumed much of it. The constant military threat from the Fon kingdom to the west, combined with poor sandy soils that limited agriculture, triggered an exodus of traders, missionaries, and...

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Image: User:Kaizenify | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-destruction-and-decline.mp3 0:06 4 full Badagry: Eight Quarters and a Kingdom https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit Kaizen Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0. Badagry is governed by a traditional monarchy headed by the Akran of Badagry and his seven white-cap high chiefs. The institution of divine kingship, known as De Wheno Aholu, traces its roots to the town's migration from the Ketu kingdom in the fifteenth century. Seventeen Akrans...

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Image: Kaizen Photography | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-eight-quarters-and-a-kingdom.mp3 0:06 5 full Badagry: Coconuts and Memory https://qualla.com/badagry/ Photo credit Ayanfee, CC BY-SA 4.0. Modern Badagry, with a population of roughly 241,000, straddles the road between Lagos and the Benin border. Coconut plantations established in the 1880s still shape the landscape and the economy: the town exports coconuts, copra, coir, fish, and cassava to Lagos, 55 kilometers t...

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Image: Ayanfee | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/1/4/h/badagry-wk/s14h-badagry-coconuts-and-memory.mp3 0:06 6 full