Qualla: Lagos Colony

Lagos Colony: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Spakinrinwa, CC BY-SA 4.0. Oba Dosunmu held out for eleven days. On August 6, 1861, facing the guns of HMS Prometheus and the pressure of Acting British Consul William McCoskry, the king of Lagos -- spelled 'Docemo' in British documents, as if even his name was subject to colonial editing -- signed the Lagos Treaty of Cession. The island became a British colony. The British said they came to end the slave trade, and that was partly true. Lagos had been a major slaving port since 1730, when the Oba invited Portuguese traders to the island. But the British also came for palm oil, for trade routes into the Yoruba interior, and for strategic position on the Gulf of Guinea. The colony they established would grow, absorb its neighbors, and eventually become the foundation of modern Nigeria.

Read more: Lagos Colony on Qualla

Image: Spakinrinwa | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lagos Colony: Before the Flag

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No informado, Public domain. The earliest Lagos was an Awori Yoruba fishing settlement on the islands and peninsula that form the modern city. Its founding families claimed descent from a semi-mythical figure called Olofin, and their descendants became the Idejo or 'white cap chiefs' -- an aristocracy that p...

Read more: Lagos Colony on Qualla

Image: No informado | Public domain

Lagos Colony: Bombardment and Bible

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rischgitz/Stringer, Public domain. The British first attacked Lagos at the end of 1851, bombarding the island into submission, deposing Oba Kosoko, and installing the more cooperative Oba Akitoye. A treaty signed on January 1, 1852 made slavery illegal in Lagos. A Yoruba emigrant named James White captured the moo...

Read more: Lagos Colony on Qualla

Image: Rischgitz/Stringer | Public domain

Lagos Colony: The Cosmopolitan Colony

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Spakinrinwa, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonial Lagos became a busy, cosmopolitan port with an architecture that blended Victorian and Brazilian styles. The Brazilian element came from skilled builders and masons who had returned from Brazil -- formerly enslaved people who brought their craftsmanship back across the A...

Read more: Lagos Colony on Qualla

Image: Spakinrinwa | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lagos Colony: Wars, Railways, and Amalgamation

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Bartholomew & Co. Edinburgh, Public domain. The Yoruba hinterland burned with conflict for decades. A trade war between Ibadan and both Abeokuta and Ijebu broke out in 1877, and the Ekiti and Ijesa revolted against Ibadan rule the following year. Fighting dragged on for sixteen years, fueled partly by breech-loading rifles...

Read more: Lagos Colony on Qualla

Image: John Bartholomew & Co. Edinburgh | Public domain