By: Sewedo Balogun
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How a struggle for the throne of Lagos devastated Badagry
In the mid-nineteenth century, Badagry was an important commercial town on the West African coast, connecting inland markets with coastal and Atlantic trade. But between 1851 and 1854, political rivalry, armed conflict and outside intervention plunged the town into a crisis that damaged its population, disrupted its commerce and weakened its political stability.
To understand the war, we must first understand the struggle for the throne of Lagos.
WHY WERE THEY FIGHTING OVER LAGOS?
The conflict centred on the rivalry between Oba Akitoye and Kosoko of Lagos.
Akitoye had ruled Lagos before being displaced by Kosoko in 1845. He subsequently found refuge in Badagry, where he retained supporters and continued to seek restoration to the throne.
The dispute was about more than who would become Oba. Lagos was a major commercial centre, and control of its markets, trading relationships and political networks brought wealth and influence. The transatlantic slave trade was still a source of commercial and political power, even as Britain intensified its campaign to suppress it.
Britain had its own interests. British officials opposed the overseas slave trade and saw opportunities to expand their influence in Lagos, where European commercial interests competed. Akitoye’s willingness to cooperate with Britain made his cause attractive to British officials, although his supporters also had their own political reasons for wanting him restored.
HOW DID BADAGRY BECOME A BATTLEGROUND?
Badagry’s chiefs were divided over the Lagos dispute.
Chief Mewu supported Akitoye, while Chief Possu and other chiefs were associated with the opposing faction and Kosoko’s interests. The conflict was therefore not simply a war between Lagos outsiders: it involved Badagry’s own leadership and competing visions of who should exercise authority in the town.
Historical scholarship traces serious confrontation between these factions to 1848. Tensions intensified after Akitoye’s departure from Badagry in 1849. The political crisis eventually erupted into civil war.
One widely reported episode occurred in June 1851. Women traders from Lagos reportedly sang songs in Badagry’s market mocking Akitoye and praising Kosoko. Accounts describe supporters of Akitoye seizing two women, after which fighting broke out on or around 11 June.
The market incident became an immediate flashpoint, but it should not be mistaken for the sole cause of the war. The deeper causes were the longstanding Lagos succession dispute, Badagry’s internal divisions and the struggle over commerce and political influence.
British missionaries and officials became involved in the conflict. Arms and ammunition were supplied to Akitoye’s supporters, and the wider confrontation was entangled with Britain’s military intervention against Kosoko in Lagos in December 1851.
WHO WERE THE PEOPLE INVOLVED?
Oba Akitoye: The displaced ruler of Lagos seeking to regain his throne.
Kosoko: Akitoye’s rival, whose supporters resisted his restoration.
Chief Mewu: A leading Badagry figure associated with Akitoye’s faction.
Chief Possu: A Badagry chief associated with the opposing faction.
Chief Wawu: Another important local figure in the political changes surrounding the conflict.
The market women: Their reported songs became part of the immediate sequence of events that helped trigger the fighting.
British missionaries and officials: Their involvement, including support for Akitoye’s side, connected the local conflict to Britain’s wider ambitions in Lagos and the surrounding region.
THE HUMAN COST: A TOWN SEVERELY DISRUPTED
The contemporary accounts describe a striking change in Badagry’s condition. Baptist missionary T. J. Bowen reportedly estimated the town’s population at approximately 10,000 in August 1850. When he returned in November 1851, he described a once-populous town where much of the area had become fields of maize and only about 1,000 people were living in crude shelters.
These figures are historical estimates rather than a modern census, but they convey the scale of the reported destruction and displacement.
The consequences went beyond the immediate fighting. Residents fled, commercial activity was disrupted, political divisions deepened, and Badagry’s leaders faced continued interference from regional rulers and British consular authorities.
The political aftermath lasted beyond 1851. Chief Mewu was removed in 1854, while chiefs who had been displaced, including Possu and Wawu, returned amid further changes in local authority.
HOW DID THE WAR AFFECT BADAGRY’S COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE?
Badagry had been a significant trading gateway linking the Yoruba hinterland to the coast. The civil war disrupted the security and political relationships on which that commerce depended.
Trade was further affected by Kosoko’s hostility towards Badagry and by retaliatory measures associated with neighbouring powers. Historical scholarship describes interruptions to trade with Lagos and interference with movement along the western lagoon.
Meanwhile, Lagos was becoming increasingly important as a centre of British commercial and political power. Following British intervention in 1851 and the formal cession of Lagos in 1861, the balance of regional commerce shifted further towards Lagos.
The war did not single-handedly end Badagry’s commercial importance. Changing Atlantic markets, the suppression of the slave trade, political instability and the growing dominance of Lagos all contributed to the town’s changing fortunes. But the civil war weakened Badagry at a particularly vulnerable moment.
THE LEGACY
The Badagry Civil War was not merely an extension of the Lagos succession dispute. It was a conflict within Badagry itself, involving local chiefs, traders, residents and outside powers.
It disrupted the town’s population and economy, weakened its political stability and increased the influence of British officials in its affairs. These developments formed part of the background to the Cession of Badagry in 1863, when eight chiefs signed an agreement transferring sovereignty to Britain.
Historical sources: Caroline Sorensen-Gilmour, Badagry 1784–1863: The Political and Commercial History of a Pre-Colonial Lagoonside Community in South West Nigeria (1995); Studies in Badagry History and Culture; and contemporary missionary records.