Local history
What Badagry carries
An hour from Lagos, a lagoon town that holds more of the country's history than the city ever has to.
South-West
Badagry
Lagos State
6.4315° N, 2.8876° E
A lagoon town an hour from Lagos that carries more history than the city does.
About this place
Badagry was a slaving port, then a mission station, then a quiet town that Lagos overtook entirely. The first storey building in Nigeria is here; so is the route walked to the beach by people who were shipped from it. It sits on the lagoon a few miles from the Benin border, and the boats in its harbour still work that water rather than the sea.
Everything from Badagry
1 story, newest first.
History in Badagry
Local history
What Badagry carries
An hour from Lagos, a lagoon town that holds more of the country's history than the city ever has to.
Field notes from Badagry
Chidiebere Okafor
Every boat in the park at Badagry carries a painted name, and a surprising number are complete sentences. My favourite this week: NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT, in white on blue, on a boat that has clearly been repaired more than once.
Where to go next
Editorial adjacency rather than distance — somewhere it makes sense to go from here.
