Badagry is a coastal town and Local Government Area (LGA) in
Lagos StateLagos State is an administrative division of Nigeria, located in the southwestern part of the country. The smallest in area of Nigeria's states, Lagos State is the most populous state in Nigeria and arguably the most economically important state of the country and west Africa, containing Lagos, the...
,
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. It is situated between Metropolitan
Lagos Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
, and the border with
BeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
at
SemeSeme Border is a settlement in Nigeria on the border with Benin, ten minutes drive from Badagry on the coastal road between Lagos and Cotonou. Seme is a part of Badagry Division of Lagos State....
. As of the preliminary 2006 census results, the municipality had a population of 241,093.
Founding and early history
Founded in the early 15th century on a lagoon off the
Gulf of GuineaThe Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
, its protected harbour led to the town becoming a key port in the export of slaves to the Americas, which were mainly to Salvador,
BahiaBahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
in
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. From the 1840s, following the suppression of the slave trade, Badagry declined significantly, but became a major site of Christian mission work. In 1863, the town was annexed by the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and incorporated into the
Lagos colonyLagos Colony was a British colonial possession centered on the port of Lagos in what is now southern Nigeria. Lagos was annexed on 6 August 1861 and declared a colony on 5 March 1862....
. In 1901, it became a part of Nigeria.
Badagry subsists largely on fishing and agriculture,and maintains a small museum of slavery.
This is the first storey building in Nigeria, overlooking the Marina waterfront. It was built in 1842 by the missionaries.
External links