Lagos Black Heritage Festival: Re-connecting the Diaspora with their roots

EIGHT years after it was rested, the Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF), hosted to tell the story of the slave trade in Africa, is back. If the execution of the last Eyo Festival is any clue, then residents and visitors to the LBHF should look forward to a great time out.


Billed for 3-9 April, this year's edition (tagged festival of RECONNECTION, REVALUATION, REVINDICATION) will feature wide-ranging activities in both Central Lagos and Badagry, including a Boat Regatta, a Fitila and Fante Carnival Procession, multiple film screenings on slavery, Zangbeto, Egungun and Coconut festivals, drama, dance and arts/crafts exhibition, to mention but few.

“According to the facts on the ground, the opening ceremony will take place on the Island, while the closing ceremony is to be at Badagry,” says Prince Doheto Mesi, member Local Organising Committee (Badagry Division), in a chat with us.


Ahead of the flag-off Badagry is undergoing a thorough clean up and a couple of facilities upgrade. “Already, all community leaders have been sensitised to keep their environment clean and be prepared,” adds Mesi.



Early in January festival consultant Prof. Wole Soyinka led a team of LOC members to the palace of the Akran of Badagry His Royal Majesty De Wheno Aholu Menu-Toyi 1to discuss the event and take feedback from locals and stakeholders alike.



The festival, according to Soyinka, was “inspired by the spirit of convergence for which Lagos remains pre-eminent. It is a seven-day cultural manifestation during which hundreds of performers will animate the ancient city of Badagry and cosmopolitan Lagos in a blend of the traditional and the modern, welcoming thousands of visitors...”



It's been said that Badagry was the second largest slave port in West Africa; and a TIME publication on the subject says that “nearly half of the slaves taken to North America came from Nigeria and Angola”. The obvious implication of this is that all known slave harbours in Nigeria stand to gain a lot (in terms of tourist influx and tourist dollars) if the existing 'Slave Route project' is taken seriously as has been done in Neighbouring Ghana.



A significant highlight of the festival involves a traditional naming ceremony during which visiting African-Americans and their Caribbean counterparts are given indigenous names, which effectively roots them in Badagry. The new Nigerians are then encouraged to, among other things, consider buying up plots of land in the neighbourhood to build their own houses to which they can always return.