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Rev. Father Borghero: The apostle of Catholism in the Afro - Brazilian Settlement in Lagos and Badagry By Anago James Akeem Osho

The history of the Catholic faith in Lagos and Badagry Without the specific mention of Fr. Francesco Borghero SMA, is incomplete. 

Fr. Borghero was a Catholic missionary from the order of Lyon. The first Catholic church in the Slave Coast of West Africa was built in Agoue, by an Afro -Brazilian woman named Venosa de Jesus, when the first Brazilians arrived in 1835 under the leadership of Joaquim d'Amelda. 

The church was burnt down and rebuilt in 1845 by Joaquim d'Ameida, a Brazilian ex - slave. Agoue (Benin Republic), became the center of Christianity. 

Rev. Fr. Borghero is adorably synonymous to the founding of Catholism in Lagos Island, and Badagry. According to the program for the 150th anniversary of the Catholic Church in Badagry (2nd October, 2013), "Rev. Fr. Borghero was to Badagry and Lagos at large, as was St. Paul to the Gentile nations. More so as Jerusalem was a launch base for the apostles and missionary activities, so was Dahomey (Benin republic) to the entire West of Nigeria, spreading first from Lagos where the first mass was celebrated on the 9th of March, 1862". 

On Rev. Fr. Borghero's return to Dahomey from Lagos, he had a stop over at Badagry in the home of the Jambo Brothers situated in the compound of the former Brazilian Baracoon. It was there that the first mass was celebrated in Badagry on the 2nd of October, 1863. 

The remarkable day became the start of the Catholic faith in Badagry. Fr.Borghero is the apostle of the founding of the Catholic church in Nigeria. Due honour and accolades should be rendered in his honour. His activities are felt as far as Porto Seguro, now Agbodrafo, where he visited Francesco Olympio in his establisment in 1863. 

His involvement in the Catholic church in Whydah can not be overlooked. His missionary works was to support the various Afro - Brazilian communities in the establishment of the Catholic faih in their settlements. 

Bibliography: 

The program of the 150th, Anniversary of the Catholic Church in Badagry. 2nd of October 2013 

Anago James Akeem Osho, 2020, Rev. Father Borghero: The apostle of Catholism in the Afro - Brazilian Settlement in Lagos and Badagry - 

Alcione M. Amos, 2003, Afro Brazilians in Togo: The case of the Olympio family, 1882-1845 

Pierre Verger, 1964, Bahia and the West Africa Trade, 1549-1851

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