As the news of the contest spread among the Badagry Fishing Net Craft group, every one began to call each other to get further details and truth about the said fishing net craft competition. The lesson was that the women were eager and on learning that participants can enter the contest as an individual or as a  group, they were all quick to proclaim that they are one and a group.  The requirements to participate in the competition includes that 50% to 100% of the craft item(s) must be produced with the use of Fishing Gears and participants can either sign up as an individual or a group crafter. The contest is open to all SOFER Initiative trained crafters and the general public. In winning, the craft work must have a good finishing, durability, creativity and of course must be relevance and useful. The market value of produced item(s) is very vital. According to Mrs Akinwunmi, the contest is another opportunity for them as a group to explore their creativity and further practi...

The African ancestors took Africa with them across the Atlantic irrespective of been captives in captivity due to enslavery.  And on the subject of Akara or Acaraje, a worthy note should be given to the enslaved Yoruba who took their Akara cuisine/diet with them to Brazil and other places in the Americas.  Acaraje was derived from the Yoruba word Akara. Je literally means "eat" in Yoruba. Mo ti je ounje (I have eaten my meal). Akara taa je - Acaraje - (We eat Akara).  Anago James Akeem Osho

James Akeem Anago-Osho is a professional tourist guide and often referred to as Chief tour guide. He has been organizing tours, providing tour guide services, promoting nature and cultural heritage and designing itineraries in Nigeria, Benin Republic and across West Africa since 1998. His tourist guide service company, Anago James Akeem Osho Adventures was founded on knowledge and integrity. According to him, "how can anyone be a tour guide without area knowledge? Who can be a successful tour guide without integrity?". These are the basis of his works. As a tour guide, tour operator, historian, cultural and nature conservationist and storyteller, he has been the ambassador of the region to thousands of tourists from all over the world by connecting and showcasing the unique tourist attractions, history and culture of Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana and West Africa in general.  Anago-Osho exhibits the picturesque, undiluted naturalness of the people, culture, history, nat...

The preparation for the 1st Lagos Tourism, Hospitality, Arts, and Culture Economic Summit is triggering the hope that the event will redefine the potential opportunities and image of I'mthe tourism industry in Lagos State and Nigeria in general. The summit is intentionally created to provide a podium for professional tourism entrepreneurs, and the different government agencies to interact, discuss, create cordial relationships and understand the functions or responsibilities of every practitioners, including government agencies. This is a promising enterprise propounded by Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter. It will be an annual program and the summit should be supported by all tourism associations and stakeholders because it is a united voice that will not only roar but will yield positive results. According to FTAN Lagos State Chapter Cordinator, Alhaji Summonu Daud Gbenga, "this will be the first specific sector skill economic summit in the st...

During the private interaction (due to the advent of covid-19 second wave scare in Nigeria) and commissioning of the Afro - Brazilian Cultural Centre, Popo Aguda, Lagos Island, by the Brazilian Descendants Association Lagos, led by Graciano Oladipo Martins on the 13th of March 2021, the community leaders expressed their joy and commented that they are glad that this communal development is happening in their time. In the speech of Papa Martins, he commented that it is a privilege to be alive to witness the establishment of the Afro - Brazilian Cultural Centre in the Popo Aguda community.  The Afro - Brazilian Cultural Centre is a place where visitors, both local and international will experience and learn about the Afro - Brazilian music, delicacies and history in Lagos Nigeria.  Papa Graciano Oladipo Martins, further complimented and thanked the developers and managers of the cultural centre; Loving Lagos (Mr Lawon Adams), Redac Tours (Mr Oluremi Dacosta) and Anago James Akee...

Tourists and some SOFFER Initiative volunteer members at the Fishing Hub Nest, Ilaje Fishing Village Gberefu Badagry, as everyone anciously awaits the the night's events under the shadow of the African moon coordinated by Anago James Akeem Osho Adventures. 

Fishing Net Gains West Africa community stakeholders workshop in Badagry has come and it is intended to be periodical. The Fishing communities in Badagry who attended the four days event will never be the same again. It was not the daily facilitation by SOFER Initiative and Fisheries and Oceans Canada that was the motivation but according to Hotonu Yemi, one of the participants, "it is the eagerness to see how supposedly abandoned and useless fishing nets could be transformed into useable and sell able items like bags, basket, wall decoration, footmats, footwears and many other things". Mrs Oluwatoyin Peter, another participant, confessed that for many of them the knowledge acquired during the workshop ha opened their eyes to become critical thinkers. Now they understood the negative effects of ghost fishing nets to the water and water animals like fishes, sea turtles etc. Soffer Initiative, is raising a generation of environmentally positive conscious people. It propa...

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...

Porto Seguro is locally known as Agbodrafo. It is a town in southern Togo found on the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Togo. It is a community which grew around a Portuguese fort which is still standing near the Slave House. It was the Portuguese who named the town Porto Seguro, and the name is still in use and recognized, but the people maintained the local name Agbodrafo. Agbodrafo is vivid on signages and government listings.  The town's historical past and niche in the clandestine slave trade is still noticeable in the slave house also called "the well of the chained ones", some family compounds, and folklores; which seems to be gradually eroding away into the sea and may be lost if not collected and documented.  The slave House was owned and built in 1835 by a Scottish  slave trader named John Henry Wood. The house was called "The Wood Home". It was known as the Slave House by slave traders, but was referred ordinarily as the Wood Home. It was actually...

  The  international visitors who could have cancelled their trip to Badagry eventually arrived on Saturday the 21st of November, 2020 with high hopes. The tour was the first of it's kind since the advent of covid 19 pandemic. It was a reunion as two of the visitors had been to Badagry before. One of the highlight of the tour was to celebrate Anago Osho, in addition to the numerous awards and recognitions he has received through the years and that their group, led by tour leader Miss Jane is proud to associate with his tenacity, integrity and passion. The group congratulated him on his ambassadorial and chieftaincy in Benin Republic, his induction at Abuja Jabamah presented by Ikechi Uko, Best Tour Guide Award during the Nigeria Tourism Awards 2019, at the Nigeria Travel week. Heritage Promoter Award in Tourism at the Nigeria Heritage Summit and Awards etc. 

Tourism thrives when there is peace, good health and tranquillity. Whenever the reverse is the case, tourism practitioners are usually the major victims.  Before the Corona virus, the ebola pandemic disorganized tourism activities in Badagry and other attractions in Nigeria, and now the Corona virus.  Of course some practitioners learnt a bitter lesson and at the moment tourism industry diehard stakeholders though shakened by the Covid-19 pandemic remained undaunted and hopeful despite the odds.  It has been quite a while since the people of the "Alluring Badagry" received international visitors in the town and at it's museums, hotels, parks, beaches, Slave routes and heritage sites. The covid-19 pandemic took a toll on world economy, safety and health and the tourism, travel and hospitality industry was hit, the hardest. The ancient town of Badagry; a tourist destination, was greatly affected by the pandemic and everyone though hopeful had a sigh of relieve as local tour...