"The city [Lagos] was governed by [an] Oba, an indigenous ruler, who was formally selected by Eletu Odibo, the Head of the Akarigbere class of White Cap Chiefs with whom the Oba shared some ruling power.¹¹⁷ The death of Oba Idewu Ojulari around 1834 politicized a personal rift between one possible successor, Kosoko, and the Eletu Odibo of the Akarigbere class, which resulted in Kosoko being overlooked as possible successor three times: first in 1834 in favor of his uncle Adele, then in 1837 in favor of his cousin Oluwole, then in 1841, in favor of another uncle, Akitoye.¹¹⁸
Seeking to reconcile with his nephew, the newly crowned Oba Akitoye invited Kosoko to return from exile, which he did, causing Eletu Odibo to leave the city in protest. However, the reconciliation would be short lived as Kosoko soon challenged Oba Akitoye’s ruling authority in a series of public marketplace taunts that resulted in a civil war that unseated Oba Akitoye in 1845. While Kosoko ruled in Lagos, the deposed Akitoye was able to enlist the support of the Church Missionary Society and British Consulate and Navy to regain his throne and once again exile Kosoko to Epe, which was done in the bombardment and reduction of Lagos in 1851. In return, Oba Akitoye conceded much of his administrative power over trade, renounced the slave trade, and made significant military and missionary concessions to his erstwhile allies.
One of the earliest known photographs of any indigenous ruling class Lagosian was taken of Oba Akitoye at some time during his reign (1841-1845, 1851-1853) (fig. 2.1). In the photograph, the ruler is shown wearing an English top hat (which had replaced the simple white caps previously favored by past Obas), a long-sleeved white shirt, atop a compulsory white gbariye wrapper.
This ensemble is covered by a damask wrapper, wrapped around the waist and thrown over Oba Akitoye’s left shoulder. Although the photograph featured here is cropped, Titilola Euba provides a complete description of the full image :“On his feet are a pair of wool embroidered slippers. A pair of socks adds ‘a touch of class.’ Most important …is his staff, very new at the time for it was given to him by the British to mark the treaty that enabled him to regain his through from his nephew Kosoko…”
The staff which Euba describe helps to date the photograph of Oba Akitoye to the two years after the bombardment of Lagos, and before his poisoning death in 1853. Oba Akitoye’s adoption of various forms of European dress (top hat, damask cloth, white shirt) reinforced his power by proving his ability to access the visual economies of colonial Britain, just as much as they could access those of Lagos. This portrait reproduced Oba Akitoye, not as an ignoble “native” ruler but a savvy ruler who engaged with indigenous ideals and the conventional tropes of British Victorian portraiture.
¹¹⁷ Smith, 6-7. There were three other classes of White Caps Chiefs, including the Idejo (who were altogether considered the original owners of the land and were headed by Oloto, ruler of northern Iddo island, Aromire, protector of the lagoon, and Olumegbon, who invested new white caps), the Ogalade (the priestly caste headed by Obanikoro, who had allegedly been sent by the Oba of Benin to look after the Oba of Lagos when he city was just founded), and the Abagbon, or Ogagun (headed by the Ashogbon, and consisting of war captains and military leaders).
¹¹⁸ Mann (2007), 47. Kosoko had allegedly married a woman that Eletu Odibo had hoped to marry for himself, thus insulting the powerful chief and creating a rift that would never be healed between the two men.
By Olubukola A. Gbadegesin, PhD dissertation (2010)
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