Badagry Heritage Museum

About this place

Badagry Heritage Museum tells the history of the slave trade in the coastal town of Badagry, near the border with Benin. It occupies the District Officer's building put up by the British in 1863 and is run by the Nigerian Cultural Commission. It is a place of remembrance before it is a museum, visited by people from Nigeria and the African diaspora to remember those taken from here. Between 1736 and 1851 Badagry was a trading centre on the coast, acting as middleman between European traders on the shore and traders from the interior during the Atlantic slave trade. The building became a museum in 2002 and opened on 22 August that year. It has eight galleries that follow the story, from capture and transport to resistance and abolition. You see a two-storey colonial building in pale yellow, with a long wooden veranda and tin roof, before a paved yard. Inside are shackles, chains, models of slave ships and maps. The town itself looks over a wide lagoon with a jetty of wooden boats, ringed by palm trees and simple streets. It is about 56 km from central Lagos in a straight line, on a busy road, so allow a day. Other sites in the town can be visited with a local guide. The subject is harsh, so treat the place with respect, and ask before photographing in the galleries.