Nigerian history

30:21A typical example was that they tend to execute people and dump them into pit wells. And apart from that, for people that think that Boko Haram is Islamic, is un-Islamic, and I can tell you with every sense of responsibility, because the mosque was desecrated because we found condoms inside the mosque. And they were used by Boko Haram. As the fighting continued, some of the hostages taken by Boko Haram were rescued. And the stories they told were horrifying. Faith, not her real name, was held for four months in a forest camp where they tried to force her to convert to Islam. Every day at dawn, they would come and throw water over us and order us to wake up and start praying.

31:09Then one day they brought in a man wearing uniform. They made us all line up and and said to me, because you are always crying, you must kill this man. I was given the knife in order to cut his neck. I said I couldn't do it. They took the knife from me and cut his throat. That's when I passed out. Why do you think it took so long for an offensive of this magnitude to be launched against Boko Haram? There were instances, you know, the communities were saying that the military should be withdrawn. So in the first place, you do not even know where you start from. Here you are trying to rescue people, trying to liberate them, and yet they don't want you.

31:51Then secondly, the issue of lack of international support and cooperation at the beginning. On Christmas Eve 2015, Nigerian President Mohamedou Bahari told the BBC this. Boko Haram has reverted to using IEDs, Infobias Explosive Device, indoctrinating young girls from 15 years and below to go and explode it in churches, in mosques. So I think technically we have won the war. However, attacks in Nigeria still take place in 2025. And whilst many of the 276 Chibot girls have been rescued or have escaped, 11 years on, some are still missing. But Sani believes the military campaign was a success for Nigeria.

32:35The number of checkpoints within Abuja were unprecedented. In fact, there were instances a distance of maybe 20, 30 kilometers or miles, as it were, you have about three or more checkpoints that you spend two to three hours to get there. But today they are normal. So they lack the capacity to, you know, attack the way they do. So technically, yes. But that does not mean that they have been totally destroyed and defeated. The retired Nigerian Brigadier General Sani Kukaseka-Usman was talking to Tim O 'Callaghan. While religious and ethnic tensions continue in Nigeria, there is also a vibrant cultural side to the country and its history.

33:16As an example from the past, it's 25 years since the opening of the New Africa Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria. It's now a hub for Afrobeat music and culture. And, as Surya Alango has been hearing, it's dedicated to one of the country's most famous sons. Come on, listen, listen. Today, we're going back to the turn of the millennium, to the city of Lagos in Nigeria, to hear the story of a grieving family who built a shrine in honour of their late father. You might have heard of him. His name was Fela Kuti. Fela for us, I think, was too important to Nigeria to just let death take him away and take all his work away.

34:05I've been speaking to Yeni Kuti, Fela's eldest daughter. If you haven't been to Nigeria, haven't been to the shrine, then you haven't been to Nigeria. Yeni is talking about the new Africa shrine in Akenje, Lagos. It's a musical pilgrimage site for many who see it as the spiritual home of Afrobeat, a musical genre pioneered by Fela in the 1970s and 80s, fusing traditional West African music with jazz, funk and soul. Everyone comes. Tourists come, Nigerians come, Ghanaians come. Everybody, shrine is open 24-7. It's a spiritual journey for me too. During this time, Fela had built the Africa Shrine, a legendary club in Nigeria.

34:53It was famed for Fela's band. The godfather of soul, James Brown, came to see them. They jammed with Stevie Wonder. And the Beatles' Paul McCartney described them as the best live band he'd ever seen. Yeni was in her 20s when the shrine was built. The old shrine was a place for Fela to perform and for him to pass his message. Because he had his messages, he had his Yabes night where he yabbed government. And that Friday was Yabes night and Saturday was the comprehensive show. In Nigeria, yab is a slang word meaning to satirise or make fun of. As Yeni says, Fela's shrine had a busy schedule, full of music, dancing and politics too.

35:37Fela spent his life criticising Nigeria's successive military regimes, particularly through his songs, which became popular all over Africa. Leaders who act like animals. These pointed songs and his lifestyle didn't exactly earn him fan mail from the authorities, though. Fella openly smoked marijuana, declared his home, the Kalakuta Republic, an independent state of Nigeria, and famously married 27 wives on the same day. In 1977, during a brutal raid by the Nigerian military, Fella's home was burnt down. That didn't stop Fella. He continued to release his politically charged music till his death in 1997, which is where our story on the building of the new Africa Shrine begins.

36:29There was this problem with the owners of the land of the old Africa Shrine, because Fela built the shrine, but he didn't buy the land. He leased to the land and the lease had expired and they were in court. And then Fela dies. and we went to the owners and we were like, oh, please, let's buy this land from you. We want to preserve my father's legacy. We talked and we pleaded and they were like, nope, just get out. The only way you can allow you to stay there is if we manage it. And we're like, no way. Yeni and her brother Femi, Fela's eldest son, were determined to carry on their dad's legacy.

37:09So they found a new spot in the middle of Ikeje, in the northwest of Lagos. We saw the future. That's the perfect piece of land. Corner piece, nice size, and it was a business district. So we could open a club there and they won't say, oh, you're disturbing. There's no disturbance of the piece. There were no houses, just businesses. And with that, they started building the new Africa Shrine. Femi and I are not architects, but we had a memory of the old shrine. So we told the architects that came on board, we said, look, we want it exactly like this, like the old shrine, but bigger. The New Africa Shrine is four times bigger, accommodating two and a half thousand people.

37:54But things weren't all smooth sailing. There was some trouble from a group of young men in the local area. They felt they had a claim to the land. So what they do is they come to the people that buy the land and then they try to extort money from you by threatening you with knives, machetes. When they met me, they met someone who I wasn't afraid. They were doing all kinds of things on the streets and I would come out and I would argue, I would quarrel and I became a very formidable force against them. It was a battle. I earned the name, the name after your former prime minister, Ion Lidi. They gave me Ion Lidi.

38:37I had all kinds of names. Margaret Thatcher. I was young and vibrant then. Unlike other famous buildings across Nigeria, the new Africa Shrine is built as an open-air arena. And unlike perhaps any other club space in the world, just opposite the dance floor. The Shrine Ponters, the Shrineites, I call them Shrineites, When they come in, a lot of them will go there and kneel down in front of the shrine. On the wall is a series of portraits of Yoruba deities, ancestors of the Kuti family, Pan-Africanist and Black Power activists who inspired Fela. And of course, in the middle of it all. We have an outfit of Fela's favourite colour.

39:20We change it, sometimes it's orange, sometimes it's yellow. We take it down, wash it, put it back up. So they will come there, they will kneel down and pray and pour libation. It's important to a lot of people that do it. After eight months, the New Africa Shrine opened its doors to the general public. The official opening was on the 15th of October 2000, Fela's birthday. There were thousands of people. It was packed. A lot of artists came to perform that day. Femi performed a lot of bands also, Plantation Boys, Daddy Shoki, Tony Tetrula. A lot of them came to support that day. Femi and I were both very, very happy.

40:04Femi's not the only Kuti to perform at the New Africa Shrine. Fela's youngest son, Sian, and his grandson, Made Kuti, performed too, carrying forward Fela's Afrobeat legacy. Because I remember as kids when we used to fight, a fella would build up a thing with matches and then he would say, you see how the matches are staying strong together? If I pull one out, it will crumble. And if you fight, that's how you will crumble. You will not stay strong as a family. So that has stuck in my mind. But there was one thing the siblings didn't take their dad's lead on. It's in our wills, Femi and I, that our children cannot sell this.

40:50It will remain as the Africa Shrine for eternity, hopefully. It's very important, you know, to preserve the shrine. One thing I've noticed in a lot of African countries, there is no continuity. So that continuity must continue. Just as the shrine was a musical pilgrimage site back in Fella's day, the new Africa Shrine draws in people from all over the world. Erika Badu Rita Marley Naomi Campbell Bono Lauren Hill Skepta Anthony Joshua And in 2018, even... Macron He was coming on his state visit He said when he was a young diplomat He was a regular Anytime he was in Lagos from Abuja He would come to the shrine and he would be dancing And I remember, you know, when I went to say hi And I said, oh, my name is Yeni And he says, I know you And I was like, you know me?

41:44Yes, he says, I know you. Because now I'm semi-retired. In those days, I was right there. Because when he said, I know you, I was like, you know me, I was so impressed with myself. Since its opening on October the 15th, 2000, the new Africa Shrine hosts the Felibration Afrobeat Festival every year on the same day on Fela's birthday. And it's recognised by the Lagos state government as an official tourist destination. Yeni Kuti still manages the new Africa Shrine. Surya Elanga was talking to Yanni Kuti, daughter of the legendary Fela Kuti. From Nigerian music, we turn to fashion. The first Lagos Fashion Week was held in 2011, putting Nigerian style on the map.

42:30The event has helped to launch the international careers of local designers. In 2023, Rina Stanton-Sharma met the woman who had the original idea. Walking in, in that moment, I just felt, wow, you know, this is possible. There's nothing as extraordinary as seeing an idea go from notebook to light. Omoyemi Akareli is the founder of Lagos Fashion Week. I spoke to her in Selfridges, London, the luxury department store where a fashion pop-up by African designers was held earlier this year in collaboration with her event. Omoiemi told me about the moment she walked into Echo Hotel in the heart of Lagos' Victoria Island on 26 October 2011.

43:19There's lighting, there's music, there are people talking, walking past you. There's a frenzy of activity, make-up is getting done, hairstylists at the same time, our first backstage. It was a frenzy of activity, to put it mildly, but I was happy that it was happening. I mean, we barely had a backstage. In the middle of all the calm within the storm, you could also see beauty, right? You could see people. You could see people who were committed to their craft. You could see people giving their best, people who had bought into the vision. To the sounds of drums, models walk the catwalk of Lagos Fashion Week.

43:58African designers are showcasing their best work as international ones descend on the city looking for talent and inspiration at a time when Afrobeat and African fashion seemed to be taking the world by storm. That BBC report was from 2018. Omoyemi's flair for fashion flourished from an early age, but she studied law before pursuing her passion. If you spend so much of your life focusing on a particular career and then you wake up one day and realise you're not enjoying it. So it was really glaring that there was something amiss, right? Imagine going to law school and having degrees and starting work as a fashion intern.

44:36Yes, that was me. A fashion intern, worked as a fashion stylist, became the fashion editor of a lifestyle magazine. I remember talking to my editor at the time about fashion week, like this is what I would like to do because I think it's going to bring more meaning, more purpose to the work I do and what I felt I'd been called to do at that time. Her idea was born in 2009 when she was the artistic director of Style House Files, a fashion agency she founded for African designers in her home city of Lagos. Omoyemi was used to working hard and planning Lagos Fashion Week was fraught with challenges.

45:13Organisers of other fashion shows in Nigeria called on designers to boycott the newest show in town. It was quite a controversial season because different platforms were very threatened by what we were doing. And they'd actually gone ahead to tell all the designers not to showcase Villegos Fashion Week. And they threatened that they wouldn't take them to New York. They used to have like big events in New York then. So quite a few designers did not showcase with us in the first season. But many decided to take a stand and support Omoyemi. Some of the designers in this room now said, of course not, we're going to showcase because we believe in what you're doing.

45:52It was really heartening to see everyone just rally around, come together to say, you know what, despite the threat we've received, we're going to showcase with you. The next conundrum was building the catwalks and exhibition spaces, which was turning into a logistical nightmare. The evening before the grand launch, Omoyemi went to the hotel to check on progress. Been talking to production crew, especially the technical crew, all day, you know, about setting up and walking in about 8 p.m. Nothing was set up, like literally it was bare. And I went straight into panic mode. What's going to happen?

46:27You know, and then you have the technical department saying, don't worry, everything's going to be fine. We'll be sorted. The catwalk itself was already built, but lighting wasn't done yet. It was just panic all around. And then looking in the exhibition space, plan A didn't work. the first company that we'd hired, they were not able to deliver. So you walk in and you expect a place to be done, and then it's not done, and then you're calling someone and they're telling you, Madame, ha, ejo wa no ko? Di ka? Di ka? We have, it's broken down, traffic. This is like two hours on the outskirts of Lagos in suburbia, and you're thinking, oh my gosh, if this doesn't come here, the exhibitors cannot set up.

47:08If the exhibitors can't set up, you know, this isn't going to happen. Omar Yemi recalled that conversation she had in Yoruba with that workman. There were just hours to go until the grand opening and everything was up in the air.

47:24There was no sleep. Of course not. We'd murdered sleep. There was no way you could go to bed, rest assured that you stroll in the morning and everything would be fine. We were there till literally 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning, just making sure everything was set up, good to go. because we just couldn't leave it to chance that everything would be fine at 9 o 'clock or 10 when doors open. The day she'd been working towards for years had finally arrived.

47:52I was just completely blown away. I mean, we look at the photos today and we laugh like, oh my gosh, did we really have a yellow catwalk? We laughed at all the things that just didn't look right. But it was really a heartwarming moment to see everything come together in that way, bearing in mind all we'd been through, all the obstacles, everything. In that moment, it ceased to be a Miami's vision and became this collective vision that we all bought into because everybody brought their best, from the hairstylists to the makeup artists to even the lighting technicians. And that, for me, is the real magic about Lagos Fashion Week.

48:28Since that first show, packed with Nigeria's sartorial glitterati, it's grown to become a major fashion occasion, attracting Africa's biggest celebs. Collections from the catwalk are now sent around the world as these BBC News reports from 2018 reflect. We have international photographers, we have starlets, we have different people from Africa, from Nigeria, from Paris, from Milan, from New York, from London. We have a lot of them here, you know, trying to see what Africa, what Nigeria, what Lagos can present. We are starting to make a name for ourselves and show that actually we do have the standards of luxury and the standards of production that the rest of the world does have as well.

49:14We're no longer the continent of, like, disease and poverty. International press and buyers were looking on from the front row, making decisions about the collections that could end up in our high-end department stores as early as next year. And they still are. And that's why I'm now sitting with Omoyemi in Selfridges, in the heart of London's West End. We're surrounded by rails of clothing with intricate patterns from bikinis to shimmering evening dresses, showcasing the cream of Africa's crop of designers. So what does Omoyemi think the impact of her fashion week has been since that yellow catwalk helped to catapult the careers of Nigerian talent internationally?

50:01When Lagos Fashion Week launched, there was only one multi-concept store in Nigeria and, dare I say, across the continent that retailed fashion from African brands. Fast forward 13 years after, and not just with Lagos Fashion Week, there's been a ripple effect across the continent. Yes, people realise that we do have talent and people are buying African, wearing African with so much pride.

50:32Omoyeme Ecareli was speaking to Rina Stanton-Sharma in 2023 about the launch of Lagos Fashion Week in 2011. The latest iteration of the event was held in November, attracting rave reviews. Is Lagos the world's most exciting fashion week? asked The Guardian. And this from Vogue, no less. Lagos Fashion Week is still shaping the future of African fashion. The event also won the 2025 Earthshot Prize for Sustainability. Finally, we can't have a Nigeria-themed history hour without a look at the country's sporting past. At the first ever FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991, Nigeria were the only team from Africa to qualify for the tournament.

51:14Justice Beidou has been hearing from one of the key players in that squad about the opposition they had to overcome in order to claim their tournament spot. Our best game was against Italy. We came out really passionate, wanting to win, so we left, we gave it our all. And that was, for me, was the best moment. Having the coach say, hey, yes, I'm proud of you ladies and I'm proud of what you've done. In that particular game, we fought hard, we just narrowly lost that game. That's Nkiru Okosieme, the captain of the Nigerian squad who made it all the way to the 1991 World Cup tournament in China.

51:55Growing up in Nigeria, football played a big part in her family life. My late father was a football player. My elder brother, he played for the national teams. He actually also went professional and played in Belgium. And for football-obsessed kids, there was only one thing that they wanted to do. Back then, we used to play on the streets. So it was myself, maybe one other girl, and tons of boys. And I would do that for the entire day. Sometimes we have some little street competition where we play. And of course, my dad doesn't know what's doing that. Back then in the 1980s, the idea of a girl playing football was not treated seriously in Nigeria.

52:39But in Kiru, was determined to play the sport and soon found a way. My dad, he ended up being a coach. He didn't actually allow me to play. So as a child, I think I got into football. But, you know, when he comes home from practices, he tends to have the ball back with him. So every time he lets us have the ball to wash the ball, we go to the backyard and play the ball a little bit and eventually wash the ball and put it back, everything back for him. But the negative attitude saw her lose her passion for the game.

53:12Couldn't play with the boys anymore and there was no place for me to play. So for a period of time, I did quit. I kind of stopped a little bit. A conversation with her brother gave her the encouragement and determination to start playing again. My elder brother, who played professional for one of the teams within the state, he came and said, what are you doing here? I saw some girls training. It was close to the stadium. And I jumped and I went over there. And we all came together, said that they were going to just form a team. At that time, it was totally unheard of.

53:50But older traditional attitudes were still common. The reaction to a female youth team was mixed. Some come to watch us out of curiosity. Others come to watch us to say, what are they really doing? And some basically will just say, hey, you ladies just quit this, go back to the kitchen, that's where you guys belong, don't know what you guys are doing. But I just stuck with it because of my passion. The attitude of the Nigerian footballing bodies had been changing, helped by youth team tours to Scandinavia. They actually organised some youth tournaments and because of that, they were also exposed to going, taking some youth teams to play some international tournaments and I think probably that's where the organisers saw the girls playing in places like Norway, Denmark, Sweden and they came back home and they said they were going to put a team together.

54:43They began eyeing the first women's football World Cup as the perfect showcase for the youthful, exuberant talent the country was producing. But then when the Federation came together to put a tournament to pick players, I was called into the national team right before we started going into the qualification for the 1991 Women's World Cup because the country had a bunch of girls that could actually play. So it was a little bit easier for the national team to get these players to come together. The chance to play in the World Cup caught the imagination of the Nigerian team and the young squad committed to achieving their dream.

55:25The desire to play, it was just there. And then all of a sudden we heard there's something, the World Cup coming up for the women and Nigeria was going to try to qualify. And so that got us really excited. Everyone was excited and training was all day. I mean, there's no off time for us. And we're happy to do it because for a lot of us, it was a dream come true. So did some people still not agree with women playing football? It's not something the men wanted us to do because at every point, it was just one criticism. Oh, how are they going to chess the ball? How are they going to hit the ball?

56:01How are they going to do this? How are they going to do that? But we didn't consider none of those things.

56:09the squad whose average age was 18 and a half were now nicknamed the falcons they breezed through their world cup qualifying group crushing ghana guinea and cameroon to book their place in the finals in china i guess that was one of what i would say one of the greatest moments in my life because it was really glorious for each and every one of us particularly when our man hasn't even been there. So it was something that they said, hey, you try to hold these ladies back. And then we became the one to actually fly the nation's flag with the World Cup. So that was, it was really, really exciting.

56:45But before China, the team were sent to Holland for an intense period of pre-tournament training. This threw up one or two unprecedented surprises. Getting to Holland, it had to deal with the weather. You know, having to deal with the cold was also an issue, not just the cold too because first time going to another country had to deal with the food. It was some big adjustment to make for some of us. Training was tough. Some of the games that we had to play, we played under some really cold temperature, which we weren't used to. And we go get our nice hot rub. So it was quite an experience. But mixed with all of that was the excitement of going to China.

57:26At the finals, Nigeria were drawn in a tough group and they fell to defeat at the hands of the Germans, Italians and the Chinese Taipei team.

57:39Which game in China stands out as being the most memorable for you? For me, our best game was against Italy. It was a game where we felt like we did the best. And I think we ended up losing that game, but we did very well. At the end of the game, the coach was really happy and proud of us because when he called us and told us in terms of how we're going to play was precisely what we tried to do. We tried to execute on that game and we came out really passionate, wanting to win. So even walking out of the field, having lost, you have that sadness in you that you lost. But still, I think we just not only lost that game, but it was the one that I said that we really, really gave it our best, came in strong on that game, wanted to win as badly as anything.

58:24We didn't, but it was the best. Looking back at the World Cup journey, what do you think the team helped achieve? It just opened the gateway for all kinds of things. I'm also sure for all African countries, I swear, because today I'm glad to see countries like Morocco, Zambia playing. When are the earlier days? They couldn't even dream about that in terms of religion and culture. So it did actually open the gateway for a lot of African women who love the sport to actually play it. So what are you most proud of? We are proud of what we accomplished in China. And they believe that we progress from that.

59:02They believe that, yes, we've planted the seed for that. And the rest of the continent, including Nigeria, is going to just carry that flag and just go with it and run with it. And that's exactly what some of them are doing now. When I watch some of the games now, yes, they're running with it. They see a little more that we have to go in terms of organisation. But I think overall, things are coming together. them. Nkiru Okoseme, who captained Nigeria at the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China, was speaking to Justice Beidou in 2023 in that Made in Manchester production for the BBC World Service.

59:36That's it for this edition of the History Hour, looking back at events in Nigeria. We'll be back with more first-hand stories from the past next week. So until then, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. We weren't going to ask permission. We were just going to do it. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. He started to write a story about how he came up with the idea for the red and yellow cars. I got to go. We cried a bit. We laughed a bit.

1:00:07It was wonderful. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Supporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.