Untold Stories Of The Darkest & The Most Disgusting Human History - Badagry, Nigeria 🇳🇬

The transatlantic slave trade was one of the darkest chapters in human history. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, more than 12 million Africans were captured, sold, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and the Caribbean. Families were torn apart, cultures were disrupted, and entire regions were devastated so that enslaved people could be forced to work on plantations, in mines, and in households for the profit of others.

West Africa was at the center of this brutal system, and one of its most infamous gateways was Badagry, a coastal town in present-day Lagos State, Nigeria.

Badagry, Nigeria – A Gateway of No Return

Badagry became a major slave port from the 1600s onward. European traders – including the Portuguese, British, Dutch, and Brazilians – built trading posts and forts along the coast, turning the town into a hub where human lives were bought and sold.

Enslaved people were captured from inland communities through raids, wars, and kidnapping. They were marched for days or weeks in chains until they reached Badagry. Many died on the way from exhaustion, hunger, disease, or brutal treatment.

Once in Badagry, captives were held in baracoons – cramped cells or holding rooms where hundreds of men, women, and children were packed together with almost no light, air, or sanitation. They could be kept there for weeks or even months while traders negotiated prices and waited for ships to arrive.
The Point of No Return

From the baracoons, enslaved Africans were forced along a path to the beach, now known as the “Point of No Return.” This was the last stretch of African soil they would ever walk on.

They were marched in chains to small boats, ferried out to larger slave ships waiting offshore, and then loaded into the holds of the ships for the horrific Middle Passage – a journey across the Atlantic that could last several weeks or months. Conditions on board were inhuman: people were chained together, given minimal food and water, and forced to lie in their own waste. Disease, violence, and despair killed many before they even reached the Americas.

For those who survived, there was no way back. They were renamed, stripped of their identity, and forced into a life of slavery on plantations and in households, far away from their families, languages, and homelands.

Badagry Today – Memory and Reflection

Today, Badagry is a place of remembrance. Sites like the Badagry Heritage Museum, the slave baracoons, and the Point of No Return stand as powerful reminders of what happened here. Visitors can walk the same paths the captives walked, see the chains and shackles that were used, and hear the stories of resistance, suffering, and survival.

For many people of African descent in the Americas and the Caribbean, Badagry is not just a town in Nigeria – it is a painful symbol of separation from their ancestors and their original homelands.
By learning about places like Badagry and the transatlantic slave trade, we confront a history that is difficult but necessary to remember. It helps us understand how deeply slavery has shaped the modern world – from the wealth it created in Europe and the Americas, to the long-lasting trauma, racism, and inequality that are still felt today.

Remembering Badagry is not only about looking back at cruelty; it is also about honoring the strength of those who endured it, and making sure their stories are never forgotten.
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Quit my corporate job in September 2021 to chase new destinations and document my life. I am following my passion for creating experience-driven travel videos with a human touch.

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