Yaba housing scheme and the colonial ‘re-planning’ of Lagos, 1917–1952

ABSTRACT

The paper is a discussion of the urban renewal strategy of the colonial government of Lagos between 1917 and 1952, against the backdrop of 'slum dwelling', 'overcrowding', and 'insanitary conditions' on the Lagos Island and the plan to develop Yaba Estate for the housing of those displaced on the Island. The paper argues that even though from the colonial government's perception, it was 'very urgent' to embark on serious urban renewal policy to ameliorate the 'terrible condition' on the Lagos Island, the method employed by the colonial government for the re-housing of people at Yaba failed initially because of colonial government's policy of leasehold. This made it impossible for the displaced people to take up residence at Yaba with serious spatial implications for the urban development of Lagos. As they looked elsewhere for abode, they replicated the same problems that the colonial government was trying to abate on the Lagos Island.

KEYWORDS:

• Yaba
• colonial
• planning
• Lagos
• leasehold
• freehold

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Letter from Acting Chief Secretary, 1924.

2 Home, “Shaping Cities,” 75–85.

3 Sorensen, “Planning History,” 35–45.

4 Huggins, “Shades of,” 37–54.

5 Wohl, Endangered Lives, 3.

6 Mabogunje, Urbanization; Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75; Bigon, “A History,” 533–60; Davies, “Urban Renewal,” 77–96; and Gandy, “Planning, Anti-planning,” 372–96.

7 Bigon, “Sanitation and Street,” 247–69.

8 Bigon, “Planning Residential,” 117; Bigon, “A History,” 533–60.

9 Stock, “Environmental Sanitation,” 19–31.

10 Bigon, “Between Local,” 49–76.

11 Bigon, “A History,” 1–12.

12 Curtin, “Medical Knowledge,” 594–613.

13 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75; Home, “Town Planning and Garden,” 23–37; Marris, Family and Social Change.

14 Swanson, “The Sanitation Syndrome,” 387–410.

15 Nightingale, Segregation: A Global History.

16 Mabogunje, “New Initiatives,” 73–88; Mabogunje, “Urban Planning,” 121–203.

17 Church, “Urban Problems,” 511–20.

18 Mabogunje, “New Initiatives,” 73–88.

19 Brown, “Public Health,” 337–60.

20 Macpherson, Wilderness of Marches, 14.

21 Ijasan and Ogunro, “How Rapid Urbanisation,” 110–22.

22 Davies, “Gentrification in Lagos,” 712–32.

23 Jimoh, “Managing Epidemic,” 1–13.

24 Macpherson, Wilderness of Marches.

25 Fenske, “Land Tenure,” 137–56.

26 Berry, Fathers Work, 3–16.

27 Williams, “Measuring the Impact,” 587–608.

28 Farthing, “New Strategic,” 64–70.

29 Sawyer, “Piecemeal Urbanisation,” 271–89.

30 Gandy, “Planning, Anti-planning,” 371–96.

31 Barredo and Demichelli, “Urban Sustainability,” 297–310.

32 Olanrewaju, “Urban Infrastructure,” 373–84.

33 Curtin, “Medical Knowledge,” 594–613.

34 Bigon, “Transnational Networks,” 103–11.

35 Coquery-Vidrovitch, “From Residential Segregation,” 1–12.

36 Ibid.

37 Cell, “Anglo-Indian Medical Theory,” 307–35.

38 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75.

39 Frenkel and Western, “Pretext or Prophylaxis?” 211–28.

40 Curtin, “Medical Knowledge,” 594–613.

41 Njoh, “Colonial Philosophies,” 579–99.

42 National Archives Ibadan (NAI) Comcol 2 163/36 A1/F6, “A History of Lagos, Nigeria,” 1891.

43 Ibid., 19–23; Brown, “Public Health,” 354.

44 Aderibigbe and Brown above.

45 Ibid.

46 Cole, “Lagos Society,” 27–58.

47 Ibid.

48 Olukoju, Infrastructure Development, 8.

49 Brown, “Public Health,” 337–60.

50 Ibid.

51 Oyesiku, Modern Urban, 40.

52 Ibid.

53 Mabogunje, Urbanization, 112.

54 Swanson, “Sanitation Syndrome,” 387.

55 Olukoju, “The Segregation,” 265.

56 Oyesiku, Modern Urban, 41.

57 Ibid.

58 Mabogunje, Urbanization, 112–13.

59 Ibid.

60 Olukoju, “The Segregation,” 272.

61 Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 40.

62 Ibid.

63 Jimoh, “Managing Epidemic,” 1–13.

64 Ibid.

65 Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 38–41.

66 Ibid.

67 British National Archives (BNA), CO 583/158/1, 1926.

68 Cherry, Cities and Plans; Gandy, The Fabric of Space, 27.

69 Baker and Bayliss, “William John,” 450–65.

70 Bigon, “Sanitation and Street,” 247–69

71 BNA CO 583/158/1, 1926.

72 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, 1924.

73 Ibid.

74 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Letter from Acting Chief Secretary, 1924.

75 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Letter from Secretary, 1924.

76 N.A.I. CE/T3 “Report on Title to Land.”

77 Mann, Slavery and the Birth, 269.

78 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Letter from Secretary, 1924.

79 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Memorandum, September 23, 1924.

80 Ibid.

81 Ibid.

82 BNA C.O. 583/162/14, Letter from Governor, 1924.

83 NAI Comcol 1/AC 646, 1928.

84 Ibid.

85 Salami, “The Architecture,” 40.

86 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Confidential Letter, 1925.

87 Bigon, “A History,” 1–12.

88 BNA C.O. 583/162/14, Letter from Governor, 1924.

89 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Attorney-General, 1924.

90 Bigon, “A History,” 1–12.

91 Ibid.

92 Ladd, Urban Planning.

93 NAI CSO 26/2/13338 vol. 1, Confidential Letter, 1925.

94 BNA CO/583/153/3, Lagos Town, 1927.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid.

97 Bigon, “Between Local,” 49–76.

98 Home and King, “Urbanism and Master,” 51–85.

99 Legg, Spaces of Colonialism.

100 Glover, Making Lahore Modern.

101 Bissell, Urban Design, Chaos.

102 BNA CO/583/156/52, Lagos Town, January 1928.

103 Njoh, Planning Power, 76–7.

104 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75.

105 Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 43–4.

106 Bigon, “A History,” 1–12.

107 NAI CSO 26 15686/ S.3, “Town Planning Schemes,” 1932.

108 Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 43–4.

109 Ibid.

110 While the Daily Service opposed the slum clearance, the West African Pilot and the Daily Times supported the Scheme.

111 Alli, in discussion with the author, September 12, 2004.

112 Bigon, “Between Local,” 49–76.

113 BNA CO 583/162/14, Letter from Governor, 1924.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid.

116 Ibid.

117 Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 45.

118 BNA CO 583/162/14, Letter from Governor, 1924.

119 Ibid.

120 NAI CSO 152 vol. IV, “Town Council.”

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid.

123 NAI CSO 152 vol. IV “Town Council.”

124 Ibid.

125 BNA CO 533/1639, “Town Planning,” January 1929.

126 NAI CSO 26 15686/1 L.E.D.B., February 1953.

127 Ibid.

128 NAI Comcol 2 16236 R. L. V. Wilkes, “Intelligence Report.”

129 Ibid.

130 Meek, Land Law, 10.

131 Chanock, “Paradigms, Policies,” 61–84.

132 BNA/CO 583/162/14, “The Yaba Estate” 1925.

133 N.A.I. CE/R8 “A Report on the Registration of Title to Land in the Federal Territory of Lagos” by S. Rowton Simpson, 1957.

134 Ibid.

135 Home, Of Planting, 82.

136 Stock, “Environmental Sanitation,” 42.

137 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75.

138 Power, Political Culture, 15.

139 Falola, “Colonialism and Exploitation,” 41–66.

140 Njoh, Planning Power, 139.

141 NAI Comcol 1 209 12627/166 vol. II, “Sewage,” 1926.

142 Aiyeyemi, in discussion with the author, December 2001.

143 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75.

144 Ibid.

145 Home, Of Planting, 3.

146 Home, “Town Planning,” 165–75.

147 Fry, “Town Planning,” 197–204.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lanre Davies

Lanre Davies, research interests are on Abeokuta and Lagos. Some of his publications include: “The Creoles in Sierra Leone and Abeokuta: African Modernizers?” African Journal of International Affairs and Development, 2003; “Sociopolitical Unrest in Egbaland 1947–1948: A product of Modernisation or Autocracy?” The Journal of History and Diplomatic Studies, 2004; “The Dilemma of Constitutional Experiments in Abeokuta, 1831–1898” LASU Journal of Humanities, 2006; “The Rise and Fall of Egba Independence: A Review“, Ife Journal of History, 2013; ”Urban Renewal and Associated Problems in Lagos, 1924–1990”, Lagos Historical Review, 2014; 'The Political Economy of the Egba Nation: A Study in Modernisation and Diversification, 1830–1960,' in African Nebula, 7, 2014, Glebe, NSW, Australia, ISSN 1837-7963, 74–100; “Land Tenure, Population Pressure and Urbanisation in Lagos, 1861–1914” Ilorin Journal of History and International Studies, 2015; 'J. F. Ade Ajayi: His life and Career,' Michael Omolewa and Akinjide Osuntokun (Eds), Ibadan: Bookcraft, (Pb £20 - 978 978 8457 152). 2014, xxiv+558 pp. AFRICA, Journal of the International African Institute, Cambridge, volume 87/Issue 2, 2017, 431–432; 'Urban Lagos 1927–67: A Tale of Two Cities?' in J. Garrard and E. Mikhailova (eds.), Twin Cities: Urban Communities, Borders and Relationships Over Time, (London: Routledge), 2018, 78–90. “Gentrification in Lagos, 1929–1990” in Urban History Journal, volume 45, issue 1, Cambridge, 2018, 712–732.