segun akande

<h1>Either by nature or the influence of time and other cultures, it’s fair to say Nigeria is a marriage-crazed society.</h1>

Here, everything that is related to the union of man and woman is more significant than you’d expect.

Without a doubt, the most accentuated of all these is the wedding, the act of tying two together as one.

In recent years, a typical Nigerian wedding has gone from a relatively intimate experience to something between a carnival and a church revival.

In all fairness, most single persons defiantly insist they will have <a data-link-role-code="open_new_tab" href="https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/relationships-weddings/court-wedding-in-nigeria-here-are-5-benefits-and-advantages-of-having-one/p9hfn26">small weddings</a>, nothing of the sort that we are becoming used to.

“People have different opinions about weddings,” says Adebusoye Kunle, CEO of KLALA Photography, a Lagos firm that documents weddings, “In a typical couple, the bride may want it large. Sometimes, the groom wants it small and it becomes an argument.”

But whatever you think you want is usually a story for the gods.

Parents have a say in how big a wedding gets [TWP]

Over a year before announcing his engagement, Banky W shared an interesting post on Snapchat. In it, he said that small weddings are the best and he would not be doing “that huge Lagos wedding move.”

Footage also surfaced of a single Adesua Etomi sharing her preference for a small wedding with a reporter. “It definitely won’t be a big wedding,” she said, “You guys won’t even see pictures.”

Well, the actor and singer got married in November 2017; and not only did we see pictures and videos, their union was the&nbsp;biggest story of that weekend.

In a world where it doesn’t happen if it’s not on social media, their wedding even had its own hashtag: #BAAB17.

So what happened to change the couple’s minds? Why did they, like the rest of us mortal beings, give in? What is that Nigerian spirit inside of us that loves to get united in marriage to the sound of live bands in front of as many people as the hall can contain?

ALSO READ: <a data-link-role-code="open_new_tab" href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/celebrities/5-beautiful-nigerian-celebrity-weddings-that-are-simply-unforgettable/04wm8dh">5 beautiful Nigerian celebrity weddings that are simply unforgettable</a>

Our parents have to take some of the credit for this. Remember that time you mentioned small weddings to your parents and they said God forbid.

You thought it would end there but they launched a manifesto stating what stadium they would rent and how many family members would fly in from Europe.

For some reason, the older generation sees a wedding ceremony as more than just a solemnisation or uniting of two people.

For them, it is a symbol of success, proof their children have reached an important milestone and become adults.

It is not something to hide away in a secret location with 20 odd people, it is something to be proud of.

The older generation sees a wedding ceremony as more than just a solemnisation of two people [TWP]

There’s also the “family and friends” factor. Weddings nowadays also serve a double function as social gatherings where old connections are re-established and relatives catch up with each other.

The bigger the wedding is, the better chance there is for family,&nbsp;friends and acquaintances to connect, catch up and rebuild relationships.

God forbid there isn’t enough space because you saw a photo of Jay-Z and Beyonce and decided on a small, intimate wedding.

“The wedding is not only for the bride and groom,” Adebusoye says, “it is also an avenue for both families around the world to reunite so most times, the couple can’t decide, especially when the parents are the ones financing the wedding.”

Whatever sentiments drive the influence of parents in a wedding, it is usually stronger for the bride’s parents.

<h3>Marriage is one of the world’s oldest and strongest institutions</h3>

From a young age, women are raised to be good wives and mothers, often at the expense of what is actually important. It only makes sense that when it is time for them to become wives, much importance is attached to the act and the ceremony. To be honest, this culture has also affected the way many women see marriage themselves.

Those sentiments were echoed in We Should All Be Feminists, an essay from Chimamanda Adichie’s TEDx talk of the same name. In it, she wrote “…Because I’m female, I’m expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important…”

When a woman who has been made to believe this reaches what she has been aspiring to, it’s obvious that she wants it to be as big a celebration as possible.

In a way that’s what it is all about, aspiration. Ours is a very aspirational society; even when we do not have the means to pull off a massive spectacle, we are not reluctant to go beyond our means to raise funds to make it happen.

<a data-link-role-code="open_new_tab" href="https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/relationships-weddings/7-things-unique-to-yoruba-weddings/mpsbp52">A massive wedding</a>, with media coverage, high-quality aso ebi, agbadas and dresses, delicious catering and possibly a hashtag is portrayed as an ideal; every girl’s dream.

When she achieves it, and posts the photos everywhere, it puts pressure on the next bride-to-be who feels as if her wedding must be on that level or close. From there, it’s an endless cycle.

All that pressure is not going to waste, of course. Since social media increased the scale of the spectacle, entire industries have sprouted from Nigerian weddings.

There are make-up artistes, catering firms, interior decorators to beautify the hall, wedding photographers that capture the ceremony, designers that create dresses and agbadas. Need I continue?

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the role these people play in selling the big wedding as the perfect wedding.

“Wedding planners show a preference because planning a big wedding is more profitable,” says Demilade, a Lagos-based wedding planner. “When you successfully pull off big weddings, you also get more connections. That’s what’s important; everyone prays for bigger and better jobs.”

Ultimately, <a data-link-role-code="open_new_tab" href="https://www.pulse.ng/business/international/heres-how-much-weddings-cost-in-these-5-african-countries/ktxhr0x">it’s all about the money</a>.

Everything related to the union of man and woman is more significant than you’d expect [Bridal Guide]

Black couple on wedding day [Bridal Guide]

When it’s all said and done, there is a possibility that when the wedding bells toll, the desire for a good celebration trumps our personal preferences.

Everyone loves a good party and they hardly come better than a wedding ceremony. The focus is on new beginnings, good food, lots of drinks and a good time. Few things trump that.

In all of this, it is important that the focus does not shift from the people who really matter; bride and groom. Unfortunately, this happens too often.

“We’ve seen instances where couples didn’t enjoy their big day,” Adebusoye adds, “The parents came to oppress each other and King Sunny Ade was only singing for the parents. The DJ didn’t even get to turn up.”

Big weddings are healthy but they must not come at the expense of the couple’s privacy, financial security or the foundation of their co-existence as a union.

To be fair, this culture of big weddings has become much bigger than a simple cultural phenomenon. Clips of Nigerian grooms and brides dancing have gone viral in recent months. The entire idea of a Lagos wedding was also the inspiration and reference for one of the biggest movies of 2016, The Wedding Party.

So, maybe our obsession with big weddings is a good thing. Nigerians have turned brides and grooms into content creators. We have birthed an indigenous ecosystem worth billions of naira a year,&nbsp;from what was simply a mundane four-hour long ceremony.

It may be difficult to pull one off, but considering what we have made of it, it’s easy to see why anyone would consider saving up to continue what is already a tradition of sorts.

This article was originally published in 2018.

Banky W, Adesua Etomi and AY Makun in "The Wedding Party"

In recent years, a typical Nigerian wedding has gone from a relatively intimate experience to something between a carnival and a church revival.

How big wedding ceremonies became the most attractive option for Nigerians

<h2>In today's world where advanced fee fraud or 419 is as much a part of Nigeria's identity as Jollof or an ailing president, financial crime is one of the biggest concerns, for individuals and governments the world over.</h2>

The only thing standing between your bank account and a zero balance is a hard-working hacker, the right software and a VPN to disguise the location of the numerous young fraudsters who have made cyber-crime into an art and an industry.

As intimidating as it may sound, years before the internet swam its way into Nigeria on the back of telcos, a Nigerian bank official secured a bounty that would inspire the most reserved yahoo boy to shoot a series of music videos.

In a series of events that is credited as the third largest financial crime in world history, Emmanuel Nwude, a director at Union Bank, defrauded Nelson Sakaguchi and the Brazilian bank, Banco Noroeste Brazil of the sum of $242 million with a scheme that, in retrospect, seems like something out of an episode of Impractical Jokers.

According to a Newswatch editorial dated Monday, July 7, 2003, Nwude was, at the time he was caught, one of the wealthiest Igbo businessmen in Nigeria.

Popularly known as the Owelle of Abunuga, Nwude is said to have owned a 10-storey building in the heart of Lagos. In a manner consistent with his wealth and flashy luxury, he lived on the top floor of the building while the bottom floor housed a commercial bank.

Every metre of space in between those two floors was dedicated to his private concern, Euro-Holdings.

Nwude was said to own buildings across Nigeria and cities in the United States. He was also reported to be a major financier of the People’s Democratic Party and as Newswatch reported, a close ally of former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar.

Anyone who wondered about his wealth would have found a simple convincing response. Nwude owned millions of shares as the singular largest equity holder in Union Bank. Until 2001, he was also a member of the board of directors of the bank.

It was in this capacity that Nwude pulled off one of the most daring and outrageous schemes that the world has ever seen.

According to Nuhu Ribadu, who was the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the time of his conviction, the swindle took place over a four-year period starting in 1995. His main tactic was impersonation. Nwude posed as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor at the time, Paul Ugwoma.

His accomplice, Ikechukwu Anajemba posed as Rasheed Gomwalk who was the CBN's Director of International Remittance. Anajemba’s wife, Amaka posed as Gomwalk’s wife, completing the unholy trio.

Anajemba would die in 1998, as the proceeds of the scam were finally delivered, leaving his wife to take his share.

Together, the trio and a host of ancillary accomplices presented a proposition to the head of International Finance at Brazil’s Banco Noroeste Brazil, Nelson Sakaguchi.

Using false correspondence and Nwude’s access to confidential, high-level documents, they convinced Sakaguchi that the Nigerian government was seeking investors to build an airport in Abuja, the new capital.

If Sakaguchi could provide the first investment of $242 million, they said, he would be entitled to a commission of 10%.

The deal had not been presented as a corporate offering so Sakaguchi did what he thought he had to do; he illegally dug into his bank’s funds and began to make a series of payments to accounts around the world.

He and Nwude agreed that he would pay some of the $242 million as cash and the rest in some form of facility.

Between 1995 to 1998, Sakaguchi transferred $191 million in cash to Nwude and his accomplices. The rest was conveyed as some form of outstanding interest.

During this period, Nwude and his accomplices spent lavishly. Amaka, Anajemba’s wife, became known as a socialite, erecting massive edifices in her hometown of Enugu and mingling with Nigeria’s political class.

The fraud was only discovered in 1997 when the victim bank was the subject of a buy-out by the Spanish bank, Santander.

At a joint board meeting in 1997, an official from Santander inquired about why a large sum of money, two-fifths of Noroeste’s total value and half of their capital, was sitting in the Cayman Islands unmonitored. This discovery led to extensive criminals investigations in five continents.

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The effect on Banco Noroeste was fatal. The owners had to pay the missing $242 million out of their pockets for the purchase to go ahead, but that narrow escape did not secure its future. In 2001, Banco Noroeste collapsed.

Nwude and his accomplices enjoyed their loot for years, but in 2003, a trail created by years of reading the fine print and making connections from the Cayman Islands landed in Lagos.

Newswatch reported that Nwude was picked up in June 2003&nbsp;at his residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. Seven of his exotic cars were also taken to the premises of the EFCC on 15, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.

So began a series of trials with the CBN and the newly created EFCC on the one hand, and Nwude and his accomplices on the other.

In February 2004, Amaka Anajemba, Nwude, Emmanuel Ofolue, Nzeribe Okoli, and Obum Osakwe, with Ikechukwu Anajemba post-humously mentioned, were all charged in the Federal High Court, Abuja with 86 counts of "fraudulently seeking advance fees" and 15 counts of bribery related to the case.

Their trial only got more eventful from thereon out.

By early 2004, it almost appeared that judicial bureaucracy had brought the trial to a stalemate. In a report dated Tuesday, July 20, 2004, the BBC reported that the presiding judge, Lawal Gumi, declared that the elements of the crime had not taken place in Abuja, and as such, he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.

"It is my considered view that the appropriate place for the trial of the accused on those charges is the high court of Lagos. For these reasons… I do decline and strike out the case from my list," Gumi is quoted as saying.

Nwude and his accomplices were released, only to be re-arrested outside the court and taken to Lagos.

The next year, with the trial nearing a definitive conclusion, underhanded tactics began to play out.

ALSO READ: <a href="http://www.pulse.ng/gist/metro/article7337935.ece">Nigerian student defrauds US companies of millions of dollars</a>

Nwude allegedly attempted to bribe the EFCC head honcho, Ribadu, with $75,000 in cash. He was charged with additional counts for his trouble, in addition to a five-count charge for an incident where a prosecution witness was almost kidnapped.

In September 2005, a bomb scare during the trial caused the courthouse to be evacuated and the trial adjourned.

Resolution finally came in its first form when Amaka Anajemba admitted to helping her husband. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and ordered to repay $25.5 million.

Weeks after, Sakaguchi, the object of Nwude’s fraud offered first-hand testimony in a Lagos high court.

With little room to manoeuvre, Nwude and Okoli pleaded guilty to the charges against them. They had conceded grounds in hopes of getting a lenient sentence. That did not seem to matter much as Nwude was sentenced to 25 years and Okoli to 12 years, according to Reuters.

Reading his final judgement, Justice Joseph Oyewole was reported as saying, "The activities of the accused persons not only led to the collapse of a bank in a foreign country but also brought miseries to many innocent people."

The next Monday, according to IRIN News, Ribadu made the refund of $17 million to William Richey, a lawyer representing the defunct Banco Noroeste. Nwude’s assets were confiscated and he was charged with paying a fine of $10 million dollars to the national government.

For most who followed the trial from the pages of newspapers and television screens, the victory was somewhat short-lived as Nwude was released in 2006.

In the months after, he instituted many fundamental rights cases against the government for the recovery of some of his property, on the grounds that he had acquired them before the fraud.

Nwude’s fraud put Nigeria in a delicate situation. With the advanced free fraud of the 1970s and 80s and the internet scams of the digital age, it is easy to see why the country suffers such a bad reputation in the international community and Nigerians are portrayed first as enterprising fraudsters before anything else.

For every Nwude who was caught, there are 100 affluent Nigerians enjoying the fruit of ill-gotten gains in peace and tranquility. It is easy to assume that the long arm of fate will catch up with them at some point. In truth, that is only a hopeful conclusion.

This article was originally published in 2017.

From 1995 to 1998, Emmanuel Nwude and his accomplices completed the third biggest private scam in documented history.

How Emmanuel Nwude sold an imaginary airport for $242 million

From the 16th Century till its abolition in 1886, the coastal town of Badagry, now a part of Lagos State, was the final point of departure for indigenes who were sold into slavery.

Decades ago, millions from the hinterland were bundled into ships and delivered to traders in European and American markets. Today, it has become a destination for tourists who want a slice of its well-preserved ties to the transatlantic slave trade.

Some of these structures were important steps on what is now known as “the journey of no return”

<h2>Here are 5 important points on the Badagry slave route.</h2>

<h3>(1) Mobee Family House &amp; Slave Relics Museum:</h3>

History has told us that the coast of West Africa was a fertile area for slavers in the 1800s because the rulers, chiefs, and warriors collaborated with the foreigners to capture their own people.

At the height of the trade in Badagry, the white cap Chief Sunbu Mobee traded many of his people with the Portuguese in exchange for valuables. This dark reputation was tied to the family until his son ascended the Mobee throne and abolished the trade in 1886.

Today, the relics of the family’s participation in slavery and many of the tools used to capture and hold captives can be found in the Mobee Family Slave Relics Museum, which sits at the top of Mobee Street in Badagry.

The Island, founded in the 15th Century, is geographically, a part of Badagry. However, due to its prime position between the hinterland and the ocean, Gberefu became a dreaded path to the Point of No Return.

Slave traders and warriors under the charge of Chief Sunbu Mobee also captured inhabitants of the Island, young and old, and put them on the path that their home was already feared for.

Reports of the time claim that as many as half a million people were sold into slavery from Gberefu between 1518 and 1880. Today, the Island is a sandy beach enclave, untouched.

Spirituality was a major element of the slave trade, especially in Badagry. Along the path in Gberefu Island, there sits a well bordered by a small wall that discourages anyone from drinking from it.

During the slave trade, the well is said to have been charmed by shamans and chiefs. Slaves on their way to the Americas were given water from the well to forget their home and cut their psychological ties to Badagry.

It is said that the water would take effect 3 months into the journey, supposedly leaving the slave with no connection to anything but the lives they had been sold into. The locals claim that no one has drunk from the well in over a century.

From the point of their capture, African slaves were grouped by gender and age and shackled with a repulsive assortment of chains.

They were led along the path from Gberefu to the Spirit Well but their captive reality mostly set in when they got on the final phase, on the path to the ocean.

With the wet breeze of the Atlantic bearing down on them, the slaves would walk in lines along dusty footpaths, bordered by shrubs and palm trees. Home was in the background; before them lay the final phase of a damning journey

For all the trauma of their experiences and the agony of their journey from home, the Point of No Return was the place where African slaves were finally confronted with their future as slaves.

Here, at the shores of the Atlantic, the captives were handed over to the Europeans. As the name suggests, it is said that anyone who made it to this point had no chance of returning home.

It was here at the edge of a place they called home that the slaves would see an iteration of the bloody price they had to pay for the color of their skin.

Badagry Slave Route: Slaves passed these 5 notable stops on their journey of no return

Over the course of three centuries, more than 500,000 Africans were sold into slavery through Badagry's coast.

Across the world, from Stonehenge to the Great Sphinx of Giza, there are remarkable creations and naturally occurring phenomena that can only be described by the term we use to refer to them; wonders.

They are those structures that both impress and confound us, enough to command a kind of respect that almost feels like reverence and put them in a class of their own; a class that preserves them into classical antiquity.

In many ways, these wonders, especially those made by nature’s hand, are mysteries, more than anything else.

Like the Northern Lights or Tanzania’s 260 square km wide Ngorongoro crater, they are unexplained phenomena that arouse our curiosity, a desire to know more and questions that we try ever so hard to answer with science or religion.

One of such wonders is hiding in Nigeria, in Imo state, within the rainforests of the Niger-Delta.

In Oguta Lake, two angry rivers flow side-by-side without ever coming together.

It has been this way for as long as the people remember.

Oguta Lake is a lean finger lake formed by deposits of clay, sand, and silt that dammed the lower Njaba river.

At 8.05km long and 2.41 km wide, it is the largest natural lake in Imo, and the entire South-East of Nigeria.

Water flows into it mainly from the Njaba river and to a lesser degree, the Uju, Awbana and Urashi rivers.

It is two of these rivers that flow side-by-side, parallel to each other, without ever coming together.

You can see it almost immediately on the surface of the lake.

One flows in a shade of green, the other is brown.

As part of #Pulse36, their trip across Nigeria’s states, Fu’ad Lawal and Chris Chukwuedo visited Oguta Lake to see this sight for themselves and learn more about the stories behind the unique lake.

There, they met Ekene, a boatman, and tour-guide of sorts. He led the way.

According to Ekene, locals believe that the two rivers were male and female, man and wife. The green water is Ogbuide, believed to be the female. The brown water is the male, Urashi.

The stories claim that they had a quarrel, since then, they have flowed separately.

Nowadays, the two are deities; man and wife have become god and goddess.

There are two separate shrines where worshippers invoke and offer supplication to them; one on each side of the river.

The quarrel does not affect places of worship, and worshipers can call on either deity from any of the two shrines.

But those liberties do not extend to every area.

Even as it stays hidden in a corner of Imo, Oguta is a major attraction and every year, thousands come to visit, including some who do not understand the efficacy of its legends.

Sometimes, the couple is taken for granted and the inexplicable happens.

While they were on Oguta, ever the inquisitive one, Fu’ad asked Ekene some questions about the lake.

“So they’ve been separated all these years and can’t find a way to make up?”

“They are petty,” he said jokingly.

“Why are they quarreling?”, he asked again.

Next thing he knew, Ekene was looking right into the water, saying in Igbo how the lake should forgive him because he’s just a boatman trying to make a living, not one who would say things he knows nothing about.

Ekene told Fu’ad of a time not too long ago when some students came to the lake to see its wonders.

One of the students, after taking in its size, stood up and proclaimed that the lake was small, small enough for him to swim.

He asked the boatman to turn around so he could jump in the lake for a swim. As the guide maneuvered, he fell out of the boat and into the lake. His body was never found.

Stories like these may scare visitors and for good reason. It never hurts to respect local beliefs and traditions.

The people of Oguta and the communities that surround it, know the lake as a source of transport, food, and sustenance. For them, the natural wonder is an integral part of their lives.

As Fu’ad put it, for them, it is a means to live.

On any random visit, you are likely to find women on the bank doing laundry or selling anything from souvenirs to dried fish.

On one side, you will likely find a boat man waiting for visitors and fisherman getting their nets ready to be cast into the lake’s depths.

At any point, there are people being ferried to the other side, carrying everything from handbags to farm produce.

Ogwuta Lake is also home to some relics of more recent times, particularly the 70s when the area was one of the many theaters in the Nigerian civil war.

Not far from the lake, there is what appears to be an abandoned 18-hole golf course.

But move closer to the course and you will see it, right there in the bushes; a bunker used by Biafran forces during the civil war.

The mouth of the bunker has been blocked off because kidnappers, in the past, used the bunker to hide their victims from prying eyes.

The lake was also used as a base by the Nigerian Navy during the war. There are reports that remnants of old Biafran war boats can be found in various areas of the lake.

It is things like this that make Oguta lake unique.

Now, as a new generation lives around the lake, the mystery of the two rivers, its history as an important part of the Biafran war and many unanswered questions about its past remain.

They are why Oguta Lake and its immediate environment deserve a facelift if for no reason, to preserve one of the many wonders that Nigeria is so blessed with.

Until that happens, Urashi and Ogbuide continue to flow in the same lake, side by side, without ever coming together.

One half of the lake is a brownish colour; the other half flows clearly and almost appears green. They have never come together.

Oguta Lake: In a corner of Imo, two angry rivers flow without ever coming together

The past is a repository. Within its dark pages and hazy corners lie stories that would light the path and connect the dots between our questions and the answers that stare at us from places we have never thought to look in.

Regardless of where you get your accounts of times gone past, from the oral stories of older folk or thick volumes curated in London’s many scholarly halls, one thing strikes many people from the moment they begin to notice patterns.

Mythology, and its slightly more accurate sister, History lean in favor of the male gender.

From Zeus to Sango to George Washington, the icons and legends of entire civilizations and nations are not the women who birthed its fore-bearers, but the bearded God who made children with humans and the father of a nation who kept other nations in chains.

This is not to say there is no space for the female folk. Among the few women who find a place in old wives tales and history texts, perhaps the most prominent is the legend of a queen of biblical times.

She is known as Bilquis, Bilikisu, or more notably, the Queen of Sheba.

The legend of the Queen of Sheba is one of history’s more fertile legends; over time, it has been re-imagined by Jewish, Islamic, Arabian and other many interpretations.

As a result of this, accounts of her life differ depending on who’s telling the story.

Still, her story is widely recognized as a Biblical one, and the most popular account of it is that offered in the Bible; the story of her visit to King Solomon.

According to the Book of Kings, the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones, "and when she was with Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was nothing hid from the king, which he did not tell her" (I Kings 10:2–3)

In the Queen’s time with King Solomon, she was so astounded by the opulence and advancement of his court, as well as his wisdom, that she offered her respect for the King and the God of Israel, Yahweh.

Out of this respect, she gave large amounts of gold, rare wood and spices, precious stones in tribute to King Solomon.

"And King Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants." (I Kings 10:13)

It is said that after spending time with Solomon, the Queen converted to his religion, Judaism.

Other accounts of the Queen’s life go far further than this; some suggest the place of her birth as a nation in present-day Yemen. The Ethiopian account of Queen Sheba, or Makeda as she is called there, goes on to state that, on her way back, she had a child of King Solomon, named Melenik I.

Despite the many disparities in the many accounts, there are certain ‘facts’ about the Queen of Sheba that are common to almost all the many stories.

1) She was from a great kingdom somewhere in the Middle East or Africa. Biblical accounts describe the Queen of the Sheba as a “queen of the South” who came from the uttermost ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of King Solomon.

The Kingdom of Israel and Judea, over which Solomon ruled, covered a great area of the middle east; to its south lay arts of South Arabia and farther south, the many ancient nation-states of Africa.

2) She was a black queen, of very dark skin. Apart from her origin, historians point to the Canticles, known as the Songs of Solomon, as evidence of this. She is deemed to be the object of the writer’s fancy, who says in Song of Solomon 1:4, “I am black and beautiful”.

3) The Queen of Sheba was wealthy beyond measure. All accounts of her visit to King Solomon speak of the scale of the gifts that she gave him; including large quantities of gold and rare wood that Solomon used to build his throne and later, the Temple in Jerusalem.

Even though these ‘truths’ make up the pillar of any story about the Queen, each account has such different elements that it can be difficult to even decide if they are all talking about the same person.

One of the less popular accounts of Queen Sheba comes, not from the middle east, or Ethiopia, but from Nigeria, in the town of Ijebu Ode.

The Ijebu people claim that the Queen of Sheba was one of their noblewomen known as Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. It is worth noting that this name ‘Bilikisu’ is the same name by which she is referred to in the Quran.

In Ijebu-Ode, there is a medieval system of walls and ditches, over 160 kilometers long known as Sungbo’s Eredo. The locals claim that it was erected in her honor.

As part of his 72 day trip around Nigeria, Pulse’s Fu’ad Lawal visited the place where she is said to be buried in Ijebu-Ode.

While there, he met the custodian, a visibly aged man who has been keeping the grounds officially for 4 years, and unofficially, for a while before that.

The site of Bilikisu Sungbo’s grave is some way into the bush in an area called Oke-Eiri, surrounded by white walls with a message at the gate welcoming visitors to the seat of

The grave itself is bordered by a small gate in front and on the sides by a small fence made with iron bars, punctuated by small cement pillars with Arabic inscriptions on them.

According to the custodian, “the grave site was found by hunters of old”. These hunters were men known in Ijebuland as ‘Alori’, who went beyond the primary searches for animals, to explore the forests that made up large parts of Yoruba land in ancient and medieval times.

“They were the police investigators of the time like you have detectives today”, he said.

The diversity in the many stories of the Queen of Sheba shows how time, location and cultural differences can color a single story in different shades. Beyond that, though, it tells of the power of a story and of the icons that it creates.

segun akande

Articles written by the author

How big wedding ceremonies became the most attractive option for Nigerians

How Emmanuel Nwude sold an imaginary airport for $242 million

Badagry Slave Route: Slaves passed these 5 notable stops on their journey of no return

Oguta Lake: In a corner of Imo, two angry rivers flow without ever coming together

Is the Queen of Sheba (Bilikisu Sungbo) buried in Ijebu?

Ogbunike Caves is one of Nigeria's most impressive natural wonders hiding in Anambra

A brief walk into Abeokuta zoological gardens

Poland honours Nigerian who defended Warsaw in WW2

MURIC has one valid point regarding rapper's "This is Nigeria"

Can free money or a better salary treat your depression?

Episode 121: "Awesomely Beautiful" feat. Layo Ogunbanwo

The Nigerian Police has become a parody of itself

The Super Eagles jersey has converted Paddy Power to fans of Nigeria

The Super Eagles (and their jerseys) have given Nigerians a brief distraction

There's a reason why that photo of Drake in blackface is so touchy

Sinzu is proof of how Nigerians view celebrities who commit crimes

What May 29 means to young Nigeria

Episode 120: "3 Million Aba Nike Jerseys"