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The Slaves' Spirit Attenuation Well or Well of Memory Loss. While the well in the Brazilian Baraccoon would have served the purpose of quenching slaves' thirst, the one on the Island of Gberefu, just across Badagry, served a more sinister purpose, according to subsisting tales of the slave era. Ominously named the Slaves'Spirit Attenuation Well, popular legend suggests that in the era, as the slaves filed from their various merchants' courtyards with chains around their wrists, necks and waists from across the Marina, they were ferried on boats a short distance to Gberefu Island. From the landing at Gberefu Island, the slaves would then be filed towards what would become the last time African land would ever be under their feet. But about one kilometre from the riverside landing on the Island towards the Point of No Return on the Atlantic border of the Island, a well stands alone in the middle of the plain. Save for the roof that has been put over it to venerate its historical status along with a sign wall that proclaims its disturbing name, the well looks like any other. But its history or legend suggests that it was the beginning of the horrendous journey that would take slaves who were forced to drink from it from their native land to either their slave masters or to death.
Wear comfortable shoes for the 800-m walk to the Atlantic Ocean.
Comprehensive collection of the transatlantic slave trade. It was the former District Officer’s Office built in 1863. It was converted into a museum in 2002 and it contains slave trade history collections and records.
Upon arrival, there’s a tour guide within the compound to guide around the building. The first educational system of Nigeria as a British colony started in Badagry where the first primary school was established by the Wesleyan Mission (Methodist Church) in 1843 and named Nursery of Infant Church which later became St. Thomas' Anglican Nursery and Primary School (CMS) in 1845, inside the first storey building in Badagry. The foundation of the ancient historical laden was laid by Rev Henry Townsend of CMS on the Marina Waterfront in the year 1842, and was later built by other missionaries in 1845. The building served as vicarage for St. Thomas Anglican Church and was later used by Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African CMS Bishop that translated the Holy Bible from English to Yoruba. In one of the two rooms on the upper floor of the building, there lay a glass case containing the English and Yoruba version of the bible translated by Ajayi Crowther. It was said that both the English and Yoruba Bibles is over 173 and 170 years old respectively.
The Agia Tree Monument is on the site once occupied by the Agiya tree (Ogu dialect: Asisoetin). The Agia Tree was 160 feet (49 m) tall with a circumference of 30 feet (9.1 m). Remarkable for being the tree under which Christianity was first preached in Nigeria by Thomas Birch Freeman and Henry Townsend on 24 September 1842, the tree lived for over 300 years until it was uprooted by a storm on 20 June 1959. In place of the tree, an obelisk was erected in 2012 in celebration of 170 years of Christianity in Nigeria.
A historical place that has detail of slave trade the history and all that happened to people.
Gberefu Island, also known as the "Point of No Return", is a populated historical island located in Badagry, a town and local government area of Lagos State. Symbolized by two poles slightly slanted towards each other and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the island was a major slave port after it was opened in 1473 during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade era. As many as 10,000 slaves are believed to have been shipped from the island to the Americas between 1518 and 1880.