Opening the Shitta-Bey Mosque

Opening the Shitta-Bey Mosque 132 years ago, On July 4, 1894.

Oba Oyekan I of Lagos sits on the left with Pan-Africanist Edward Wilmot Blyden on the right.

Standing: Second from left, Registrar of the Supreme Court, John Otunba-Payne, Mohammed "Olowo Pupa" Shitta-Bey (in a white turban) stands behind Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies (the first man to introduce cocoa to West Africa), who is flanked by J.S. Leigh (who would found the Lagos Echo on September 1), and Richard Beale Blaize (founder of The Lagos Times and the Gold Coast Colony Advertiser) to his right.

The photograph was taken by Neils Walwin Holm (1866–1927).

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JOSE M LOPEZ

JOSE M LOPEZ

July 9, 2026

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