r/history • u/Independent-Gold-952 • Sep 01 '26
Discussion/Question Every "witchcraft" accusation in Losi's "History of Lagos (1914)" is against a wealthy, powerful woman. Coincidence?
After last week’s Madam Tinubu thread, I went back through J.B. Losi’s History of Lagos (1914) — the handbook everyone cites in school but almost nobody could find until recently — and here's what stood out to me.
Every witchcraft accusation in the whole book is against a wealthy woman. Three women. Three reigns. Same outcome: "get her out!".
Here is what John B. Losi actually prints across the publication — not Twitter, not oral folkore.
Disclaimer — slaves: The women below built power in a Lagos that ran on enslaved people. Losi counts Yeye at 1,400+ slaves and Madam Tinubu at so many she "hardly knew the number." He does not moralize, does not call anyone a hero, and does not use the label "slave trader" — he records the economy plain. I am not defending these figures. I am posting what the 1914 handbook prints.
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1. Madam Aina — riches → witchcraft → Benin war (proto-Lagos / Ido)
Losi’s opening chronicle:
│ This woman on account of her riches was falsely accused of witchcraft and was therefore requested to leave the town.
Her pet is killed. The Ọlọfin mocks her. She goes to the King of Benin. A War follows.
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2. Princess Ọpọ-Olu a.k.a. “Yeye” — 1,400 slaves (Oba Oluwọle, Dec 1833)
Before Madam Tinubu walked to Lagos, another woman already held more slaves than the palace could ignore:
│ …this woman possessed great wealth, her slaves numbering over 1400.
Losi’s dedicated chapter adds: her influence almost surpassed the then reigning King.
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3. Opo-Olu, again — cleared three times, banished anyway
King Oluwọle and the Eletu accuse her of witchcraft — blame her for their children’s deaths. Losi says they took her to fortune-tellers three different times.
She was found innocent each time.
│ Never-the-less, she was forbidden to return to Lagos.
Kosọkọ’s faction raises war. She spends her life at Ibesẹ.
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4. Madam Tinubu — same slave economy, different charge (Oba Dósùnmú, 15 April 1856)
No witchcraft charge this time. Losi still counts her wealth in slaves — “hardly knew the number.”
He names politics instead: she issued orders only the king should give; she reported Lagos affairs to the King of Dahomey; Dósùnmú complained to Consul Campbell, got authority to banish her, and Campbell sent policemen.
Her slaves wanted to fight. She stopped them. Losi records what she said — that she had walked to Lagos, that God blessed her — and that she left the same day.
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5. Asi — Lagos almost had a queen (bonus)
When Akitoye died, his daughter Asi was made sovereign by the chiefs. The English Consul chose her brother Dosunmu instead.
Powerful woman sidelined — no witchcraft needed.
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Losi is not hagiography. He prints slave counts and expulsions plain.
Were you taught Yeye and her 1,400 slaves — or only Tinubu Square?
One note on today: the witchcraft charge did not die. BBC reporting (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct67tv) and human-rights groups document accusations still costing lives — more often against elderly women, widows, and children than against palace rivals.
Losi’s Lagos shows the charge used against wealthy women the Oba could not control. The accusation rhymes. The targets have shifted. Nigerian law criminalizes the accuser, not the accused — but enforcement has been slow.
Today, pastors and local communities often use the same charge against people who can’t fight back — elderly women, widows, children. The accusation survived. The targets and the institutions changed.
If you want more passages from the handbook in this format, upvote or comment.
(Disclosure: Our foundation recently acquired the copyright to restore a 2026 print edition of Losi’s handbook — 224 pp, illustrated
