Adeyemo Alakija

Adeyemo Alakija KBE (May 25, 1884-1952) was a Nigerian lawyer, politician, and businessman. He was a newspaper entrepreneur who co-founded the "Daily Times of Nigeria." He was also a member of the governor's executive council, the legislative council of Nigeria and was president of the Nigerian Youth Movement. [Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation, Africa World Press. 2004. p 48. ISBN 1592212093]

He was heavily influenced by the tidal waves of cultural nationalism in Nigeria during the early twentieth century.

Life

Alakija, whose first name originally was Plasido, was of Afro-Brazilian descent like many freed slaves resident in Lagos. The groups were sometimes called Amaros. The Alakija family for a while were the most prominent Amaros in Nigeria.

Alakija studied at Oxford University in the early 1930, and became an ardent proponent for the provision of tertiary education to Nigerians during the colonial period. In Nigeria, he embraced some traditional elements of Yoruba socio-political and religious history when he co-founded the reformed Ogboni society and became the Olori Oluwo (Lords of Lords) of society. As a member of the Ogboni confraternity, he introduced the use of masonic symbols inside the organization, such as the unblinking eye on an inverted V and three vertical shapes. [James Lorand Matory, Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian, Princeton UniversityPress. p 46-50, 68-70. ISBN 0691059446]

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