RENOWNED AGUDA

Who are The Aguda?

Formerly enslaved West Africans who returned from Brazil to Nigeria/West Africa in the 1800s. Forged hybrid Afro-Brazilian communities—blending Yoruba cosmology, architecture, music, religion, and carnival traditions.

Their artistry and resilience reframes Atlantic Slavery as not just survival, but cultural triumph and heroic return.

Notable Aguda descendants include:

Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka – Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Soyinka made the first public call for UNESCO to support and defend Lagos Island and the Bahia architecture of the Aguda.

Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo – Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. English author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is currently campaigning for a permanent memorial to the transatlantic slave trade to be installed in the UK.

Lanre Towry-Coker – Nigerian architect, politician, and community leader. He was the first Commissioner for Works and Housing of Lagos State. An indigene of Lagos (Towry Street on Lagos Island was named after his family). He was one of the original planners of the capital city Abuja, and has won numerous awards for his work on major buildings in Nigeria. Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the only Nigerian and one of currently just 30 architects worldwide accorded that honor.

Lanre Towry-Coker

Joke Silva MFR

Joke Silva MFR — Veteran Nigerian actress, director, and businesswoman. Silva is a major artist of merit in Africa.

Lanre da Silva

Lanre da Silva – Nigerian Fashion Designer, Da Silva's collections often incorporate metallic fabrics, lace, and African patterns, while referencing the 1800s.

Princess Folasade Adeyemi – Provides a critical history of the emergence of Orisha culture in Bahia from the Oyo empire and the story of the Ifa priest Bamgbose (Bamboxe Obitiko) and his expansion of Orisha worship in Brazil.

Princess Folasade Adeyemi

Yusuf Cameron Grillo (1934-2021): World renowned academic, artist, painter, muralist, and sculptor, President of the Society of Nigerian Artists.

Yusuf Cameron Grillo

Adeyemi Osunkoya: fashion designer and the founder and creative director of Kosibah Creations, direct descendant of Dos Santos and Borges Da Silva families.

Adeyemi Osunkoya

Olayemi Cardoso is a Nigerian banker who is the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.He previously served as the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget of the Lagos State Government.

Olayemi Cardoso