Èkó

Èkó, known to European traders as Lagos, grew on an island among the lagoons of the Bight of Benin. Awori Yoruba communities lived around these waters, where canoes carried people and goods between island settlements and the mainland. The kingdom of Benin also left its mark on the town's rulers and institutions, and its influence is remembered in the name Èkó.

In the early modern centuries the lagoon routes connected the town to Ijebu and other inland markets. Lagos became an important Atlantic trading port, and in the eighteenth century its rulers and merchants took part in the export of enslaved Africans. Political authority on the island rested not only with the king but also with established landholding chiefs, whose families traced their rights to earlier Awori settlers.