By: Adegolu AD
Cudjo Lewis was born Kosola in Dahomey, the modern day Republic of Benin, West Africa, to Oluwole and his wife Fonlolu. He was from a Yoruba family, probably residing in Ketu (Ketou), a historical Yoruba settlement in Benin, believed to have been established by one of Oduduwa’s children. Kosola was born into a modest family and had a happy and energetic childhood. As a teenager, he began training as a warrior to defend his town. He was subsequently inducted into Oro, a clandestine Yoruba male society whose role is to guide society. However, in April 1860, in the midst of Kosola's initiation and training, the Dahomey invaded the town, perpetrated a vast number of causalities, and held the rest of the people captive.
Continue..Cudjo Lewis was born Kosola in Dahomey, the modern day Republic of Benin, West Africa, to Oluwole and his wife Fonlolu. He was from a Yoruba family, probably residing in Ketu (Ketou), a historical Yoruba settlement in Benin, believed to have been established by one of Oduduwa’s children. Kosola was born into a modest family and had a happy and energetic childhood. As a teenager, he began training as a warrior to defend his town. He was subsequently inducted into Oro, a clandestine Yoruba male society whose role is to guide society. However, in April 1860, in the midst of Kosola's initiation and training, the Dahomey invaded the town, perpetrated a vast number of causalities, and held the rest of the people captive.
Kosola and other 109 African captives - men, women, and children, among whose names were Adisa, Omolabi, Oluwole, Fabumi, Ojo, Okegbale, Abake (Omolabake) - were marched through several cities including Badagry (Lagos, modern Nigeria) until they were eventually sent on a 45-day dreadful voyage into the unknown, popularly called the Middle Passage, on a ship called “The Clotilda.” Of the journey, Kosola remarked, “Oh Loi, oh Loi, we so thirst! They gib us little beeta water twelve hours. Oh Loi, the water tasted sour” (Oh, Lord, oh Lord, we were so thirsty! They gave us little bit of water [once in twelve hours]. Oh, Lord, the water tasted sour].
Although slavery had been officially abolished decades earlier, the captives were smuggled into the United States by Captain William Foster in the slave ship “The Clotilda,” which was owned by Timothy Meaher, a prominent businessman from Mobile, Alabama. It was believed to be the last recorded event of Africans being brought into the United States as slaves. Kosola was enslaved by James Meaher, a wealthy ship captain and brother of Timothy Meaher, the man who had orchestrated the expedition. When James Meaher was unable to pronounce Kosola's name, a young Kosola told his new owner to call him Cudjo, a name given by the Fon and Ewe peoples of West Africa to boys who are born on Monday. During his five years of enslavement, the young Kosola worked on a steamship and lived with his fellow captives under Meaher's supervision. In 1865, upon emancipation, Kosola regained his freedom and took the name Lewis.
He married Abile, a young Yoruba woman who also had been on the Clotilda. After a long futile attempt to raise enough money and return to Africa failed, they decided to stay in Alabama and create a town of their own. Because Timothy Meaher had been responsible for their affliction, they decided to ask him for reparations in the form of free land. Kosola was elected as the spokesman. Meaher declined their petition, and they purchased land from him and others and established African Town on a hill north of Mobile. Kosola worked as a shingle maker but after being injured in a train accident in 1902, he became African Town's church sexton. Kosola and his wife, Abile, had five sons and one daughter.
To commemorate their Yoruba culture, they gave both Yoruba and American names to four of them and Yoruba names only to two. Sadly, all of the children died young: Aleck/Iyadjemi (Iyajemi –I suffered) born 1866, died after short illnesses. Abile, Kosola’s wife passed away in 1908, just one month before Iyajemi died. James Anonoto, born 1868, died of illness. Pollee Dahoo born 1870, disappeared and was never seen again. David Adeniah born 1870 was hit by a train. Cudjo Kosola born 1872, was killed by a deputy sheriff. Celia Ebeosi (No pleading) born 1876, died 1891 of sickness at age 15. In a 1928 interview by Zora Neale Hurston, Kosola lamented, “There has not been a day that I did not dream of Africa.” Kosola was described to be “keen, intelligent, and cheerful; with a lively imagination, a fine sense of humor, and a radiant smile.” – Zora Neale Hurston Kosola died in the year 1935, he was about 95 years old. Though all his children were deceased in his lifetime, his descendants as well as those of other Africans still reside in Alabama and all over the United States.
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