Chief Daniel Conrad Taiwo, alias Taiwo Olowo, was a trader, arms dealer, slave owner, political power broker, philanthropist and community leader in Colonial Lagos.
12 Facts About Taiwo Olowo
1.
2.
Taiwo Olowo was born in c 1781 in Isheri, a residential community in Lagos.
3.
Taiwo Olowo's father, Oluwole, was a high chief of his hometown, and he died in 1809.
4.
Taiwo Olowo's name suggests that he was the older of a set of twins.
5.
Taiwo Olowo built a mutually beneficial relationship with both Freeman's administration and successive ones.
6.
In return, Taiwo Olowo enjoyed monopolistic privileges over all others in access to Isheri trade routes and markets.
7.
Taiwo Olowo was baptized in the late 1870s at the Holy Trinity Church in Ebute Ero, taking the name Daniel Conrad Taiwo Olowo.
8.
Taiwo Olowo served as an emissary of the British colonial government in Lagos, and was ambassador to the court of the King of Porto Novo.
9.
When Oshodi Tapa, earlier war captain and now chief of business, died in 1868, Taiwo Olowo became Kosoko's business chief.
10.
Taiwo Olowo feuded with the other powerful Baba Isale - Chief Ajasa - over trade routes and in other complex Lagos power plays.
11.
Taiwo Olowo died in Lagos on February 20,1901, aged 120.
12.
The Taiwo Olowo cenotaph was erected over his tomb by the Brazilian-Lagosian master builder Senhor Jorge DaCosta in 1905.