Meet the Sierra Leonean Who Built Lagos’ First Mosque

Located on Martins Ereko Street, Lagos in Nigeria stood a marvel of a structure which was designated as a national monument by the Nigerian Commission for Museums and Monuments in 2013.

This structure is the first documented mosque that was erected in Lagos by a Sierra Leonean-Yoruba named Mohammed Shitta in 1892. Shitta was born in Waterloo to Recaptive Yoruba Parents, Sallu and Aishat Shitta.

After spending his early years at Waterloo village, the parents relocated to Fourah Bay in British Freetown where they became one of the earliest members of the Aku Muhammadan community -a community made up of liberated Africans of mainly Yoruba descent.

Mohammed Shitta moved to Lagos as a man and carved a niche in regional trading. As his business grew, Shitta later engaged in kola nut and other trade in both Freetown and Lagos.

He is believed to be among the early settlers of the Saro people that settled in Lagos and Abeokuta. The Saro people were recaptives from Sierra Leone and the Caribbean of Nigerian lineage who relocated to Nigeria in the twentieth century.

Speaking to Sierraloaded, 82-year-old Haja Miniratu George (nee Habib) confirmed that his grandfather was a friend to Shitta. “My grandfather, Abdul Salam Savage was Shitta’s friend and used to live on Shitta Street in Lagos,” the old woman said with a smile. George was also born in Fourah Bay Community to Yoruba parents and is even a member of Jamiul Atiq mosque, a mosque once headed by Shitta’s father, Sallu Shitta.

As business began to boom for Shitta, he became a philanthropist and started the construction of a mosque on Martin Street, Lagos Island in 1891. The mosque was designed by a Brazilian architect and completed 1892.

After the construction of the mosque, Shitta was named the ‘Olowu Pupa’ and became the first Seriki Musulumi of Lagos.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire (nowadays Turkey) and the Muslim world at the time crowned Shitta as a “Bey”; title meant for royals and men of outstanding performance after the mosque was completed.

Shitta-Bey soon died of influenza after the mosque was completed but his grand and great grand children are still in Lagos fulfilling his dreams as a great man not only to Nigeria but also Sierra Leone and the West African Muslim community.