Olowogbowo is an area in the west of Lagos Island in Lagos, Nigeria, also known as Apongbon. The area is in the central business district.[1] The community was founded after 1851, when freed Yoruba captives and their descendants who had been set ashore in Sierra Leone returned in successive waves to Lagos, and were granted land to settle in the Olowogbowo and Breadfruit areas of the island.[2]
The name Apongbon is a garbled version of the Yoruba "A l'agbon pipon" (man with the red beard), a name given to William McCoskry, acting governor of the newly established Colony of Lagos in 1861.[3] Jùjú music originated in the Olowogbowo area in the 1920s, when area boys used to gather in a motor mechanic workshop to drink and make music. Tunde King was the leader of this group, generally considered the founder of the style.[4]
Other well known people from the area include