A sign beside a grass track at Badagry marks the route enslaved people were walked along.

Heritage

Nigeria and Diaspora Reconnection

A Yoruba divination system is still practiced in the Americas and the Caribbean. That is the thread. There is also a warning you need first.

Country Nigeria
Category Heritage
Reviewed 20 August 2026
Sources 5
Length 3 min read

Credit Yemi festus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before anything else on this page, one sentence from the UK government's travel advice for Nigeria.

Among the people it lists as possible kidnap targets are British nationals of Nigerian origin visiting friends and relatives, on the grounds that they have connections in the country with ready access to funds.

If you are reading this because you are planning a journey of reconnection, that sentence is about you. We are not going to write an article encouraging that journey and leave it out. Read our safety guide, which sets out every state the FCDO restricts, and read the current advice yourself before you commit to anything.

With that said, here is the thread.

Badagry, and Arochukwu

Badagry, on the coast west of Lagos, was one of the ports enslaved people were shipped from. The photograph at the top of this page is a marker on the route they were walked along.

Further east, at Arochukwu in Abia State, is the cave temple complex of the Long Juju, which Nigeria has placed on its World Heritage Tentative List as the Arochukwu Long Juju Slave Route. The Aro oracle there was used to condemn people into slavery: those judged by it were said to be swallowed by the deity, and were in fact taken away and sold.

Arochukwu has no page of its own in this cluster, and the reason is worth stating plainly: there is no free photograph of it at usable size under any search term we tried. It is the single most important site in Nigeria for a publication like this one, and it is unphotographed. Abia State is also under an all but essential travel advisory.

If you are traveling to reconnect

Read the safety guide first. The kidnap warning above names people in your position specifically.
Badagry is in Lagos State, which carries no FCDO regional restriction. Arochukwu is in Abia State, which does.
The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is in Osun State, which carries no restriction, and has its own page here.
Tell whoever guides you why you are traveling. It changes the visit.
These are sites of memory. Photograph them accordingly, and consider whether the photograph is needed.

Sources

The Ifa description and its practice in the Americas and the Caribbean are from its UNESCO inscription. The Arochukwu entry is on Nigeria's World Heritage Tentative List. The Osun-Osogbo material is from ref 1118. The kidnap warning naming British nationals of Nigerian origin visiting friends and relatives is from the FCDO safety and security page. All read on 20 August 2026.