By Gabriel Ameh
The ancient coastal city of Badagry, Lagos State, came alive with music, colour, and emotion as the 5th edition of the Badagry Diaspora Festival, themed “Door of Return,” unfolded in a grand celebration of heritage and reconnection.
The event welcomed hundreds of diaspora returnees from across the world including the United States, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United Kingdom who gathered to symbolically retrace the steps of their forebears through the Slave Route to the historic “Point of No Return.”
Among the prominent returnees were American music icon Jeffrey Glenn Daniels of the legendary Shalamar group, Dr. David Anderson, leader of the diaspora contingent, Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Miriam Morales Palmero, and Brazilian Consul General, Mr. Celso de Arruda Franca.
The returnees, dressed in cultural attire, reenacted the long and emotional trek once walked by enslaved Africans before they were taken across the Atlantic. The symbolic walk culminated at Gberefu ancient seaport, where they passed through the “Door of Return” a powerful gesture of reconnection, healing, and liberation.
They were received by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, and the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, alongside Lagos State officials and local dignitaries.
Prof. Soyinka, welcoming the returnees with heartfelt warmth, described the event as a “sacred voyage of rediscovery.”
“This journey consists of two parts the setting out and the returning,” he said. “The voyage will not be complete without the other. Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of all diasporans returning home.”
He added that the celebration marks the beginning of a larger initiative known as the “Voyage of Returns,” which aims to reconnect Africans in the diaspora with their ancestral roots in a more structured, global homecoming experience.
In her remarks, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa hailed the event as “deeply symbolic and historic,” commending Badagry for preserving the memory of the transatlantic slave trade while transforming it into a center of unity and pride.
“Badagry has once again proven to be a beacon of reconnection and remembrance,” she said. “By next year, under the chairmanship of Prof. Soyinka, we expect over 2,000 diaspora returnees from Brazil, Cuba, and other parts of the world to participate in this historic voyage home.”
The festival featured boat regattas, cultural dances, and traditional blessings, symbolizing the reunion of lost generations with their homeland a celebration of pain transformed into pride and loss reclaimed through legacy.
