….what did you think he was possessed with?
Images courtesy of Bing Images.
The former Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice for Lagos State during Governor Fashola’s first tenure in office, Olasupo Shasore, SAN, I hasten to add, has written a book reviewed below by ARTSBODY of ArtyLiving.com
The new book simply titled ‘Possessed’ will be launched at 10am tomorrow, October 17, 2014, at City Hall, Lagos. I caught a bit of his interview on Beats FM, lagos and lagosians and students of history will definitely be interested in this book that has captured the history of Lagos. No fiction, all researched facts.
Here is the Review .
I have read it, and I think it’s an important book because I believe that a people must know their true history so that they can understand their present and chart their future.
Possessed reveals the history of Law and Justice in the Crown Colony of Lagos (1861-1906). As a young girl studying the history of Nigeria, I still remember being taught that King Dosunmu ceded Lagos to the British colonialists. I accepted this — as did many Nigerians –because although there was barely any evidence of it, there was even less evidence to the contrary; it was our history as given to us by foreigners and we believed that version despite many things about it not adding up.
No doubt, Lagos had a special status in the creation of Nigeria, but what little history has been told of that does not reveal how the people of Lagos fought hard to resist the Brit’s conquest — Possessed changes that. Reading Possessed, I got a clearer understanding of the events that led to the possession — and that is the appropriate word — of the Kingdom of Lagos and the years that followed. This book stands out because it isn’t just the author’s ‘version’ of what happened, it is the true version of what happened, as evidenced by documents which were reproduced in the book.
Possessed helps the reader to understand the Lagos that existed as a viable kingdom before amalgamation, and helps one to see the evolution that led to the Lagos of today, Nigeria’s most viable state.
This book is interesting and shows evidence of being painstakingly researched and written. I don’t usually recommend books but I definitely recommend this.
Olasupo Shasore is an experienced practitioner and strategic litigator, a member of the inner bar and Senior Advocate of Nigeria; and he is a member of the Body of Benchers.
