Even if conventional history ignores Olabisi Ajala, the phrase “Ajala the traveller”, a nickname in Southwest Nigeria for the footloose and the adventurous, means he would never be forgotten.
In every country he visited, he donned his agbada – the Yoruba flowing gown – and a cap, a combination described as “elaborately flowered robes with a felt-like head-dresses to match.” Ajala is therefore to Africa what Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook, and Marco Polo are to Europe, and Ibn Battuta al-Tanji and Zheng He to Asia.
A Chicago nurse named Myrtle Bassett had his first son, Oladipupo , whose paternity he initially denied despite a court ruling saying otherwise. Ajala was born in Ghana to Nigerian Muslim parents in 1934 – the twenty-fifth of his father’s 30 children from four wives. He attended Baptist Academy in Lagos and Ibadan Boys’ High School in Ibadan.Aged 18, he travelled to the United States to study pre-medicine at the University of Chicago, becoming the first black student in the Delta Upsilon Pi ‘fratority’, a co-educational Greek-letter organisation.
At 22, fame came to the charismatic icon on June 12, 1952, when he decided to embark on a trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, covering about 2,280 miles all on a bicycle. He was received by Los Angeles city mayor, Fletcher Bowron.
I documented this story in this podcast episode.
Great read
As a kid then in the 80s dad use to play Ebenezar obeys music, And I know the lyrics “Ajala traveled all over the word “ thanks for giving more info on this Ajala the traveler.
To me he still fulfilled his fantasy of exploring the world and that is great. About him dying poor, we all have to know and be sure that we can't have everything in life.
Take the opportunity or it takes you out
Beautiful but sad story.
Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.