Located in West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin and Cameroon, Nigeria is a federation comprising 36 states, in which live more than 250 ethnic groups, the most influential being the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Moreover, it's the most populous country in Africa (hosting 18% of the continent's total population), the seventh most populous country in the world, and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black.
People live in this teritory from about 9000 BC, here being the original homeland of the Bantu peoples, who spread in central and southern Africa between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium. Over time were formed in some areas of the present Nigeria, larger or smaller, various kingdoms, among which the Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and Oyo (prominent in the 12th and 14th century), the Kanem Empire (700 - 1376), the Benin Empire (1440–1897) and the Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people (between 10th and 20th centuries). But probably the arrival of Europeans and the slave trade influenced most the life and the history of the locals.
Founded in early 18th century on a lagoon off the Gulf of Guinea by Popo refugees from the wars with the Fon people of Dahomey, or in 1425 by a farmer whose farm strectched across the lagoon called Agbede (depends on the source), Badagry (traditionally Gbagle) was, for about 300 years, a key port in the export of slaves to the Americas, which were mainly to Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. From the 1840s, following the suppression of the slave trade, Badagry declined significantly, but became a major site of Christian mission work. The main languages of its inhabitants are Egun and Yoruba.
I wrote about Nigeria and about Bagadry, but about the postcard itself I can't write anything, because simply I don't know what those people do. On the back of the postcard it is writen only "OST (Orderly Society Trust) was established to nurture and support institutions, ideas, values, practices and conventions which support order in society". And of course that I can't overlook the fact that the postcard was sent on 12.12.12.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series World Wildlife Fund - Gorilla, containing four stamps issued in 2008 and showing the endangered African Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehll).
References
Nigeria - Wikipedia
Badagry - Wikipedia
sender: Ahmed Abbas Maswood (direct swap)
sent from Lagos (Lagos / Nigeria), on 12.12.2012
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