DOCUMENTARY: Origin of Agege Bread

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 By Victor Olubiye


The man in this picture is Amos Stanley Wynter Shackleford, shortly known as Amos Shackleford (AKA The Bread King of Lagos). He was born in 1887 in Jamaica. In his early 20s, he relocated to Nigeria where he worked as a railway officer In 1913. However, in 1921, Shackleford and his wife, Catherine, had an idea, to begin bread production in the country.

In those days bread was not a popular food in the region known today as Nigeria. The available ones were imported bread from the West Indies.

Amos' idea led to the establishment of the first bread factory in Nigeria at Agege, Lagos State. The quality of the bread and texture (dough) was different from the imported ones. Thenceforth, people referred to any bread of such texture as Agege Bread even to this day.

After his retirement in 1950, Shackleford built a house in Lagos but he wouldn't live in that house as he returned to Jamaica where he died four years later in 1954 at the age of 67. 

Even though his name is not popular in Nigeria, his legacy lives on. He is one of the reasons bread became a popular food in Nigeria, and opened the way for more bread factories that we have all over the country today.


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