Efunroye Tinubu

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The Lagos merchant and power broker who built and broke fortunes in the same breath — and whose name still marks the city’s busiest market.

Efunroye Tinubu was born around 1810 in Egba territory in what is now Ogun State, Nigeria. She became one of the most powerful merchants and political players in 19th-century Lagos and Abeokuta.

She built her fortune in trade, dealing in goods such as salt, tobacco, palm oil and arms. Like many powerful merchants of her era, her business also included the trade in enslaved people, a part of her story historians do not hide.

Tinubu's money gave her political weight. She backed rulers of Lagos and clashed with the British, who had made Lagos a colony by 1861. In 1856 she was expelled from Lagos and returned to Abeokuta, where she helped defend the town against attack from Dahomey.

In 1864 she was given the title of Iyalode of Egbaland, the highest title open to a woman. She died in 1887. Today Tinubu Square, in the heart of Lagos Island, still carries her name.