Hugh Clapperton, 1788-1827
Click on Image

Clapperton’s Residence in Wawa

Wawa is the capital of a province by the same name in the kingdom of Borgoo; it is in the form of a square, and may contain from eighteen to twenty thousand inhabitants. It is surrounded by a good high clay wall and dry ditch; and is one of the neatest, most compact, and best walled towns between this and Badagry. The streets are wide, spacious, and airy, the houses of the coozie, or circular hut form; the huts of each house being connected by a wall, forms an airy and open space inside, and does not take away from the regular appearance of the houses. One of the coozies next the street has two doors, which forms an entrance into the interior, into which the other coozies open. The plan of the one in which I lived may serve for all, except the governor’s and that of the widow Zuma. This plan will afford a fair specimen of the accommodations of Wawa. [p. 92]

According to Lander, the widow Zuma, who owned the best house in Wawa and a thousand slaves, was determined to marry Clapperton. Dressed in scarlet and gold and riding a white horse, she followed him from town to town until Sultan Bello intervened, worried about a loss of his revenues.