Cudjoe Lewis—born Oluale Kossola around 1841 in Bantè, in the kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin)—stands as a powerful witness to two intertwined histories: the rich traditions of the Yoruba people of West Africa and the enduring scars of the transatlantic slave trade. Remembered as the last known survivor of the Clotilda, the final recorded slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States, Lewis’s life illuminates both the brutality of enslavement and the resilience of African culture in the Americas.
Early Life and Capture
Kossola was born into the Yoruba ethnic group, whose communities at the time were part of the sophisticated Oyo cultural sphere. His youth was shaped by the rhythms of Yoruba village life until circa 1860, when soldiers of the kingdom of Dahomey—under King Ghezo—conducted one of their frequent slave-raiding expeditions. During this raid Kossola and hundreds of others were seized and marched to the coastal slave port of Ouidah, a key hub in the transatlantic slave trade.
Although the United States had banned the international slave trade in 1808, American slave traders still financed clandestine voyages. In Ouidah, Kossola was sold to American traffickers and forced aboard the schooner Clotilda, along with roughly 110 other captives.
The Illegal Voyage of the Clotilda
The Clotilda’s voyage was organized in secret by Timothy Meaher, a wealthy shipper from Mobile, Alabama, who aimed to defy federal law and profit from human trafficking. In mid-1860 the Clotilda crossed the Atlantic and slipped into Mobile Bay. To destroy evidence of their crime, the crew burned and sank the ship in the Mobile–Tensaw Delta—its remains would not be positively identified until 2019, when maritime archaeologists confirmed the wreck.
Enslavement and Emancipation
On arrival, Kossola was renamed Cudjoe Lewis, a common practice meant to erase African identity. He was enslaved on Alabama plantations until the end of the American Civil War in 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment formally ended slavery. Freedom, however, brought daunting challenges: Lewis and his fellow Clotilda survivors had to build livelihoods in a society still marked by racism and economic exclusion.
Founding of Africatown
Determined to preserve their heritage, about thirty Clotilda survivors—including Lewis—pooled their resources and purchased land in 1870 from the Meaher family itself, the very family that had financed their illegal capture. They established a settlement they called Africatown (also known as Africa Town) on the outskirts of Mobile.
The founders organized their community using social and political traditions from their West African homelands, maintained Yoruba and other African languages for decades, and celebrated their ancestral customs. Lewis emerged as a respected elder and community leader, helping to keep the group’s cultural memory alive.
Later Life and Zora Neale Hurston’s Interviews
In the early twentieth century, Lewis shared his memories with journalists, historians, and notably with Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist. Hurston interviewed him in the late 1920s, capturing his vivid recollections of capture, the Middle Passage, and the founding of Africatown. Publishers of the time rejected the manuscript for its unflinching portrayal of slavery; it remained unpublished until 2018, when it appeared as Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”.
Lewis died on July 26, 1935, in Africatown, by then recognized as the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade.
Legacy and Historical Significance
Cudjoe Lewis’s life underscores the persistence of the illegal slave trade more than fifty years after it was outlawed in the United States. His testimony preserves an authentic African perspective on capture, enslavement, and cultural survival. Africatown—today a U.S. National Register of Historic Places site—remains a living symbol of resilience, where descendants and preservationists continue to honor the memory of Lewis and his fellow founders.
The 2019 confirmation of the Clotilda wreck renewed international attention to Africatown’s history and to the broader story of the Atlantic slave trade’s last chapter. Lewis’s journey—from Yoruba village child to elder of an African American community—remains a powerful narrative of endurance, identity, and the unbreakable ties between Africa and its diaspora.
Sources
Hurston, Zora Neale. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.” Amistad, 2018.
Nollywood icon Genevieve Nnaji has fired off a sharp response after a man on X (formerly Twitter) advised Igbo men to stop marrying Igbo women and instead seek wives from other African countries.
The controversy began after a photo of a Rwandan woman said to be engaged to an Anambra man went viral.
Resharing the image, the user wrote, “Dear Igbo men, instead of marrying an Igbo woman who’ll falsely accuse you of r4ping your daughter, better look outside for a wife.
“Go to East Africa, especially Rwanda, and pick a damsel. They’re all over social media, and you can link up with them.”
Genevieve, who rarely comments on online drama, responded, “In other words, instead of checking yourself and taking accountability, go for the unsuspecting and carry on with your evil. Got it.”
Another user attempted to challenge her, claiming the original tweet was aimed at “false rape accusers” and that Genevieve was avoiding the real issue.
“His tweet was clearly against false rape accusers, but instead of holding the evil women accountable and demanding change, you chose to tweet this?”
But the actress hit back with equal clarity: “The same way a woman can’t tell an abusive man apart from a good one is the same way you shouldn’t say avoid all Igbo women. ‘Not all women’.”
Reality TV star Phyna has offered words of encouragement to fellow Big Brother Naija winner Imisi amid a family feud between the latter and her mother.
In an X post on Monday, Phyna wrote,”To Imisi, @imisiofficial and to anyone walking through the same fire… I’m praying for your strength.
“My own experience broke me, but I’m slowly rising.
“And I’m rooting for you with everything in me, don’t handle it like I did, build strong and focus on you baby girl.”
The post comes against the backdrop of a family dispute in which Imisi’s mother accused her daughter of hatred and revealed the poor condition of the home where she currently lives, despite Imisi winning N150 million after her Big Brother victory.
Imisi replied in Yoruba,”This is why Aunty Debola said you should not show your face to the world. I can’t be saying all that now, you are in the midst of people. Just overlook everything and leave social media.
“Don’t worry, I will send you money to rent a new house. I am tired of all this drama. I am still recovering from the stress of Big Brother.
“Should I be facing another stress now? Please forgive me, I am your daughter.”
Recall Imisi’s mother has publicly expressed frustration on social media, saying she does not need her daughter’s money after being sidelined following the win.
She also blamed Imisi for recounting her childhood experiences, which she claims involve untrue allegations of parental neglect and sexual assault.
In a video, she showed the old house she currently resides in, saying she is content with her situation, a revelation that sparked online controversy.
In 2023, after Phyna’s BBNaija win, her father, Felix Otabor, revealed in an interview that he was distressed by his daughter’s actions following her BBNaija win.
Otabor said Phyna had asked him to stop working as a hearse driver and requested that he sell his cars, promising to improve the family’s life.
He said he later struggled financially after selling the vehicles, losing his business momentum and community position, and has not seen his daughter since her victory.
He described feeling sidelined while she enjoyed her wealth.
Nollywood actress, Regina Daniels, has opened up about her marriage to her estranged husband, Senator Ned Nwoko.
It was reports that the embattled wife revealed why their seven-year relationship remained faithful despite his polygamous lifestyle.
In a reply to a comment on her Instagram page, Daniels said that during their years together, Nwoko never slept with other women outside their home because she held him well in the other room.
She wrote: “Yes i think he loved me but a toxic one! Because tell me why a polygamous man forgot what it meant to be in polygamy, except for the media.
“Just because it boosted his ego of being seen with multiple women which is easy by me because anyone that sees a man as an odogwu sees the wife as what? He basically had to beg that he share days at ours and other days with his other wives because they begged for his attention.
“Y’all should pls forget this yeye social media comparison because my ex man never slept outside one day in our 7 years of marriage. You know why? Because as a delta babe, I hold am well for the other room ladies use your skills that’s all men want actually!”
