Idewu Ojulari

Idewu Ojulari
Oba of Lagos
Reign	1829 - c1835
Predecessor	Osinlokun
Successor	Adele Ajosun
Born	Idewu Ojulari Lagos
Died	c 1835 Lagos
House	Ado, Ologun Kutere, Osinlokun
Father	Osinlokun

Oba Idewu Ojulari (died c 1835) reigned as Oba of Lagos from 1829 to about 1834/5. His father was Oba Osinlokun and his siblings were Kosoko (who was Oba from 1845 to 1851) and Opo Olu, a wealthy and powerful female slave holder.

Idewu Ojulari became Oba after his father Osilokun died in 1829. Idewu Ojulari had a short reign because he was unpopular, and at the behest of the Oba of Benin, to whom the people of Lagos had petitioned (Lagos was under Benin suzerainty up until the reigns of Oba Akitoye and Dosunmu who rebuffed tributary payments to Benin), Idewu Ojulari committed suicide.

According to historian Kristin Mann, Idewu Ojulari's unpopularity may have been caused by the economic downturn in the slave trade following the prosperous years of Osinlokun's reign. His chiefs reportedly communicated their displeasure with Idewu to the Oba of Benin, who sent him a skull, a sword, and a message that "the people of Lagos would no longer recognize him as their King". Idewu Ojulari, recognizing the skull as an invitation to take poison and in the sword a call to battle, he committed suicide.

...
Wikipedia