Ajegunle, Lagos: the history, music and football of “AJ City”

Ask a Lagosian where to find the city’s energy at its rawest and many will say Ajegunle, or simply “AJ”. It has a reputation it did not entirely choose: crowded, low-lying, short of drains and power, and too often written off in a single sentence. People who grew up there tell a fuller story, of a place that took in migrants from every corner of Nigeria and sent back musicians and footballers the whole country knows.

Our page on the real Ajegunle behind the game covers the basics: the nickname, the ports next door and Pidgin as the shared language. This guide goes further into the history, the streets and the two things AJ is proudest of, its music and its football.

Where Ajegunle is

Ajegunle is a neighbourhood in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, a local government area on the Lagos mainland, and it is also that council’s headquarters. To the east is Apapa, the port district; to the north is Surulere; and to the south are the Atlantic and Tin Can Island Port. The council area takes in neighbouring communities whose names you will hear in any conversation about AJ: Olodi-Apapa, Tolu, Wilmer, Layeni, Amukoko and Boundary, a busy trading point with its own market. Much of the land is reclaimed marshland, which is why the rains hit it so hard.

How many people live there is genuinely hard to say. Nigeria has not held a national census since 2006. A figure of about 550,000 for Ajegunle itself has been quoted for years, while recent projections for the whole Ajeromi-Ifelodun council area run to about a million. Treat any number you see as an estimate.

Who settled AJ

According to a 2014 BusinessDay feature on the area, the first settlers were reportedly Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo people who came in the 1920s and 1930s to fish near the water. The ports drew many more. Workers arrived from the south-east, the south-south, the north and every part of the Yoruba west, and they stayed. By the early 1970s the mix was striking enough that the head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, is said to have called Ajegunle a “mini Nigeria”. The area also sat, for a time, on the boundary between the old Western Region and the Lagos Colony, which is one reason it never fitted neatly into anybody’s plans.

The name comes from Yoruba and is usually translated along the lines of “a place where riches dwell”. Whether that was a hope or a joke depends on who you ask.

Living with the hard parts

It would be dishonest to describe AJ without its problems. Residents have long complained of drains blocked by uncollected refuse, flooding in the rainy season, poor roads and, as traders told BusinessDay, being taxed several times over by different collectors. Poverty and crime are real here, as they are in many crowded parts of Lagos. So is pride. The same feature that listed the complaints was titled “AJ: the city of stars”, and it pushed back on the lazy idea that Ajegunle is only a slum.

The music

From the 1990s, Ajegunle produced a sound of its own. Producer John Oboh, known as Mighty Mouse, is credited with shaping the “AJ” beat at Jahoha Studios, set up in 1991, blending older percussion with reggae. Out of that scene came galala, the dance and the street sound that made Daddy Showkey a star in the late 1990s, along with names like Daddy Fresh, Baba Fryo and African China. Later the Danfo Drivers duo, Mad Melon and Mountain Black, who were brought up in Ajegunle, broke through nationally in 2003. Mighty Mouse died in September 2023, and musicians from the community gathered to honour him.

For the full story, read our guide to Ajegunle music.

The football

Ajegunle has been sending footballers into the professional game since at least the early 1990s. Jonathan Akpoborie, who won the first FIFA under-16 world title with Nigeria in 1985 and later played in the Bundesliga, has called it the home of football in Nigeria. Odion Ighalo, the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations top scorer who went on to a loan spell at Manchester United, was raised there. Taribo West, Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke, Obafemi Martins and Brown Ideye are all named in local and national press as players who started out on AJ’s pitches. Grounds like the Maracana field near Alao bus stop, and the pitches at St Mary’s Catholic Church and the navy barracks, gave young players somewhere safe to play.

More in our guide to footballers from Ajegunle.

Visiting AJ

Ajegunle is not a tourist attraction and should not be treated as one. If you go, go as a guest: with someone who lives there or has family there, by day, and with respect for people’s homes and businesses. Ask before you photograph anyone. Boundary market and the busy streets around Bale Street will show you the area’s commerce far better than any tour would.

Ajegunle in AJ Cities

AJ Cities takes its name from Ajegunle, but it does not try to recreate the neighbourhood street by street. The game is set in an invented walled estate on its edge, Abraham Adesyan Estate, where Navy Town meets Kirikiri, with container trucks from the ports grinding past and a street football pitch in the bush beyond the wall. Every character is invented. What the game borrows from AJ is a feeling: the crowding, the humour, the generators at night and the hustle. You can play it free in your browser, starting with AJ’s story.

Why is Ajegunle called AJ City?

“AJ” is simply the short form of Ajegunle, and locals have long called the area AJ City. The Yoruba name is usually translated as something like “a place where riches dwell”.

Which local government is Ajegunle in?

Ajegunle is in Ajeromi-Ifelodun local government area on the Lagos mainland, and it is the council’s headquarters.

How many people live in Ajegunle?

Nobody knows exactly. Nigeria’s last census was in 2006. About 550,000 is a commonly quoted figure for Ajegunle, and projections for the whole council area are about a million.

Is AJ Cities set in the real Ajegunle?

It is set in an invented estate on the edge of Ajegunle. The estate and every character in it are fictional.