ABSTRACT
The process of unifying Mushin's settlements took nearly a century to accomplish. Consequently, Mushin's settlements were deplorably neglected and the people who lived in them met their political needs with solutions of their own devising. Lagos was surrounded by an unknown number of villages, including those of the Mushin area. The people of these outlying villages and the city were brought together by a number of close ties and mutually advantageous interactions. Mushin market was attended by people of Lagos and many surrounding areas, and in the nineteenth century it was known as the hub from which a network of roads fanned out to Otta, Abeokuta, Isolo, Itire, Agege, Muroko, Onigbongbo, and Ogba. The villages of the Mushin area thus enjoyed a certain amount of independence. The villages in the Mushin area differed from one another in their composition and their internal political structure.
