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The Life Story of AJALA THETRAVELLER, Africa's Most Legendary Traveler and how he died in poverty

 

A very Nigerian man at heart and a proud African in soul, Ajala shattered all records of travel, voyaging into lands that no black person had ever seen not to talk of setting their feet there. Ajala had the world in his pockets and the world bowed at his guts.

From the physical boundaries of nations to the piercing demarcations of racism, Ajala tore through them all. Born Moshood Adisa Olabisi Ajala in Ghana to an African Muslim father with four wives, Ajala grew up in a large family. He was one out of 25 children.






In his own words in his legendary book, An African Abroad, he said: ‘I was born in Ghana, of Nigerian parents, and brought up in Nigeria, where I had my schooling at the Baptist Academy, Lagos, and Ibadan Boys’ High School. At the age of eighteen I went to America to further my studies. My father, a traditionalist who belongs to the old school…’
Ajala’s initial goal was to study medicine and as a matter of fact, he was the first black student to be pledged by the Delta Upsilon Pi ‘fratority’,
a co-educational Greek-letter organization at De Paul University in Chicago in January 1952 where he was a pre-medical student. He was so active that he was made the feature editor of the campus newspaper, the De Paulian. Ajala said at that time that once

he became a medical doctor he was going to return to Africa to in his words ‘wage war on voodoo’ He said he was proud of his 24 siblings, one of whom was a student in England. He never fulfilled his dream of becoming a medical doctor as he stumbled on far more enchanting.
On April 27, 1957, in London, a 26 years old student of psychology, Mashood Olabisi Ajala embarked on a trip across 40 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa on his Vespa scooter wearing his full conspicuous agbada regalia with a cap to match.


As a pre-medical student, Olabisi has previously undertaken a similar jaunt four years ago in the USA pedalling from Chicago to Los Angeles on a bicycle covering 3,800 miles in 35 days over ten cities. His journey which he nicknamed “This Safari” will cover 30,000 miles across 40 countries in nine months and return to London afterwards. How did his journey go? In his book “An African Abroad”, Olabisi narrated his encounter with the then president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser:

“Every day at 6 am for the next two weeks, I was waiting directly in front of his presidential palace hoping he would come out. On the 13th day of my hitherto unpromising efforts, around 5 pm President Naseer emerged from the interior of his residence heading for his car.”


In his agbada, the heavily bearded Olabisi screamed as loud as he could and caught the attention of the president. He was heartily welcomed in by the president. Olabisi was very relentless and radical in his approach to travelling and this brought him fame and also trouble.


In an interview, he was quoted saying -The world should send Doctors to Africa, missionaries to Chicago, Ajala said. The gangsters here need converting much more than we do. He also met with other great world leaders among them is the then Shah of Iran, the Soviet President -Nikita Sergeyevich, President of Egypt, Ronald Regan of America and the likes. His trouble particularly impressed Mrs Golda Meir the then prime minister of Israel, on meeting with Ajala she said as quoted in Ajala’s memoir ‘it’s not often we have this kind of trouble.

Your bravery impressed us. We thought we should crown it.’ Crossing Lebanon on his way to Israel, the Lebanese security force arrested him believing he was on an espionage mission for the Israeli. He knew crossing of any border between Israeli-Arab frontier would be a death wish but was daring to continue his journey as this was the heat of the Israeli-Arab war.
His journey took him not just to the cities but to the rural places where no black man has ever set their foot, upon his arrival at a farm in Minsk in the then Soviet Union which is now in Belarus, his arrival caused some locals to flee in panic at the “frightening sight” of the black man invading their village. He ended up spending more time than the initially proposed nine months, and during his sojourn, he got arrested on several occasions. He visited eighty-seven countries in his six-year globetrotting trip (ranging from North America to Eastern and Western Europe, through Africa and Asia and as far east as Korea, Indonesia and Australia). He documented all this in his book- The African Abroad”.

After his first journey previously in America, he expeditiously got fame for himself and accolades.

All these got him a role in the film “White Witch Doctor” produced by 20th-Century Fox movies where he played the role of an African boy. Why did he leave the USA to continue schooling in London England?
The intrepid traveller had a forgery case with the American immigration and was deported, he went on to protest against this by climbing an 80ft mast and refusing to come down for nearly 13 hours, his plea was that he was duped and didn’t commit the crime.

The US government decided to deport him to London instead of Nigeria after he said he would face a tribal execution if he got deported home. With his tremendous charisma and eccentric nature, he was the golden boy loved by the ladies, many of whom he met on his journeys.

In his trip around the world, he married 5 women; an Australian lady, an American, a British model, a Nigerian woman in London and also another Nigerian in Nigeria. Upon his return to Nigeria, he became a publicist and his awesome showmanship got many musicians such as Ebenezer Obey, Ayinde Barrister and Sunny Ade singing about him.
Ajala had seen it all, from the greatest displays of wealth to the stupefying corridors of power.

But somehow, by the time death came knocking, he was one of the poorest Nigerians alive. On February 2, 1999, the man fondly known as “Ajala travel” died. He died in penury. The world famous Ajala died unsung and unrecognized.

His grave in central Lags is no different from any other. For more than a year, Ajala suffered. He had a stroke which paralyzed his left limb. But his army of children were not there to give him succor. He only had two of them around, Olaolu Ajala, a 20-year-old student of Baptist Academy, Lagos and Bolanle Ajala, his 17-year-old daughter who had just finished her senior secondary education at the Baptist High School, Bariga, Lagos. With him also in his last hour was another teenager, 14-year-old Wale Anifowoshe. Wale was especially fond of him. He kept all Ajala’s money, the little there was.
Some of his children who could not be with him include Dante, Femi, Lisa nd Sydney all of whom are based in Australia. They are the children of his Australian wife, Joan Some of his other children are also spread around the globe. There are Taiwo and Kehinde in the United States as well as Bisola in England. But all were not around to bid their father a final goodbye except Olaolu and Bolanle.

Indeed it is a sad end for a man whose scooter is now a national monument. Noone oof his numerous wives was around to bid him goodbye to the world beyond. His first wife, Alhaja Sade, could not find time during the year-long sickness of her husband until he finally died.

She lives in Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos. “We told her that he was sick and she told us she would come, but we never saw her, “ Olaolu said. He was not sure whether she is aware that her husband is dead. Joan only got in touch with him through correspondence.

There are also Mrs. Toyin Ajala in England and Mrs. Sherifat Ajala, mother of his last daughter, Bolanle. But they were not around to tend to the man when he was battling with his sickness. A neighbor in Bariga who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “he could have survived if he had had adequate care.” Adequate care was indeed far from the late globe-trotter. In no other place was this manifested than his residence, a rented apartment in a two-storey building on Adeniran Street, Bariga. Climbing two flights of stairs to the top floor, one is immediately confronted with the way life had treated Ajala. A passage leads into a 16-by-12 feet sitting room.
The sitting room, devoid of carpet, has a table with about five locally made iron chairs in a corner which serves as the dining table. An old black and white television set sits uncomfortably in an ill-constructed shelf.


The cushion on the sofa hurts the buttock as it has become flat. The curtains on the windows of the two bedroom flat shows signs of old age. It is indeed a story of penury.

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