Cudjo “Kazoola” Lewis was created in 1841 in the Banté region of Dahomey, which is now the Benin Republic, to a Yoruba family. Oluwale Kossola, a.K.A. Cudjo Lewis, lived happily with his parents, siblings, and other family members. Cudjo was initiated into Oro, a covert Yoruba male society that protected the community, at the young age of 14, when he started training with other boys to be a soldier.
Cudjo Lewis underwent another initiation at the age of 19 in order to wed a woman he had fallen in love with, but fate stood in the way. While his initiation was taking place in April 1860, the Dahomey King Gezo and his men attacked his town. A great number of people were killed, including the town’s king, and the survivors were taken away as booty from the war and sold into slavery. Cudjo Lewis (Oluwale Kossola) experienced a significant turning point in his life at this time. On the slave ship Clotilda, 109 other captives were transported to America from various parts of the Benin Republic and Nigeria. Because the slave trade was forbidden during this time, people were moved covertly. Cudjo Lewis endured severe dehydration and humiliation from being paraded naked for 45 days while aboard the ship. They were dropped off close to Mobile, an American city, and kept out of sight of law enforcement.
The slaves were distributed to various buyers. Cudjo was sold to James Meaher, a wealthy ship captain from America. James Meaher had trouble pronouncing Cudjo’s birth names, Oluwale or Kassola, so Cudjo took up work as a deckhand on his ship, which is also where and when he chose the name Cudjo.
Cudjo Lewis and other slaves were able to reclaim their freedom in 1865, though, following the end of the American Civil War. Cudjo, who was now a free man, adopted the name Lewis, wed Abile, another former slave, and had five sons and a daughter. In Alabama, he and other former slaves established AfricaTown as their own community. Cudjo’s wife passed away in 1908, and he unfortunately outlived all of his children. He really was a strong man.
The remainder of Cudjo Lewis’ life was spent working as a storyteller and historian in AfricaTown, Alabama. When his story was published by writers and the media, he gained considerable notoriety. He was the lone survivor of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to sail from Africa to America, as the majority of his fellow former slaves had perished.
On July 26, 1935, at the age of about 94, Cudjo Lewis (Oluwale Kassola, also spelled Kazoola), passed away. He was buried with his family in America, despite the fact that it had always been his desire to return to his native Africa.
