The idea of the oja, or the Yoruba marketplace, as home is suggested in the proverb quoted at the beginning of the introduction to this book: “Aiye ni oja, orun ni ile” (The world is a marketplace; heaven is home). Yoruba proverbs present a truncated form of meta-analysis that provides a cultural critique about both the subject matter at hand and the use of language to reflect that message. They are reflexive in their deep play about the genre. The notion of the bustling, busy oja expressed in the proverb certainly applies to the place at which returning Africans and Afrocubanos arrived on their journey home. In that place, the Lagos of the late nineteenth century, we encounter a stage set for high royal drama, war, and trade in what was then, and still is, the largest metropolitan center in West Africa. The events that took place in this era created narratives that became easily incorporated into traditional “Yoruba” metanarratives that helped to resituate history, place, and ethnic identity in a flexible manner. British colonial officers also reemphasized in their writings the narratives about Yoruba political culture in Lagos that spoke of kingdoms, villains, and heroes. Lagos played an important role in imagining a site for the “quintessential” transatlantic marketplace. Storytellers, mythmakers, and community leaders merged in the environment that the Havana Lagosians encountered when they returned home.