Daaga’s War: West African Soldiers, the Yoruba Diaspora, and a British Army “Mutiny” in Trinidad

Abstract: This article reconstructs and reinterprets the so-called “mutiny” of the 1st West India Regiment in Trinidad in 1837. The uprising, led by the famed grenadier Daaga, was undertaken by dozens of new African conscripts for the British Army. Predominantly Yoruba speakers, the troops’ similar ethnolinguistic backgrounds facilitated their cooperation in revolt. At the same time, the social and cultural shifts of an island in transition combined to create conditions that made violent resistance even more feasible. In Trinidad, Yoruba militancy, alongside local factors, produced a fiery incident that challenged the authority of the British Army and the British empire.