Chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boat ...

Candido Joao Da Rocha ( 1860 – March 11, 1959) was a Nigerian businessman, landowner and

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some propert ...

who owned Water House on Kakawa Street,

Lagos Island Lagos Island () is the principal and central Local government areas of Nigeria, Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos, Nigeria. It was the capital of Lagos State until 1957. It is part of the Lagos Division. As of the preliminary 2006 Nigerian ce ...

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

, and was the proprietor of the now defunct Bonanza Hotel in Lagos. He held the

chieftaincy A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies There is no definition for "tribe". The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Af ...

title of the Lodifi of

Ilesa Ilesa () is a historic city located in Osun State, southwest Nigeria; it is also the name of the capital of a historic state-kingdom(also known as Ijesha) centred around that town as the capital . The state is ruled by a monarch bearing the ti ...

History

Da Rocha, an ethnic

Ijesha The Ijesha/Ilesha (written as Ìjẹ̀ṣà in Yoruba orthography) are one of the major sub-ethnicity of the Yorubas of West Africa. Ilesha is the largest town and historic cultural capital of the Ijesha people, and is home to a large kingdom o ...

, was born to the family of Joao Esan Da Rocha, a former Brazilian slave; his father was 10 years old when he was captured as a slave in about 1840 and Candido was born in the

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

region of Brazil. Candido attended

CMS Grammar School, Lagos The CMS Grammar School in Bariga, a suburb of Lagos in Lagos State, is the oldest secondary school in Nigeria, founded on 6 June 1859 by the Church Missionary Society. For decades it was the main source of African clergymen and administrators in ...

where he was peers with

Isaac Oluwole Isaac Oluwole (1852–1932) was a Nigerian bishop of Sierra Leonean and Egba people, Egba heritage. He was one of the most prominent emigrants from Sierra Leone resident in Lagos during the second half of the nineteenth century. From 1879 to 1893 ...

and

Herbert Macaulay Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay (14 November 1864 – 7 May 1946) was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, surveyor, engineer, architect, journalist, and musician. Macaulay is considered by many as founder of Nigerian nat ...

Candido is the brother of Moses Da Rocha, one of the earliest Western-trained Nigerian doctors. He lived in Water House on Kakawa Street, Lagos, a house built by his father. The home was commemorated in literature by a novel, ''The Water House'', written by

Antonio Olinto Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

. The house had a borehole and the first water fountain in Lagos Island; water was sold from his house to consumers. Some of his business interests included a restaurant called The Restaurant Da Rocha and Sierra Leone Deep Sea Fishing Industries Ltd. He collaborated with Lagos businessmen J. H. Doherty and Sedu Williams on a money lending business established under the name of the Lagos Native Bank. He was a founding member of the Lagos auxiliary to the Anti Slavery and Aborigines Right Society which was headed by James Johnson and had Samuel Pearse
Hon. Justice Dahunsi Olugbemi Coker
and Sapara Williams as members. Da Rocha died in 1959 and is buried at Ikoyi Cemetery. Among his children were Alexander Da Rocha, Adenike Afodu, Angelica Folashade Thomas and Louissa Turton. His grandchildren included the educationist

Abimbola Omololu-Mulele Chief Frederica Abimbola Aina Omololu-Mulele (née Da Rocha-Afodu, formerly Omololu) (died 2009) was a Nigerian lawyer and educationist. A granddaughter of Chief Candido Da Rocha, she was the founder and proprietress of A.D.R.A.O. International ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Da Rocha, Candido 19th-century Nigerian businesspeople Nigerian restaurateurs 1860 births 1959 deaths History of Lagos Nigerian landowners People from Bahia People from Lagos Colony Nigerian abolitionists 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople Lagos Island Brazilian people of Yoruba descent Yoruba businesspeople Burials at Ikoyi Cemetery Nigerian hoteliers People from colonial Nigeria CMS Grammar School, Lagos alumni Businesspeople from Lagos Ijesha people Nigerian people of Brazilian descent Brazilian emigrants to Nigeria 19th-century landowners