First Nigerian, First African To Have Travelled The Globe On His Bicycle And Scooter (1952)

One of the most popular nicknames turned‘metaphor’for frequent flyers is ‘Ajala Travel’. In fact, a very famous song was composed after him ‘Ajala Travel All Over The World’. However, what is not popular is the true story behind where this metaphor originated from. Ajala Olabisi was a global traveller of Nigerian origin who captured the imagination of the world when he travelled the globe on his bicycle in 1952.

He was born as Moshood Adisa Olabisi Ajala in Ghana into a polygamous Nigerian family with 24 siblings. Ajala left Nigeria at age 18 to the United States of America on a student’s visa. He attended the De Paul University in Chicago to study medicine. While in America, he became the first black student to be pledged by the Delta Upsilon Pi ‘fraternity’, a co-educational Greek-letter organization at De Paul University.

His travelling exploit began in 1952 aged 22 as he embarked on a cross-country tour of America with just his bicycle and agbada. His bicycle tour covered an incredible 2,280 miles in 28 days starting from Chicago and ending in Los Angeles.

He arrived the Los Angeles City Hall on 10th of July, two days ahead of his 30-day schedule. Upon arrival, Ajala was received by the city Mayor Fletcher Bowron.

Ajala would later embark on other globe trotting adventures using his famous scooter thereby dumping his ambitions of becoming a doctor. Thanks to his cross country journey in America, Ajala became famous in America and back home.