Iroso Kana

It was the custom of the Awoses to go to the market, the ilé loya, to pass themselves off as diviners. They took out their ókpele and cast it anywhere, even on top of the root vegetable stalls, with the Gan on their heads the whole time. They were very vain, put on a show and examined everyone they met.

When he heard of it, Olofin resolved to appear before them so that they would consult him. The Awoses, on seeing him arrive, wanted to know what brought him and whether he came to be examined. He confirmed it and showed his money. They did the consultation, this Ifá came out and they recommended an ebbó. Olofin wanted to know the reason for that ebbó, but they could not give him any explanation.

He repeated the consultation with seven different Awoses, and each one behaved the same way. Tired and upset, he exclaimed: “I paid for the consultation and nobody has explained anything to me.”

As he walked away in a bad mood, he met Orunmila and told him how badly they had treated him. Orunmila could not believe it: “Those are my sons? How dare they?” He had the Awoses brought in and reproached them, because it was true that they had not found what Olofin was looking for. Then he consulted Olofin himself, and when this Ifá came out he explained to the Awoses: “Olofin has ten wives and came to find out whether any of them is with another man.” Olofin said that this was exactly what he wanted to know.

Orunmila warned his sons that their way of acting was a sham. He ordered them to leave the market, go back to their homes, take the Gan off their heads and devote themselves to studying Ifá, since their behavior did not match their position.

This Ifá refers to the Iyoyé: that is the name of the moment when the Gan is removed from the head of an Awó.

When Orunmila was about to come into the world, some awós consulted his future. They told him that in his practice of Ifá he would meet much hostility and that for this reason he had to offer sacrifices. He served Eshu with a he goat, half a calabash and pounded yam; his guardian angel, with a basket of doves, white cloth and chalk; his Ifá, with a nanny goat; and his head, with a guinea fowl. He fulfilled everything and obtained the blessing of God before going down to Earth.

Once on Earth, Orunmila became a great priest of Ifá, famous because he avoided complicated sacrifices. He rarely asked for a he goat; he preferred ebbós made with things that were easy to get.

This simplicity annoyed the older priests, for whom sacrifice was a way to live from the suffering of others. Soon they accused him of being a witch, because it was thought that only a witch could afford to prescribe moderate sacrifices. According to that belief, an awó who did not practice witchcraft had to advise, in his own interest, the sacrifice of a nanny goat before trying to free someone from the witchcraft of the Elders of the Night.

Orunmila denied the accusation and was ordered to submit to the judgment of God, which consisted of drinking a brew. Meanwhile he consulted Ifá, which told him to attend to Eshu with a rod, a he goat and antelope meat. He carried out that ebbó before the judgment. As if the test were not enough, his enemies paid some assassins to ambush him and kill him if he came out alive.

Orunmila drank the brew and suffered no harm at all. He vomited it, received the white chalk of innocence and was told to return home victorious. On the way, before reaching the place of the ambush, Eshu set a live antelope loose among the assassins. They forgot their purpose and ran to chase it, without managing to catch it.

Each one blamed the others for letting the animal escape, and so a fight broke out in which they ended up wounded. They were arrested and accused before the Obá of disturbing public order. By the time they were released, Orunmila was already calmly at home.

Even so, on leaving the palace they went to see him and insisted that he sing the song of the judgment of God to prove that he had survived. He answered that he did not know it, but he sang a song of praise to the awó who had divined for him. After that triumph, all his enemies gradually showed him sympathy and loyalty.

Ifá spoke for Tabita, an awó who pretended to see and know what was far beyond his abilities. Because of that reputation as a charlatan he lived caught up in serious trouble.

On one occasion he announced in the market that he could say what and who had caused the death of the Obá's son, which had happened a short time before. But he had no power at all, spiritual or of any other kind. He committed himself to giving the answer to the Obá on the next market day.

When it came, Tabita appeared at the palace unable to say what or who had caused the prince's death. To get out of the situation he asked to be given palm fruits in a cluster and for them to be hung from a forked stick. According to him, the guilty person would die as soon as the fruits began to come loose. After two weeks the fruits fell to the ground and nothing happened.

He had to explain why his forecast and his test had failed, and then he lied: he pointed to an old woman, one of the people the Obá relied on most, as the author of the prince's death, and asked for her to be executed. The Obá, who did not know the truth, believed him and gave the order to seize her so that she could be put to death later.

At dawn the next day, a flock of vultures landed in the palace yard. The Obá summoned his usual diviners to learn what that visit announced. They consulted and explained that the birds had come to protest because an innocent old woman had been condemned: vultures do not tolerate the mistreatment of the elderly.

The Obá canceled his order and compensated the woman for the unjust accusation and imprisonment. Then he ordered that Tabita be arrested and brought to justice for false testimony. But Tabita managed to flee the city before the police reached his house, and he never came back.