Obara Meyi

Obara Meji was the only child of his parents. His father had only his left hand and his mother could see with only one eye; from the time he was in the womb, he announced to them through dreams what threatened them. He grew up very soon and was a sharp, talkative young man. He loved reading people's fortunes, and the elderly priests of Ifé disliked it. While still very young, he began to attend the assemblies of the veterans and almost always ended up drawing all eyes.

In the palace of the king of Ifé, the priests of Ifá gathered once every seventeen days. When they finished they played ayó, a board game equivalent to chess, and often on those days one of the king's sons died.

Obara Meji went to one of those gatherings for the first time. He drank too much and, in the middle of his drunkenness, boasted that at the next one he would name those guilty of those deaths. When he fell silent, those present dispersed with an unspoken pact: if he did not deliver, they would kill him.

The guilty were sure the young man could not name them, and they planned to eliminate him. They gathered to conspire beside a path surrounded by bushes. Just then Obara Meji's mother was passing, on her way back from the farm; they did not know who she was. She heard the whole plan against her son and ran home to ask her Ifá priests how to save her only child.

They told her to prepare three large pounded yams and three bowls of soup, and to take them to the river. There she was to bathe with a bead necklace on her chest. While she was in the water, she would know what to do.

The woman complied. She put the food by the water and went in to bathe. A man named Okpolo arrived and greeted her; he bathed quickly and came out in a rush. She asked him the reason, and he answered that he had to go to that day's meeting at the palace. Before he left, she offered him some of what she had left on the bank. At those long meetings the king gave no food, so Okpolo gladly accepted. While eating, he announced that a serious event would happen at the palace that day: they were going to kill the insolent, talkative Obara Meji, because he would not be able to say which side of the ayó players was killing the king's sons, as he had boasted. He ended by admitting that he himself was part of the conspiracy and that the king was so greedy that he never served any food at those meetings.

Then Obuko passed by and acted almost the same. He ate yam and then explained to the woman his assignment for that day. He admitted that he was one of those killing the king's sons, because of the king's greed, and that he was also among those who would finish off the chatterbox Obara Meji that afternoon, since Obara would never learn their names. He said his name was Obuko, the goat, and named the others: Agbo, the ram, and Okpolo, the frog. The three were the ones who, after playing ayó, killed the king's sons. He also told her that Obara Meji had boasted that he would point out Oshin, a chief, as the only conspirator; but Oshin would not take his seat that day, since he would send his eldest son, Aremo. He also said that a special seat would be set for Obara Meji, and under it was a hole covered with a mat. His only salvation would be to bring a dog and a package of cold corn bread with bean sauce, and throw it onto the mat, under the chair assigned to him, so that the dog would run to get it. The woman said it would be a relief if Obara Meji died, since the town would live more calmly without him. Then Obuko left for the palace.

The last to reach the river was Agbo. He also ate the yam, confirmed what the other two had said and detailed why and how they wanted to kill Obara Meji. He finished eating and left for the meeting.

Not long afterward, the mother returned home and told her husband and her son everything that had happened at the river. She told Obara Meji step by step what he had to do: go with his dog; throw the cold corn bread with bean sauce under the chair prepared for him, and call the dog to go get it. If the dog fell into the hole, he was to stand up and ask for the one called Obuko. When he made himself known, Obara was to order him sacrificed to Eshu. Then he was to call Agbo and, as soon as he answered, order him sacrificed at the sacred place where the whole town honors its ancestors. At the end he was to call Okpolo; when he came forward, Obara would order an arrow driven through his mouth and anus and have him given to the deity of the earth. If he was asked the reason for those deaths, he would answer that the three were the ones who, after playing ayó with the king's sons, had killed them. After this, he was to order the man on the throne to step down, since he was an impostor, to leave the place to chief Oshin, who at that moment would be in a corner of the hall, smoking a long pipe.

Obara Meji set out for the meeting dressed in his father's clothes and a cap, with his dog at his side. As he approached the entrance of the community hall, the people began to shout his name in praise. Once inside, they guided him to the chair set up for him. He stayed calm, took out the cold corn bread with bean sauce, threw it under the marked chair and sent the dog after it. The dog ran, crossed the mat and fell into a deep pit, whose bottom was full of hooks and spikes.

Then Obara Meji followed the steps in a different order. The first thing he ordered was that the man on the throne withdraw at once, and so Oshin was able to sit down. The man got up quickly. Then he called Obuko, the goat, and asked him to stand and say his name; he did the same with Okpolo, the frog, and with Agbo, the ram, and all three complied. He ordered that Obuko be offered to Eshu; Agbo, at the sacred place of the ancestors; and Okpolo, to mother earth.

Oshin asked him what those men were guilty of. Obara Meji reminded him of what he had promised at the earlier meeting: to expose those who, after playing ayó with him, killed the king's sons. He declared that the three were the culprits, and all three were sacrificed. So it became clear that the true culprits were the goat, the ram and the frog.

Those present rose and cheered with a roar. They lifted Obara Meji onto their shoulders and carried him out in an open parade. Before he left, his parents had promised to die if their only son lost his life at the meeting. The father heard the shouts, thought his son had died and killed himself. The mother, seeing her son carried in a victory parade, pulled her head out of the noose she had hung for herself. She used that rope to thank her own mother. Today, in Yoruba and Benin lands, that rope is tied at the sacred place where mothers who have died are honored.

That is why it is said that Obara Meji's mother was the one who rescued him when death was already reaching him.

A priest of Ifá had gone down to the earth carrying wealth and prosperity with him. On learning of it, the king of Death wanted to prevent it. Since he did not know which of them it was, he resolved to condemn to die as many priests of Ifá as lived in heaven. Fourteen counselors assisted him.

To go unnoticed, the king of Death pretended to have a serious illness. Arun, sickness, is his wife, and he even came to smell very bad. He summoned the heavenly priests one at a time. For each one he had ready a drink that looked like kola but was made of eggs, as well as small barrels of wine. The time to heal him was seven days; if they failed, he would not let them go back home.

As soon as a priest came in, Death offered him the supposed kola drink. The priest had to say what it contained, to show his insight. Many did not guess and were left prisoners in chains. The few who guessed right, that is, who said “eggs,” failed anyway: the more medicine they gave him, the worse he felt. When there were already several priests from heaven locked up, it was Obara Meyi's turn.

Obara Meyi received the king's call and consulted his Ifá. The answer was to sacrifice two goats, intended respectively for Eshu and for his guardian angel, and to put a ladder up for each. He did it without delay. On setting out for Death's house he hung on his magic necklace, the udé, the main symbol of his authority.

He knocked at the door and, before going in, was required to say how many people were inside and what they were doing. He looked into the crystal ball on his necklace and answered: fourteen, and all of them held a cup to drink from. With that answer they let him through. He opened the door and entered with his back turned.

Death received him looking gravely ill and ordered kola and wine to be brought. When the kola arrived, Obara Meyi asked those present to guess what it really was. Then he spoke a special incantation, calling both drinks by their true names from heaven. He ordered that, if they were as Olodumare had created them, they stay the same, and if not, that they recover their real identity before everyone's eyes. At once, the poison in the wine rose to the surface, the sheep's urine sank to the bottom and the kola seeds turned into eggs. Obara reproached the king for treating a guest this way.

The king apologized, and to calm him he served him real kola seeds and wine. Even so, he reminded him that no one had managed to relieve him. Obara answered that first he needed to eat and drink, since he came hungry after such a long way.

While his food was being brought, Eshu took the appearance of a child whose skin was covered in rashes and stood at the door. Before tasting a bite, Obara took out his ókpele; the Ifá that came out made him wonder whether that food was safe. So he offered some to the child. The child devoured everything, even the dish. As payment, he asked Obara to get ready the vessel in which he truly treated the sores of his body. While Obara took care of that, the child encouraged him to accept the task of healing the king. Back in the king's room, Obara freely offered to do whatever he could.

The king was used to taking off the garment of sickness to sleep and putting it on again at dawn. That night, as soon as he lay down, Eshu climbed to his room using the ladder from Obara's ebbó and plunged him into a deep sleep with a spell. Then, still as the child covered in sores, he called Obara to see how healthy and agile the old man looked without his sick man's clothes.

The next morning the king asked Obara to begin the cure. Obara gathered all the leaves within reach, showed his divination powder and with that prepared a bath for seven days. But the king did not bathe. Obara kept sharing with the child covered in sores every meal he received.

On the sixth day, the king complained that he was not improving and could not sleep. That night, Eshu put him to sleep again with a spell and made him drink a lot of honey so that he would be drowsy. He also made Obara and the child go up to the king's room by the invisible ladder. There the child told Obara to carry the vessel that held the garment of sickness. Once outside, Eshu made the road to the river free of any living being, so that no one would see them with the vessel. They threw it into the river and, on returning, lay down.

At last the appointed day arrived and the guests began to appear, curious to know what would become of Obara. The king bathed and went to look for the vessel with his sick clothes, but it was not there. So he shut himself in his room. After waiting in vain, Obara sent for him, impatient to know his fate. After much knocking at the door, the old man came out dressed, sat on the throne, and his body shone, transparent and healthy. Obara asked him to say how the work had turned out, and the king admitted that the treatment had worked.

Death went in again to split his treasure into two halves and hand it to Obara. The child covered in sores told Obara to complain, because the king was breaking his word. Obara let out a shout, and Eshu repeated it and made it louder, until the foundations of heaven trembled. Frightened, the king went to his room and put half of his possessions in a sack of kola nuts, which he left outside. Earlier, the child had warned Obara to accept only the sack of kola nuts out of everything.

The king came back carrying a pair of containers: a bronze box full of garbage and a barrel full of kola nuts. He told Obara to choose. Obara followed the child's advice, chose the nuts and started back. Meanwhile, Eshu had turned into an old man and was waiting for him on the road. Obara looked for the child, could not find him, left a part of the gifts in the care of his guardian angel and went on.

Almost home, Obara ran into the old man of the hut, whom he had seen on his way to carry out his mission. The old man wanted to see the prize he was bringing. Obara began to suspect that Eshu was joking again. To settle the doubt, he took his staff of authority and ordered the old man to reveal his true form. In an instant he turned into the child covered in sores and then into Eshu in all his splendor. Obara thanked him for his help in a mission that seemed impossible, opened the sack of kola and invited him to help himself. Eshu asked him to take him along wherever he went and to share his food with him, as on the journey.

Back in his home, Obara sacrificed two goats: one in honor of Eshu and the other for his guardian angel. Then he gathered his friends for a meal of thanks, since no other priest of Ifá had managed to undo the evil plans of Death.

If Obara Meyi appears in the consultation of a person at whose door death is already knocking, he should be advised to make the ebbó that Obara made before the test. It was then that Obara decided it was time to set off for the earth.

Before being born, Obara Meyi went through a great test: his fellow priests of Ifá criticized him for getting drunk at a feast in the royal palace. That is why his children are not allowed to drink anything with alcohol.

Drunk, he began to talk about what was not fitting. He claimed he could carry out the ceremony of the head of Olofin, something no priest managed, and he also bet that he would wash black clothes until they were white. The king heard of his words and gave him one week to carry them out; otherwise he would have him executed.

At home, Obara Meyi told his mother everything. She was very upset at those groundless boasts about something nobody had ever done. He explained that he had spoken while drunk. Only a man called Okete used to serve the head of Olofin, and there was also Aro, the only one able to change black into white. The mother went out to look for both.

When the seven days were up, Olofin brought out a black cloth ten yards long and gave it to Obara Meyi with the task of washing it in the river and making it white. When he arrived, his mother was already waiting for him there. The king had sent messengers to watch the test. The mother was singing, calling Aro. The fish Aro heard the song and came to where Obara was scrubbing the black cloth; it snatched it away, swallowed it and gave it back white as snow.

Obara took out the cloth, now white, and showed it to the king’s two witnesses. They ran back to the palace, and everyone, the king included, was amazed.

Next came the ceremony of serving the head of Olofin. The one who did it every year was a man named Ewu Okete. He was always accustomed to consult and make his own sacrifice before the ceremony. That year the consultation pointed out that he had to give Eshu a goat, but he paid no attention.

When the moment came to serve the head of Olofin, the ceremony did not work. The central part of the feast consisted of the cloth turning white, but, since Okete had refused to sacrifice for Eshu, the black cloth did not change color. Everyone understood that the feast was lost and that the sacrifice of the head had not taken effect.

The usual thing was that after this feast peace, prosperity and progress would come for the king and his lands. But after the failed ceremony the king and the country began to suffer. The king’s children died while playing Ayo with their guests, no rain fell, food ran short and the crops burned. Children were born dead and there were women who lost their pregnancies. Such was the situation in Ifé when the date of another feast drew near. While they were looking for another person to serve the head of Olofin, Obara Meyi boasted that he could.

His mother consulted first, and the answer was to give a goat to Eshu; she complied. Then she invited Okete to teach her son the correct incantation for cleansing the head of Olofin.

When the hour came, Obara took the white cloth from the river and used it for the ceremony of the king’s head. With Eshu’s invisible support, when he touched it the cloth turned black again, a sign that the misfortune had ended. The following year the king and the country prospered, and Obara received a good reward.