Odigbere, still unborn, warned Olofin to sacrifice a white bull to Shangó or war would lay the land waste. Olofin paid no attention; the war came, and the child had to hide inside a gourd until he grew and set his people free.
While Ifá was still in his mother's womb, he said to his father Olofin: «Take a white bull and sacrifice it to Alufina, to Shangó; if you do not, war will lay this land waste inside three years. I will arrive on the day my father dies». Olofin paid no attention to the voice singing inside his wife.
The day came when Odigbere was born, and that same day the war began and Olofin had to go to it. The child asked his mother to put him inside a gourd, well covered, and hide him in the room. When the warriors came they did not see him, and they carried his mother off into slavery. The gourd read for everyone who passed and healed them. An old woman looked after it with great care, until one day the gourd said to her: «open me». Smoke came out and turned into a handsome, strong young man: «I am Ifá Odigbere, the diviner of the world; my voice fills the whole house of Ifá». He went to the market, bought his own mother out of slavery, prayed his sign while fanning his prenda, and the King of the Congos who held her died; he set all the slaves free, and they would worship him for as long as they fed him.