Ogbe Di

Here the grace of the ashé of the Osha came about. In that age a drum was played to summon people, because the ashé was divided: each Osha possessed their own, and whoever needed it had to look for the Osha, beg, and ask for it.

But luck was not always on their side. Sometimes the Osha did not appear; other times the person looking arrived late, and there were also Osha who refused to give it. The person was left without the ashé that was needed.

Olofin observed the difficulties of that system and resolved to stop dividing it. He chose one single being to keep everything: Orunmila, who had not yet received the crown, that is, the Adé of Osha. It was to him that Olofin gave the whole of the ashé.

Long before Ogbe Di arrived, the land of Adafa had Otura She as its king, a clever and greedy man who used any means to get his way. With time many inhabitants left. Because the population was huge, almost nobody noticed.

One day one of those who had left visited Ogbe Di to be consulted. The osode gave Ogbe Di’s own sign, and Ogbe Di explained to him that he suffered from a lack of understanding and that he had left his land because of his ruler, who treated him badly. Ogbe Di marked an ebbó for him and told him to take it to the lands of Otura She. The man complied and did very well. His neighbors wanted to know how he had undone the king’s spell; he answered that it was thanks to an ebbó from Ogbe Di. When they heard this, everyone ran to look for Ogbe Di.

Otura She was surprised to see his power crumbling, and he wondered where his ashé was going. He discovered that Ogbe Di was responsible, but the real source was his own character, haughty and scornful; he was so blind that he did not recognize his faults. So he put together powerful witchcraft by the river with the aim of destroying Ogbe Di, and in this way the war broke out.

Irritated by that witchcraft, Ogbe Di consulted by osode. His own sign came out again, announcing a permanent conflict. Ifá marked for him the same ebbó as before and, in addition, a sarayeye made with poplar, ceiba, chinaberry, and cotton, the herbs of Ifá, which he had to take to the bank of the river.

It happened that Olofin visited his daughter Oloshe every day. When he saw Ogbe Di arrive with the sarayeye, he asked what was happening to him, and Ogbe Di told him everything. Olofin gathered mud from the river and mixed it with the iyé that he always carried, prepared with the heads of fish and of awadó. With that mixture he marked the 16 meyis and, in addition, the signs of Ogbe Di, Otura She, and Oshe Tura; then he smeared mud on his own face and on the face of Ogbe Di. The two of them went to wait by a sandbox tree on the riverbank.

There Otura She appeared with his bag full of witchcraft and began to call for the ruin of Ogbe Di. He did not notice the two wretched looking men watching him from the tree. As his pleas became crueler, the older one came up to him, planted himself in front of him, and called him by his name, asking what he was doing. Otura She recognized the voice, raised his head in fear, and saw the other one wiping the mud from his face.

Then Olofin introduced himself. He said that Ogbe Di was his brother and that Otura She was attacking him without justice, because he did not realize that the root of his misfortune was inside himself. He ordered Otura She to come with him from that day on, to give up his power and his rule over the land of Adafa, and to let Ogbe Di govern that people.

Elewa once brought a goat to Orunmila, asking him to look after it. One day Orunmila needed that animal and took it. Elewa, who already held a grudge against him, saw his chance and went to tell Olofin that Orunmila had stolen it.

Olofin had Orunmila called. Orunmila already knew what had happened, so before presenting himself he consulted by osode and prepared an ebbó with another goat. He sacrificed it, covered the meat with the hide of Elewa’s goat, left it at different points along the road, and posted guards.

Elewa passed by, saw fresh meat without suspecting the trap, grabbed it, and began to eat it. The guards saw him and spoke to him: he himself had said that Orunmila stole his goat, and now he was eating it, so he would look bad before Olofin, since Orunmila was already heading there with the hide.

Elewa got frightened, ran after Orunmila, and when he caught up with him, asked forgiveness. He promised that there would be no more fights, and that everything one did for the other would turn out well. In this way Orunmila, with his wisdom, subdued Elewa by means of a pact and brought him to obedience. This path of Ifá is the one of reconciliation between the two.