Ogbe Tura

When Ariku, Long Life, was about to leave heaven and come into the world, the divining rod (Ureke) and the flying brush (Oroke), two servants of Orunmila, held a consultation for him. The result was that he must offer a sacrifice for prosperity: wine in a vessel, a rooster, a machete, a fish, a rat and a bag with money, because his road on earth would have potholes. He complied. Part of the wine was mixed with medicine in a small vessel, and that was the part he drank.

His destiny was to be born in the house of Ogbe Tua. In that home the wife had already had several children and none survived the birth. Ariku had gone to the palace of Olodumare to plead for that house, moved by compassion for those who could not keep their children.

When the wife became pregnant, Ogbe Tua visited Orunmila to find out how to protect the child who was coming. Orunmila asked for a sacrifice of a white cloth, a chain, two snails, a pigeon, a rooster, a fish and a rat. Ogbe Tua offered it. With those elements a medicine was prepared, and from it a magic belt (akpalode) and an amulet were made.

Orunmila ordered that the child be named Ariku, that the belt go around his waist for the seven days after birth and that the amulet hang from his neck until he was grown. Ogbe Tua complied without much conviction, since he was already used to losing children. After nine months a boy was born. At the ceremony on the seventh day he received the name Ariku, the belt and the amulet. It was also announced that the mother would conceive again after her first cycle, that it would be a girl, and that her name should be Omotade.

For that second pregnancy the sacrifice had to be repeated, this time with other elements, with which the medicine would be prepared. Ogbe Tua gathered and made everything; the medicine was prepared and tied to the children as an amulet. Three months later the wife was pregnant and the girl, Omotade, was born. Following what the priest of Ifá had indicated, the medicine was placed under her pillow and the amulet around her neck. Ogbe Tua was told that heaven had cleared his path with an Ono of Ifá made especially for his children, and that he would reach maturity.

But once the children were safe, Ogbe Tua relaxed and stopped fulfilling his duty to his family. He devoted himself to music, appeared everywhere and danced with the diviner priests. He drew away from his wife and she could not conceive again. Ariku grew up without his father's care, went astray and kept company with dubious people. Just as he had been warned in heaven, he became quarrelsome and fought with everybody.

When Ogbe Tua noticed how his life had changed, he consulted the oracle. They warned him that his way of living threatened his existence and that of his children, and that he must return to his home and settle with his family, after a sacrifice in which Eshu would receive a billy goat and his Ifá a nanny goat, and giving up his wandering. Since he had no home of his own, he settled in a dilapidated building. Ariku was told to tend his father's Ifá and to ask his father to come back home; that way he could prosper, as he had been told in heaven.

The Ono of Ifá belonging to this odu must be prepared with care, so that the existence of the one who consults is firm and unharmed.

When he returned to his house, Ogbe Alara took care of his children’s education, restored his Ifá to good order and did well. The other priests noticed that he no longer went to dances or revelries, and set out to harm him.

In a dream he received a warning. He then made an ebbó of a goat for Eshu, and fried all of the meat to give it to him alone. He also bought a great many horse tails.

The priests came to his house intending to execute him for desertion, an offense punished with death. They ordered him to dance. Ogbe Alara asked to be heard, called Eshu to the table and reminded them that up in Heaven no one is sentenced without having spoken. They shared the banquet. Then he praised in song the Awó who had made him prosperous and called his children, who were many, to dance; each one carried a brush.

The visitors demanded that he give the shout “eeeyoo,” as before. He refused: now those who danced in his place were his children. The priests, stunned by his well being and his large family, felt sorry for their own wandering life, left sad and let him be.

Ariku was forbidden to do mutual aid work (esusu) with anyone. Even so, a group of priests agreed to help one another in turns, and when it was Ariku's turn, he asked them to clean the area around his father's house. While he prepared the food, they cleaned the pit at the back and dug up the treasure that was hidden there: gold, bronze, tusks and money. Instead of handing it over to him, they divided it among themselves.

Eshu told Ariku about the theft. Ariku consulted Ifá, and the awós told him to make an ebbó to recover his treasures: a male goat for Eshu and a sacrifice with a rooster, a stick, sandstone, river sand, sand from outside, bundles of ashes, 31 cowrie shells, a mesh strainer, a white and black bar, and the skulls of a deer and of a bush goat. Ariku gathered all the materials and, after adding the proper leaves, medicinal preparations were made with them. The priests of Ifá placed the ebbó on the strainer and carried it, together with the male goat, to the shrine of Eshu.

There, Ariku and the priests served Eshu with the male goat and recited the special prayer used to call on Eshu to go into battle. While the ebbó was being done, Eshu went to Ogún's house and warned him that Ariku was praying in the shrine of his house in order to kill him. He reminded him that, if he did not soon return his share of the stolen treasure, the penalty for theft was death. Ogún, who could hear from a distance, listened to what the priests were saying in Eshu's shrine at Ariku's house. He was frightened, gathered his share, added something more and ran to Ariku's house to hand it over. He begged Ariku to forgive him.

Then Eshu went to Olokun's house and to each of the other deities who had benefited from the stolen treasure. They all went to see Ariku, who was still repeating the prayer. This is how Ariku recovered all of his father's treasures.

For this reason the son of Ogbe Otura is forbidden to take part in mutual aid work or in shared money contributions (esusu) with anyone.