Ogunda Kana

A conga hutia and a carabalí hutia presented themselves before Orunmila to be registered. When he cast the osode, the Ifá intorí ikú lowó arayé appeared, and Orunmila warned them: «Be very careful, because the boa wants to eat you». To free themselves from it, he marked an ebbó for them.

The carabalí came back and Orunmila made the ebbó for her. The conga, on the other hand, never returned, so she did not have it.

Soon afterward the conga was up in a tree gnawing at bark, and among the branches she discovered the boa, which was creeping closer to devour her. What Orunmila had told her slipped her mind: if the boa appeared, she must not throw herself from the tree. Even so, she jumped, and in midair the boa seized her and swallowed her.

Days later the same boa found the carabalí high in another tree and began to wait for her to jump down. This hutia had performed the ebbó and kept Orunmila's advice in mind; so she stayed curled up, watching, and did not come down. Then the boa hurled itself at the branch, trying to catch her, and crashed on the ground until it burst. It was obedience that saved the carabalí from her enemy.

Whoever has this odu must protect himself from tall, thin people, because that is where his enemies are.

Ofoni Wayeun was a land of Osha: the Oshas ruled there, and there lived the awó Oluo Okana Ofo, who lived apart from Ifá and dealt only with them. Nobody went hungry and people lived more or less well, but ofo weighed on that land, because nobody tended Ifá and its secrets were being lost.

It kept Oshanlá awake to see her son, the awó Oluo Okana Ofo, outside the path of Ifá. One day she decided: “I must go to the land of Bayeleri Ifá.” Another son of hers lived there, Oluo Oggunda Awó Ayé, and she wanted to ask him how he could help her set the first one's life straight and remove ofo from Ofoni Wayeun, so that there would be more iré in that land. She set out on the road playing the agogó and singing. Hearing her, Oluo Oggunda came out to meet her and gave her foribale. The mother told him: “I have come so that you can see what is happening in the land of Ofoni Wayeun, where my other son lives, the awó Oluo Okana Ofo. He, and with him all the other Oshas, have forgotten Ifá.”

Oluo Oggunda consulted Ifá and this sign came out. He explained: “This happens because the Oshas gave the awó Oluo Okana Ofo so much power and so much ease to solve people's problems and live comfortably without working Ifá, that he no longer wants to know anything about Ifá or his brothers.” And he added: “You yourself, who are his mother and mine, must save him. But first we must look for Osun, so that the two of you can save him and that land can be what it was: a land of Osha and of Ifá.”

They set out to find Osun, carrying what was needed for the work, and sang along the way. Osun was resting against the moruro tree. He stood up and, as soon as the two arrived, he said: “Let us go to the land of Ofoni Wayeun to save the awó Okana Ofo. But first take from this tree.” He pointed to a tree and added: “This will serve you to save him.” Oshanlá gave Osun what she had brought for the work, and they started walking until they entered Ofoni Wayeun.

Elegba came out to receive them, and Oluo Oggunda fed him ekó and a rooster. Elegba told them: “There you will find the awó Oluo Okana Ofo, surrounded by all the Oshas and by Egun.” As soon as her son saw Oshanlá, he gave her foribale and embraced her. She told him: “My son, we have come to this land of yours to help you come out of ofo. Osha is a power that Olofin gave to the earth, but the greatest is that of Ifá, which lets you live happily in this world.”

Oluo Oggunda prepared the seat of the awó Okana Ofo and seated him there; Osun and Oshanlá stood at his sides. Then the secret to remove ofo began, with prayers and songs, offerings of birds and the sarayeye, which also reached the Oshas who were watching. Oshanlá had convulsions, and the shadow of ofo kept giving ground.

When that part was done, Oluo Oggunda prepared an offering for the Egun and charged Elegba: “Take this, carry it to the wilderness, put it at the foot of the ceiba and call all the Egun.” Then, singing, he made the awó Okana Ofo stand up, ready to leave.

Hearing this, the Oshas raised their heads and saw the shadow of ofo go out. It went ahead of Oshanlá and Osun, and they went ahead of the awó Okana Ofo, since they carried the awó's Ifá in their hands. They marched toward the exit of Ofoni Wayeun and, along the way, Oluo Oggunda sang in praise of Oshanlá and Ifá. Before such greatness, the Oshas knelt and gave foribale to Orunmila. At the entrance of that land they set the work in place, with another song. Right there Oluo Oggunda and Okana Ofo gave hens to their Ifá together with Osun. All the Oshas came, since it was clear that ofo had left the land. The awó Okana Ofo was consecrated with them in that new secret, and iré returned.

Then Oshanlá said: “Osha is very great and solves many things for you: you cannot turn away from him. But you must never turn away from your greater secret either, which is Ifá, or from Osun, the only ones who can defeat ofo. This secret we have given you will serve to keep the shadow of ofo away from every omo of this land each time it tries to enter, because by the strength that was given to it here, it will always want to come back and rule this place.” With her blessing she covered her son and the land of Ofoni Wayeun.

In the land of Odulañeke lived Maki Awó, a son of Orunmila and very haughty in character. There was a great force there made of Egun and Omologu, and often, when he had a problem, Maki Awó preferred to rely on it rather than consult his own Ifá. That force was the spirit Okamaya, who governed the Omologu: a powerful prenda that directed Maki Awó as it wished. He fed it with roosters and invoked it by singing. It came, covered him, and in that place the Awó no longer remembered Ifá at all.

Orunmila learned what was happening and went to see for himself whether it was true. He found his son tending the prenda, so absorbed in the rite that he did not notice his father had arrived. Orunmila then looked at the young man's Ifá and saw it full of dust and cobwebs, proof that for a long time no one had tended or fed it. He wept, called on Olofin with a song, and returned to his land, withdrawing all protection from his son. Odu placed Orun in command of that land, Okamaya was left without its strength, and the Awó began to suffer hardships.

His brother, the Awó Benide, who lived near the land of Orodokun, heard of the misfortune and sought him out. He said: “Brother, this happened to you because you left Ifá in second place. With all the power of your prenda, the greatest thing you had was Ifá, and you did not recognize it.” Maki Awó wept and knelt before his Ifá. When he consulted with the osode, Oggunda Ko came out, and Ifá told him that his kingdom was darkness. His brother explained that everything had a remedy, because Ifá is great and compassionate: he had to give a rooster to Eshu so that he would carry the news to Orunmila. He did so, but Orunmila did not want to come. It was necessary to go further: to feed the Awó's Ifá and sound Aran Akaran, the great drum of Ifá. Maki Awó called 16 Awoses from other places, who danced for Ifá alongside Osun and invoked him with a súyere. The lamp of Osun was lit, and the uproar and the light in that dark land reached Orunmila's ears, and he thought: “I will go see what is happening there; it seems that Ifá is being worked.”

When Orunmila returned, he found his son offering food to Ifá, to the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, amid songs. When he finished, the young man knelt and sang another song. The father's heart softened: he laid his hand on his son's head, spoke a prayer and went back to live with him. The Awoses present sang with joy. Thus Ifá recovered its strength in the house of Oggunda Ko, and the lesson remained that no power an Awó gathers outside Orunmila stands above him.

From this path comes a secret of the awó of this Odù, which is passed on separately and is not detailed here.