Ojuani Bara

In Boso, a land in the north of Nigeria, lived the awó Agbombo, a very distinguished man. He had taught Ifá and Osain to his three sons, who were awoses and followers of Osain just like him. All three belonged to the odu Ojuani Obara.

When he fell ill, Orunmila and Osain let him know that his end was near. He gathered his sons and entrusted them with the secret of Ojuani Obara: the ashé of this odu resides in the goat. He charged them that, after his death, they should stay together and love one another even more, because in this way the inheritance and the ashé would grow. He also warned them that one of the three was illegitimate, and asked that this fact not lead them to divide what they had inherited.

Agbombo died and the brothers did the opposite. They argued, accused one another, and reproached one another about the illegitimate birth. After a while the eldest, Akueti, called a halt: as awoses, those fights dishonored Ifá. He proposed going to the Obá so that he, as judge, would tell the truth.

The three took up their sacred Ifá objects and set out for Ilaren, the city of the Obá of the region, along a wide stone causeway. They were angry, so each one walked apart from the others without exchanging a word.

After several days, the one walking in front, Akueti, came upon an old man in white clothes who leaned on a cane and was looking for a goat. Akueti looked at him and answered that a goat had passed that way. The old man wanted to know whether it had any mark, and Akueti said it was blind in one eye. Later the old man found the second brother and asked him the same question. He too confirmed that a goat had passed and, when asked for a mark, spoke of a wound on its back. Then the old man met the third, who likewise affirmed that he had seen a goat pass and described it carrying a large bag.

Then the old man said: “All three of you have described my goat and none of you knows where it is, so you must have stolen it. The Obá must judge the case.” The sons of Agbombo agreed to go.

Before the Obá, the old man stated his complaint. The brothers explained that they had never seen any animal; they had only remarked that a goat had passed along that road. The Obá questioned each one. He asked the eldest to explain how he knew about the missing eye without having seen the animal: the grass along the road had been nibbled on one side only. He asked the second how he knew about the wound: there were drops of blood on the grass the animal had brushed. He asked the third first whether he had seen any goat, and he answered none; then how he knew about the load: the footprints sank equally deep on one side and the other, and so he estimated the weight.

When the answers were finished, the Obá did an osode, saw his Ifá and pronounced the formula of the ebbó, which is among the chants and prayers of this path. He ruled that the brothers were not thieves. The old man was to look for his goat along the causeway and, on finding it, give each of the three an equal share of the money he carried in the bag.

The brothers then explained that they had come about another matter. The Obá said it was getting late, that they should rest, and that he would hear them in the morning. He lodged them in a room and sent a servant to them with rice and meat, ordering him afterward to hide and listen to their conversation.

Akueti lifted the lid and remarked that the rice was just right, though dirty. The second brother said the rice was edible, but the meat smelled of dog. The third said that both could be eaten, but that the Obá was illegitimate. The servant ran to repeat it to the Obá.

The Obá first questioned the maid about why the rice was dirty. In tears she answered that the grain had been good, but she had been with her husband and cooked without washing her hands. Then he asked the cook whether he had killed a lamb or a dog. The cook answered that he had killed a lamb, but that a dog had killed its mother before the birth, and hence the smell. Finally he asked his mother whether he was illegitimate. Weeping, she admitted that he was. Her husband had left for the war and she had given him up for dead; with no men in the town, she had been with a slave, and two days later her husband turned up alive. Afterward the Obá was born, the slave's son. Fifty years had passed and nobody in the world knew the secret.

The Obá repeated the formula of the ebbó and declared that the three were babalawos. The next morning, before seeing them, he did an osode and Ojuani Obara came out. When the brothers explained their problem and their father's words, he told them that Agbombo had been a wise awó. The matter of the goat and the ashé they had already proven with the goat of Oshalufón. The rest should neither frighten them nor set them against each other: their father knew, being an awó, that after his death they would come to him, and he spoke that way because the illegitimate one was the Obá himself, the son of a slave of the household of the man he believed to be his father. Therefore they had to live united in order to become great, as their father wished. And he pronounced the formula once more.

The awó Ifá Ague lived in a hut of palm bark beside a river. In the whole plot there was only one güira planted, and he revered it, because his Ifá lived in it. He was poor and aimless, and the other awós ignored him. To clear and ease his head, he took frequent baths with hierba maravilla and peony.

One morning, around four o’clock, he did a consultation and his own odu came out. It asked for a head cleansing and an offering to his dead with coconut, candles, aguardiente, honey, smoked fish and jutía, and the blood of three doves. He did it at dusk, and that same night his dead appeared to him in a dream. They told him to set out toward where Omologun lived and to sing along the way the súyere they had taught him.

He set out without provisions. On the journey hunger and discouragement overcame him. Beside a ceiba he saw an old man eating a rooster: it was Obatalá. He gave him food and drink, passed a white cloth over his body and told him: “Son, you will succeed. Farther on you will find Elegba, a restless and joking man. Give him this chick and sit down to eat with him.”

Ifá Ague did exactly that. Elegba shared his meal with him: toasted corn, palm oil, smoked fish and jutía. Then he guided him to the neighborhood of Omologun’s house and told him: “Omologun will explain how to make everyone respect you and how to reach the greatness of the other awós.”

Omologun, as soon as he saw him, burst out laughing and went on telling him everything that was happening to him. Then he entrusted him with a great secret, which had to be performed beside the güira and ended with a fresh fish kept inside the güiro. Back at his house, Ifá Ague carried out all of it. From the tree a branch with its güiro dropped toward the river; the fish began to swirl around it, and the awó caught one and put it into the güiro.

From then on, the awós of the town began to visit him, and from everywhere aleyos came to consult with him. One day Omologun appeared and said to him: “I come to settle with you beside the güira, so that you keep progressing.”

Oshún lived beside a river and kept hens, roosters and doves. Nearby was an Awó named Oluwo Abere, so unfortunate that some people had taken him into their home. One morning he made an osode consultation and this Odù came out. Then he prepared the ebbó: a goat and two yellow hens, which were for Oshún and were taken to the river with abundant honey; also a young rooster for Eshu. The goat was left free, with money tied on it as much as possible; he put $17 on it.

When they learned of this, the people of the house fell upon him with reproaches and ended up expelling him. The Awó gathered his Santos and left when it was already late. Night caught him by the river and he slept sitting there.

At daybreak Eshu passed by, remembered that Awó's ebbó and ran to tell Oshún. She told the Awó to stay. Eshu helped build him a house and Oluwo Abere lived there happily. Meanwhile, Eshu had ruined the house of those who expelled him, and they had to go looking for him. That family was left with nothing.