Ifá Ewonje, a babalawo, had two sons who were babalawos as well. One had a good character; the other was more disrespectful. When the father noticed he was growing old, he summoned his preferred son and taught him how to draw out of his inú the vomit of ashé, which he was to drink right after the father went up to heaven.
However, the other son had heard everything, hidden beside a window, and that night he did not sleep. As soon as the father died, he arrived first and drank the ashé, the one that makes a babalawo head of the family. Then the chosen brother appeared; although he handled his father’s body again and again, he obtained nothing.
A meeting of babalawos wanted to know which of the brothers was the true chosen one. Ifá answered that it was the one with the harder character. People kept away from him little by little, but misfortunes came and no one had the ashé of a leader. In the end they turned to that brother, and because of the power he kept in his inú, it was he who solved the problems.
People began to follow him and, over the years, he corrected his character and earned his position. At the end he went to find his brother, asked his forgiveness, and ceded him the political leadership. For himself he kept only the religious one.
Power taken unjustly becomes legitimate when the one who holds it corrects his character, repairs the harm, and shares authority. People end up following the one who solves their problems.
This path has its own ebbó; the full list is in the complete treatise.
KI AWON MEJEEJI O WAA RUBO NDII IFA OHUN KI WON O SI FE EKU MEJI PESE FUN AWON AYE LORITA, AWON MEJEEJI NI O JO BIMO.