Before My Execution - Excerpt 2

That Olori Atinuke is in charge of the preparation of feasting the guests on festival day is not a misplaced task; she has been doing this for years.

            Ilu-Nla is a beautiful town with beautiful plains and well contoured terrain. It has a large market place whose fame was widely acclaimed. It is not quite far from the sea and it situates within the curvature of the horn of a river, which empties into the sea through two smaller rivers. Ilu-Nla used to be the largest market of cowries before the advent of the coin money, which is now the popular money in use. Its fertile land attracts farmers everywhere and many smaller towns still pay homage and allegiance to it. They still pay annual protection taxes to Kabiyesi whose ancestors in all names and purposes annexed them all in the years of the slave trade.

            Kabiyesi was still soliloquizing when Olori Agba rushed in to call his attention to the change in weather. The vibrant sunshine has given way to subtle Weathercast. It looks like the approach of dusk, so early in the day. There was no cloud in the sky; and soon a faint noise, which is getting stronger and stronger filters in. Small children are out singing, clapping and dancing. They chorus about hollering, “night has come in the morning; night has come in the daytime”.

            From the distance, Balogun emerged in the midst of women and concerned people who have besieged his house. They soon arrived at the palace and Balogun went into the palace to have a discussion with the Kabiyesi while the multitude remained outside deliberate upon the bad omen and the repercussion on the town. It has always been conjectured, that a similar incident had happened in the years gone by, but no one alive in the town could claim to be a witness.

 It has been a story narrated many times that when such solar eclipse had happened then, the King had been asked to abdicate the throne or look into the Magical calabash, a euphemism that he should commit suicide by drinking the poison in the Calabash, failing which he was beheaded.

            With the multitude outside, the town adolescents singing and clapping and Balogun the generalissimo in discussion with Kabiyesi, the paramount ruler is no longer in a festive mood. Olori Atinuke was in and out, curtsying Balogun, who seemed to have taken the whole thing in his strides cool and calm.

            The Ifa priest, the astute diviner, was immediately summoned to the palace, to make divination with his Ifa implements the cause of the situation and to proffer solutions.

            While the Ifa priest was on his way to the palace, the sky had begun to clear and the sun shone again. All those who had gathered at the palace left immediately and Kabiyesi ordered palm wine to be brought to Balogun and Olori Atinuke quickly prepared pounded yam with melon soup.

While Balogun and the Ifa priest were still eating, Oluwo came in. He is the most senior member of the Osugbo guild, the secret society that is the most powerful society in town. The Osugbo cult guild wields a tremendous power over all the citizens of the town, including power of death over the Kabiyesi.

            You do not find a more commendable situation in town than this when the Balogun, the Oluwo, the Ifa Priest and the Kabiyesi are eating and sipping palm wine together. Times like this are far between when Balogun, the Generalissimo; Oluwo, the most senior member of the Osugbo guild; Baba Awo, the Ifa priest;  and Kabiyesi, the paramount ruler of Ilu-Nla are all throwing banters while eating and drinking.

            It was getting to two hours since they were joined together in this merriment when the weather changed again. Balogun went out to have a look at the Weathercast. He came back beaming with smiles and joked with Kabiyesi that if the weather was like that in the morning they had no reason to be in the palace. The king smiled without saying anything. This time around, it is no longer a speculation, but a reality that rain will soon fall. Suddenly it started raining with thunderstorm and wind blowing ferociously. At least in Kabiyesi inner recesses, the thinking was that if the situation had been otherwise he would have been at the mercy of the Osugbo guild. Two things were sure, the denouncement, and the Balogun’s sword.

            Apart from the strong wind, the situation is comely. Farmers will be happy to invade their farms the following day to clear the bush, and those who have already done so will start planting in earnest.

            As soon as the rain stopped, the visitors left the palace, while all the Oloris came in to rejoice with the king. They all knew that it would have been a calamity in the palace if the situation were to go for the worst.

All the heads hanging in the grove were those of yesteryears kings who were beheaded by the then Balogun following the denouncements of the contemporaries Osugbo cults.

            When calamities befall your domain, you pay the ultimate price.

 When Olori Atinuke inquired from Kabiyesi if the festival was still holding, he had replied that not only would it go as planned but enlarged to accommodate more merriment. The Ifa priest, popularly called Ifayemi, was on his way home from the Palace when he remembered he had met Ojebunmi, the daughter of the Great Masquerade, while on his way to answer the Kabiyesi’s summon. He had promised her he would call on her father on his way back from the palace.

 Ojeniyi, the head of the great masquerade cult was preparing some medicine when Ifayemi visited him. Ojeniyi magical power is renowned within Ilu-Nla and abroad.

            He was so feared or revered, depending on who was at the receiving end or in his favour. His house was the first port of call, for any of the warring parties. You are doomed if your adversary got to Ojeniyi’s house first before you to solicit for his support in order to advance their cause against you. His magical feat was well acknowledged by all and sundry; it was even well pronounced in discussions within the palace. Ojeniyi was the best friend of all to the King, the Balogun, Ifayemi, and the Oluwo - this really brings laughter that Ojeniyi could be the counterpoise to all of these powerful individuals combined.

            Ifayemi had come to greet Ojeniyi and ask after the health of Ojebunmi whom he had met on his way to Kabiyesi’s Palace. Ojeniyi hissed and threw a revilement at his in law.

            His in-law had sent all of Ojebunmi’s belonging to her father’s house while she went to the market, claiming she could no longer be a member of the family. When Ojebunmi came home crying, Ojeniyi had vowed that he was not going to allow Ojebunmi to go back to her husband again. He advised his daughter to prepare her mind for any new suitor preferably from Ilu-Nla. Ojebunmi’s marriage has been bedevilled with rancour since she was not able to become pregnant.

            Ifayemi had queried why Ojeniyi would cut the grass with his teeth when he had a blade!  He advised Ojeniyi to prepare some medicine for Ojebunmi to take that she might become pregnant instead of looking out for another husband.  Ojeniyi had sermonized that he could not make or give babies that only God could achieve that. More so, if he had besought or resort to any paranormal means, the result is always unpalatable. God’s time is the best. Ifayemi then suggested that it would not be bad if he consulted Ifa to know the reason behind Ojebunmi’s infertility. Ojeniyi gave his approval and Ifayemi set down his Ifa implements to divine.

After Ifayemi had consulted the Ifa oracle, the result was damning enough. Ojebunmi is fit enough to carry a nation in her womb!

 Ojebunmi was not at fault according to the divination; but her husband was the cause of their childlessness. A woman cannot marry a woman and expect the cry of a baby.

            Ojeniyi was jolted by the Ifa divination. Really Ojebunmi had been married to an impotent, a woman, all along. Thank heavens they threw her out, submitted Ojeniyi.