Obara Ojuani

The curse

Otomporo Awo Au One.

Ifá says that in this Oddun one must be careful with the authors, for both of them know and see a girl who is ill. One offered as ebbó two hens and $4.00, while the other offered a rooster, an adie, a she-goat and $6.00. The grieving father went to the house of the one who had offered less and asked him whether, with what he had offered, the girl could be saved, and he answered yes. So the father performed the rogation, but the girl died.

To save her, the cleansing would have had to be greater. The father then went to the author’s house and asked him why the girl had died when he had told him she was saved. The author replied that the fault lay with the other one, who had cursed her. The father then went to the other author’s house and asked him why he had cursed the girl. He answered that he had not, that he was innocent, and that if he wished he would prove it. So he had the girl brought to the town square for everyone to see. The awo had performed an ebbó that day with three dolls, a rooster, a cuje switch, a mouse and four sheets. He took a sheet and covered the girl, then called her with the cujes, and the dead girl answered: “You are innocent; you bear no blame.”

Obara Juani and his abure

This path is one of failure. When Elegbá sees it, he gives coconut to Shangó, and within 3 days a chicken is given to Elegbá. If the person is an aleyo efun, it is worse still.

The eggun told the truth

In the land of Otolopo lived Obara Ni Guani, who had great fortune in working and divining — everything turned out well for him — but he had a brother, Obara Nikone, who did him much harm by telling people that nothing he did turned out well. Even so, Obara Ni Guani always helped his brother Obara Nikeñe, who lived in the land of Kabeyekun, where Eshu also lived; Eshu was always watching the wicked deeds this brother committed, and for that reason kept him in a poor situation.

Every day Obara Ni Guani rose early and sang to Elegbá and to Obatalá, and they blessed him for it. Every day Obara Nikeñe went to visit his brother Obara Ni Guani, and when he left, Obara Ni Guani gave oba eni to Shangó, cleansed himself and discarded it. One day, while Obara Nikeñe was at his brother’s house, the king of that land arrived; his son was gravely ill, and Obara Ni Guani prescribed an ebbó for him. But his brother Obara Nikeñe, without his brother hearing, told the king that if he performed that ebbó his son would die, and at once invited him to come by his own house so he could perform a different ebbó for him with cujes, and so on. The king of Otolopo believed what Obara Nikeñe had said and went to his house with all the things for the ebbó, and it was performed for his son; nevertheless, the day after the ebbó was done, the king’s son died. In those lands it was the custom to bury the dead in the town square, and the day after the burial the king went to Obara Nikeñe’s house and asked him why his son had died when he had been assured of the contrary. Obara Nikeñe answered that it had happened because his brother Obara Ni Guani had cursed him.

Elegbá, who was listening, took three cujes left over from the ebbó, carried them to Obara Ni Guani’s house and asked him why he had cursed the king’s son. Obara Ni Guani denied having done any such thing, and told him to gather the people of the town in the square, for he was going to question the king’s son so that he would tell the truth. The king of Otolopo gathered everyone in the square, among them Obara Nikeñe, who had been brought there by Eshu. Then, before everyone, Obara Ni Guani called the Eggun of the boy, who spoke and said: Otolopo, you are the only one responsible for my death, for having listened to Obara Nikeñe, when the one you should have listened to was Obara Guani.

The whim of the prediction

Shangó had 2 sons who were godchildren of Oggún, and so Oggún and Shangó were compadres. One of the sons had gifts of divination and the other was a millionaire merchant, and since Shangó and Oggún gave them everything, Shangó did not want them to make Ifá. One day, when Shangó and Oggún had left for the land of Yoggo, his son Malekun, the clairvoyant one, went to the house of Orunla, who told him that he had to make Ifá. Malekun did not tell Orunla what his father had said, and in the end they made Ifá for him.

When Shangó found out, he returned to Ifá in a fury to punish his son, but Orunla told him: your son is clairvoyant and carries an ashé of Oddun, and Ifá had to be made for him. Shangó understood the reasons and accepted Orunla’s decision. A short time later Shangó and Oggún left for the land of Shaleku, and his other son Malele, the millionaire, who wanted to make Ifá just like his brother, took advantage of the elders’ absence to ask his brother Malekun, now an awo, to make Ifá for him. He consented, but told him that he had no knife, for he had had Ifá only three months. Annoyed, the other replied: offer opolopo owo to the babalawos so that they give it to you, and then you make Ifá for me.

Through bribery and his brother’s owo, Malekun got the brotherhood of awoses of that town to give him pinaldo, and 7 days later they went and made Ifá for the brother. Shangó was enraged with his son, and Orunla, seeing the behavior of his omofa, was ashamed; and Eggun said: leave him to me, I will punish him — and turning himself into Orin Open Ayanaku, he set off at full speed toward the land of Malekun the awo, and entering in terrible fury made straight for his house. At that moment Ifá was being made, and the Oddun that came into the world was Obara Kana, which prescribed an abo to Shangó for the salvation of his leri. The elephant entered the house tearing everything up; the awoses, seeing this, fled in terror, and when Orin Open reached the inside of the Igbodun only the sons of Shangó remained, whom he furiously crushed — and thus these two disobedient sons paid for their lack of respect toward their father and their godfather.

At once all the awoses gave abo to Shangó and asked forgiveness of him and of Oggún. Shangó and Oggún met with the awoses and instructed them that the pinaldo must not be given to an awo before the Oddun of the iyasi Ifá has passed, and the law was thus established in the land of the adifa.