Ogbe Iwori

The chair prepared for inshe Ozain

Awo Sarako used to sing to Elegbá and to Orunmila, and everything went well for him. He had a friend named Awo Basero who kept advising him to go to the house of Ibara Kolade, a sorcerer. But Awo Sarako never took any notice. Seeing that his friend would not give up, Awo Basero went to the sorcerer’s house himself and told him he should steal the seat on which Awo Sarako sat.

One day Awo Basero saw Awo Sarako walk past without greeting him, and he ran straight to his house and stole the chair. Elegbá, who was coming along the road, saw Awo Basero with Sarako’s chair and understood what had happened. He began to sing and dance: «Molongo molongo Ikú molongo Ikú». And all at once the sorcerer’s house caught fire. Ibara Kolade ran out, and at that very moment Obatalá arrived. Sarako arrived too and asked Obatalá what had happened. Then he saw Elegbá with his chair.

Elegbá took Obatalá’s luere and shook the sorcerer, who came back to his senses. Obatalá said to him: «When you see one of my children in trouble, call me and I will bring them out of any difficulty. From today you have a pact, and you must respect it and live together so that everything goes well for you.»

The owner of this Ifá must keep a chair prepared for Inshe Ozain. He must look after what is his.

Akuko fun fun to Eshu and to the seat; adie and two eyele are given to the leri and to the seat.

Orunmila’s victory over the mayombero

In the land of Namibia there was a powerful king and sorcerer named Karamanzo, who owned a very powerful fetish or cauldron called Nooki. He decided to conquer the land and kingdom of the Fang, and prepared witchcraft for his army. In the course of the conquest, however, ambition took hold of him and he set his sights on reaching Ife. The Oba in Ife at that time was an Awo of Orunmila named La Mujeril. He made osode for himself and Ogbe Weñe came out, in which Ifá marked a war of religion for him and ordered ebbo with: Owunko, Adie Meyi Dun Dun, Epo, Ori, Eku, Eya and 101 pesos, and to give the Owunko to Orunmila. But it had to be done with all of his godchildren present.

He sent word to Toto Yoruba, Dahomey, Shanti, Mandinga and Haussa, and he remembered that he had a godchild Awo who was Kindundun of Angola (the son of Elegbá), named Mawambo Eshu Alawanna, and he too came to the gathering. When they were all assembled, they proceeded to give the Owunko to Orunmila, and in the Ita Ogbe Weñe came out again. Each awo marked an ebbo, until it was Mawambo’s turn, and he marked: Eyerbale of Owunko, Yefa, river mud, Iru Ewe Yilebo (rose-apple seed) and $16.80 owo.

With this they prepared an iye over which all the Awoses prayed. Armed with it, they went out to face Karamanzo’s Wemba. The two armies met beside the river Ayana. At the moment when all the Awoses blew the iye, Karamanzo fell from his horse, and Mawambo, the son of Alawanna, whose sign was Ogbe Weñe, cut off his head. The army was defeated by the allies of Ife. They advanced as far as Zambia and forced the Congos to sign peace, for Karamanzo’s cauldron fell apart when he died. That is why, thanks to Eshu and to Mawambo, and with the power of the Yefa, they defeated the mayombero.

The secret is: iru ewe yilabo (the rose-apple seed).

The mistake Shangó and Oshún made by living with their families

Shangó lived with Oshún in her family’s house, where they ran a prosperous business. Trouble began with the members of Oshún’s family, however, so they decided to move to the house of Shangó’s family. In time, conflicts arose between the couple and Shangó’s family, which damaged their business and left them in poverty.

Shangó was forced to seek help from a diviner in another town, who gave him a reading and told him that his mistake had been moving in with family, and that he should make an ebbo with every kind of bird of the wilds so as to reunite his family and prosper in his business. Shangó did as he was told, and in the end his family was united again, and he and Oshún were able to live together in peace in another town, far from their relatives.

The parting of son and father, and their reunion

There was an awo who was an ozainista and lived with his son, but because of their temperaments father and son ran into difficulties and decided to part. In time the son became a great ozainista and drove every mayombero from power in his town. One day, however, news came that in a distant town there was an ozainista more powerful than he was, so he decided to travel to that region.

After crossing rivers and rough country, he reached the top of the highest hill in the region, where the most powerful ozainista lived. But because of the bad weather and his own illness he was unable to confront him, and decided to seek shelter in the ozainista’s house.

On entering the house, he was astonished to discover that the ozainista was his own father.

Curiosity is punished

There was an orphan who barely had enough for his needs. He went to the market to do his shopping and was left with only half a peso. Afterwards he went off into the wilds, lamenting his situation. Suddenly Olofin appeared to him and told him to lay down the half peso, ask for whatever he wanted, and go straight home without looking back. When he reached his house, he found everything he had asked for. Not long after, a turtle (ayapa) asked him for shelter and he took her in. The turtle tried to uncover the orphan’s secret, working together with the snake (eyo) and the lizard (arguema).

The lizard told the rooster to give them warning with his crowing as soon as the orphan left, and so he did. The three of them followed him at a distance. When the orphan came before Olofin, Olofin asked him who had come with him, and he answered that he had come with no one. Then Olofin ordered those who had followed him to come out of their hiding places, and for their curiosity he gave each of them a new way of moving. He ordered the snake to drag itself along the ground, the lizard to walk pressed against the walls, and the turtle to go about always carrying its house on its back.

The head of mud

When Orunmila’s enemies were many and still could not overcome him, they went to complain to Olodumare and told him that Orunmila was doing a great deal of harm to people. Olodumare, believing they were telling the truth, sent Ikú to kill Orunmila and bring back his head. In those days Orunmila made Osode and saw this Ifá, which told him that many bad things were bearing down on him. He made ebó with an akukó fifeshú, a clay frying pan, a head of mud, a jícara (gourd bowl), eku, eyá and the other ingredients.

After giving the akukó to Eleguá, he placed the head of mud inside the frying pan, covered it with another one, and left it in his room. When Ikú arrived looking for Orunmila, he met Eleguá and said to him: «Olodumare sent me to fetch Orunmila’s head, so tell me where he is, that I may carry out my mission.» Eleguá answered: «Orunmila knew that Olodumare was demanding his head, and as an obedient son he hanged himself; before doing so he asked me to take his head and keep it so that you could carry it to Olodumare.» And Eleguá handed him the head of mud.

Ikú set off back to heaven carrying that parcel, but it began to rain and then he thought: «It is very strange that Orunmila should have killed himself; I am going to see what head this is that Eleguá gave me.» When he lifted the cover off the ikoko, the rain destroyed the head, so Ikú could not see it. Ikú came before Olodumare and said: «My father, I do not know whether I have carried out your order or not, for Eleguá handed me a head telling me it was Orunmila’s, that he had hanged himself to fulfil your wishes; but on the way the rain ruined it. If you wish, I will return to earth to see whether Orunmila is alive or dead.» Olodumare answered: «There is no need for you to go back down there looking for Orunmila, because no one dies twice.»

When Orunmila wept for want of a wife

When Orunmila was sad because he had no wife, he consulted Ifá and was told to make a sacrifice with Adie Meyi Dun Dun, an Akuko and a basket of raw peanuts, so that he might have a wife that year. He made the sacrifice, gave the Akuko to Elegbá and the Adie Meyi to his Ifá, and sowed the peanuts.

When the crop was ready to be harvested, Orunmila noticed that someone was stealing his peanuts, so he began to keep watch over the field. One day he caught two young women stealing the peanuts. Orunmila surprised them and they begged his forgiveness. Orunmila told them he would forgive them, but that they were not to steal again, since he had sown the peanuts by the command of Olofin and Ifá in order to find a wife.

Hearing this, the two women chose to join Orunmila in marriage rather than be taken for thieves. Although they were maidens already of age, Orunmila took them both as wives.

There are maidens together here, and ikofa must be given to them.

The governor of Ofa

The governor of Ofa wanted to find out whether it was true that Orunmila was a diviner. He called his servant and asked him for his clothes in order to play a trick on Orunmila. He put the clothes on and went to Orunmila’s house passing himself off as the servant. The moment he came in, Orunmila told him that if he wanted to save his life he must make an immediate rogación with all the clothes he was wearing, an akuko, other ingredients and a large sum of money. And so the deception was uncovered.

The thieves

There was a city into which thieves came every night to steal the food from the marketplace. The king, who was Ogbe Weñe, decided to send watchmen to stop them. After a consultation with the babalawos, however, this Ifá was found, and it directed him to make ebbo with a rope and to order the city closed. When the order was carried out, it turned out that the bull and the cow had been left inside the city, since they had tied themselves up with the rope.

A great osainista

In a land ruled by a great babalawo and ozainista lived Ogbe Weñe, who wished to meet that man of such renown. Yet although he sent for him several times, the babalawo would not come to see the king. It was then that Oshún decided to visit the babalawo and spend the whole day with him, which pleased the man. When she took her leave the following day, Oshún gathered up his divining implements and tied them in a handkerchief.

When he reached the king’s palace, Ogbe Weñe asked the babalawo for three things: that his army come out victorious if there were war, that he be able to recognise his own army, and that the babalawo tell him how he had done it. To answer his questions the babalawo needed an akuko and two adie dun dun. The king handed over the animals and the babalawo offered them to Elegbá, who instructed him to give the adie dun dun to Orunmila and to keep the juju safe.

When the time came to recognise the king’s army, the babalawo scattered the juju over the adie and looked carefully at the soldiers’ heads. All those who carried a juju were part of the king’s army. When he had finished, the babalawo went to the king and showed him his soldiers one by one, leaving him astonished. Because of his skill, the babalawo was named awo of the court.

The epidemic

A group of youngsters led by Kuariboshe, who was an omo keke daughter of Olofin, began to rummage through everything in the world, even reaching Olofin’s house, where the sacred boxes stood — also known as oboyika — which held the powers of good and evil. The youngsters opened one of the boxes and released the epidemic and the cogido, which caused the children to fall ill and spread fear and sorrow throughout the world.

Obatalá, seeing what had happened, went to Orunmila, who consulted Ifá for him and told him that the animal that was in the world was a malu. Orunmila advised Obatalá to take hair from the malu’s tail, braid it and cleanse all the children with it, and to mix his ileke with theirs and place it on the children. Obatalá followed Orunmila’s instructions, and that was how the children began to be healed.

Olofin, seeing the virtue of Orunmila and Obatalá, said that they had saved the children, but that from that moment on the epidemic would strike children harder than grown people, and that a shadow of epidemic would always hang over them.

The secret of this Ifá for never having trouble in life again is to place inside Orunmila the lower jaw of an omo obini keke; it is dressed with Obatalá’s beads, it eats eyele with Orun and it eats together with Orunmila. This is the power of Ogbe Weñe, which is called «Eggun Orun Kuariboshe».

That is why Obatalá and Orunmila are the protectors of children in time of epidemic. Here the cow was born, and the tail to drive the epidemic away was born. The root of this Ifá is ingratitude. Here the atmosphere was born. The greatest sarayeye there is is the one made with eriku malu, the only animal that drives insects off with its tail, and it is very rare for a cow to fall to an epidemic. Here pomegranate is used for baths, and carob for washing down the house and for overcoming problems.