- …Four-eyed fish swims in community river
- …Spirits’ wash clothes at the river’s bank
- …Only public water system stopped functioning 38 years ago
By Rotimi Ojomoyela
Omu-Ekiti in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State, about 45 minutes drive from Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State Capital, once a sprawling community during the pre-colonial South-West region of the country, but now a sleepy town, a centre of strange and mysterious happenings.
Oba Ogundeyi Joseph Adeyeye, JP, a doctorate degree graduate in Public Administration, who earns the title: “Ododo Asofindero (great one who brings peace with the law) and Owajomu of Omu kingdom, in a chat with Vanguard, recalled that the town gained its name, ‘Omu’ from a myth which holds that from time immemorial, the town was peopled with so many local merchants who journeyed in and out of it from far and near. Their vibrant commercial activity was so huge that the founding fathers decided to name the town ‘Omu’ (meaning a place with many people moving here and there in Ekiti dialect) to reflect that incident.A fish with four eyes: Incredible but true. In the outskirts of Omu community, inside a tiny stream is a fish with four eyes! But no camera can capture its image, its picture would simply not appear.
Oba Adeyeye, has this to say on the fish: “ Yes, indeed, we have a mysterious fish here which has four eyes. The fish is in Iwereji river in this town. We have been trying to find the root of that strange development but no one has been able to get that. But if you take photographs of the fish, it won’t show in your device. That is quite strange.
“The only myth we have established around it is that in our reigning days as a great kingdom, we had very powerful warriors who decided to enter into some strange things when Omu was betrayed and was defeated by the Alaafin warriors. We heard of many of these warriors who went into the river, thick bushes, trees among others which today are characterized with many strange incidents. For instance, there is a river in this town, located far into the forest where in the mid-day, you see people’s clothes spread all over the bank of the river.
No human is living at least more than a kilometre away from the place and you wonder who were those washing their clothes and spreading them there. But by the time the clothes were dry, they would just disappear. It was this river, one of our former monarchs, Oba Adewa, was said to have entered when he was defeated by the Alaafin warriors.”
Festivals and rites
Omu-Ekiti day, an annual event mainly set aside to remember the exploits of their forebears and founding fathers whose pre-occupation was hunting, was usually celebrated with a plethora of cultural activities including hunters’ masquerades dance and music performance, women’s eulogy of the king, appeasement of the deities, prayers for the community and merry making among others.
As hunters’ town
As part of the elaborate cultural festival witnessed by Vanguard in the town, the hunters, led by Chief Fagbemi Amos Sunday, the Olori Awo (head of Ogboni confraternity) of Omuland, featured very prominently in the celebration with such activities as Ireja, hunter’s masquarade visiting the market place), ijade Iyawo Ode (ritual dance and music by hunters’ masquerade name Alayehun), and merry-making among others.
During the prayers, each of the hunters brings out a kolanut and uses it to offer prayers for themselves, their families and the community.
Afterwards, we would start merry-making and settling down for refreshment. During this time also, the hunters’ masquerade, otherwise called the wife of the hunters “Iyawo Ode” whose local name is Alayehun, would emerge from his grove (Iyewu). He would sing Ijala (hunters’ praise song or panegyrics) to entertain others and dance and sing round the town while his colleagues, the hunters, follow him. The one who ‘act’ the Unplayed does not go hunting as he is mainly an entertainer gifted in that aspect.
Activities of the Hunters: Speaking about the activities of the hunters, the Olori Awo said: “The time we have this festival usually coincides with our market days. We hold market days every five days when farmers from all homes would bring their farm produce to sell. On this day, the Alayehun comes out two times, the first time which is early in the morning, he goes into the market to perform a ritual we call “oloreja” meaning that the masquerade visits the market while market women and men hand out a small portion of their wares to him for prayers of a bountiful harvest in the future.
Bountiful harves
“When the evening comes like this, the same masquerade comes out for the final time, and this time his coming out is entirely for merry-making and full of entertainment. He would sing many folk songs of the hunters, what we call Ijala in Yoruba. All these songs are to praise the exploits of hunters and also massage our ego to do more.
“ We have smaller huts which are under this town. They include aba Kutonu, jakuta, Owajumu and aba Omooju. The hunters here are over 100. We hunters are very important to our society. Whenever there are starnge happenings, or we suspect any crisis or chaos or if there is an attack on farmlands, the hunters are always called on by the town to bring peace. We understand the forest and whenever there is any evil thing to be dealt with, we are usually called on.”
Also, the Asipa Ode (hunters’ supervisor), Chief Joseph Osuntoyinbo, who like many of his colleagues has been baptised in Christianity, but still practices his traditional religion in the trade, said:” As the Asia Ode of this town, I rally round all the hunters in the town whenever the need arises for us to rescue the town from any emergency.
“ We know what a hunter is worth during a ritual of gathering all the bones of animals that have been killed. A hunter who knows that he has killed a certain animal indicates it by carrying the calabash of palm wine placed beside the bones of such game. “
Pa Amos Babalola is the Secretary of the hunters’ union in Omu-Ekiti, he also has this to say to government about hunters: “We want to urge the government to plan towards compensating the hunters in all the towns. This is because it is we hunters who secure the towns as we know all the nooks and cranny of every town we belong.”
