CHAPTER FIVE
The atmosphere and water waves seemed to be changing, even our feelings were. I turned around and I noticed some other people in the crowd were shivering too, I knew something was happening but I believed it was because of the magical presence of Oduduwa but we still felt life in us; we were ready to listen to more and more stories. Oduduwa floated to the stage and he settled on the air just one foot above the rock, that was when I remembered when Baba Agba tells me that his legs never touches the floor as he is too powerful. We all bowed, someone shouted again;
‘All hail Oduduwa the great god of Itutu Kilomin’.
‘We hail, we hail’ we all shouted in response. He folded his legs and bowed too.
‘My story will take a different turn from all the stories you have all said or heard’ he thundered and I wondered how he intended to do that, but I expected anything, this was Oduduwa and he could do anything we could or could not imagine.
‘All other story teller just tells and leaves you to do the imaginations by yourself, that’s because they can’t go further than that, but since I can so I will. I will take you all to the past in your minds and as I speak you will see what I speak.’ He said.
‘All hail Oduduwa, the great god of Itutu Kilomin’ the voice shouted again.
‘We hail, we hail’ we all responded.
‘Let me start immediately so that I won’t take too much of your years’ he said and we were all surprised, murmurs filled the air and as I turned to look at Jemimah, she looked older, she looked like she was fifteen years old. I rubbed my chin with my palm and to my surprise, I felt tiny hairs there, I didn’t know what was going on.
‘Did you come here with a moustache?’ Jemimah asked.
‘I am just ten years old, how will I have grown moustaches?’ I said.
‘But you have moustache now, are you really ten?’ she said.
‘Are you really nine?’ I asked too.
‘How will you hear my story in noise?’ Oduduwa thundered and the whole place became that moment.
‘Now I can begin. You all should close your eyes as I speak’ he said and we all did. As I closed my eyes I found myself in an entirely different place, where the only color I saw was white and my feet was not on the floor, the floor was unstained. I got afraid and immediately, I opened my eyes just to discover I was still at Itutu Kilomin. I guess he would tell us the same story but everyone was closing their eyes and I could see just me in that place I found myself when I closed my eyes. Jemimah opened her eyes too, sweating profusely, she was scared being alone; I thought she had conquered it all, but she hadn’t perhaps she still had long lessons to learn about fear.
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘I found myself in a totally different place alone so I was scared.’ She said in a shivering voice so I held her hand and we both closed our eyes, we found ourselves in that same place but this time we were together, just Jemimah and me.
‘One billion, three hundred and fifty two years ago, Olodumare, the great god supreme and my father was all alone in this galaxy, though he had powers to do everything he wanted to do but he wasn’t still happy, he had lived about twenty billion years like that before then.’ Oduduwa voice thundered from a distant but we couldn’t see him. We walked a while and we saw a very tall, big being; we were hardly taller than his feet. He shone far brighter than the sun so we just bent down and closed our eyes, the being just walked about like a frustrated being in thought.
‘The person you are seeing now is Olodumare, the great god supreme one billion three hundred and fifty two years back’ Oduduwa said and stopped. The being continues walking as though nobody was there.
‘I have all powers to myself, I have all galaxies to myself, I can do all I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it but I don’t have a companion just like me, one I can speak to, relate to and do things together with.’ Olodumare thundered in a sad tone. ‘What can I do to have such kind of companion’ he said and he bent down a bit and as he breathes the ground moved. ‘Wow, the ground lives even from the air of my breathe, what if I cave something that looks like me and breathe on it, will it live?’ he asked himself.
‘Bronze, diamonds rocks, stones, sands, and gravel, come to me’ he shouted an in a second they were all in his presence. ‘Now you all should look at me and add up yourselves to make a structure that looks like me’, immediately they did too. ‘Wow!’ he exclaimed.
‘Now form two more in my image’ he said and they did as he said.
‘I never realized I was this magnificent’ he said as he admired the structures. He walked around them for a while and he breathe into them and spoke.
‘You are the first to be created, so you shall be called Obatala’ he said as he pointed to the first structure, which was now moving, and it bowed.
‘Brass made your chest region, you will represent power, so I shall call you Oduduwa’ he said to the second and the structure moved too and bowed just like the first.
‘Diamond made your face; you will represent beauty and light so I will call you Esu’ he said and that one bowed too.
‘We lived happily for years, we were all close to each other until Olodumare started to create more and more of his kind, but this time a little smaller. He called them angels and that they will serve us and he appointed one trillion to each one of us and he took three billion trillion that always bow to him every morning.’ Oduduwa thundered and the scene changed, the whole place was now filled with big beautiful buildings that floated and we saw the angels, we couldn’t count them, they were very many, some flew, some crawled, and some just floated but they were all beautiful the scene looked beautiful.
‘No one knew that Esu was jealous of Olodumare’s powers and strength and the worship offered to him every morning. Olodumare would have known but he was too busy with his angels or perhaps he knew he didn’t just want to care because he knew that Esu had started to become evil and nothing could change him, or perhaps Olodumare could change him but he allowed us be what we wanted to be .’ Oduduwa continued and the scene changed again, here we saw Esu fuming in anger and he maltreated his own angels. ‘Go now and strengthen yourselves, prepare for battle’ Esu shouted to the angels that served him.
‘He knew he couldn’t win the battle that he will raise against Olodumare yet he still rebelled, he wanted to take Olodumare’s position, he was obsessed so that didn’t make him think.’ Oduduwa continued in a sad voice. The scene changed again; here we saw a war, Esu angels fought against Olodumare’s angels and in seconds Esu’s angels were thrown down.
‘They were all thrown down to earth’ Oduduwa said.
‘Earth, isn’t that where we live?’ Jemimah and I shouted immediately.
‘Yes they stay on earth but you can’t see them.’ Oduduwa replied.
The scene changed immediately he finished replying us, here we saw Obatala kneeling in front of Olodumare.
‘Go to earth my son and make land of it and create people, more beautiful than Esu, don’t force them to do anything, make them free to make their own choices’ Olodumare said. ‘Carry all you will require to create it and ensure you do all required sacrifices so that you will have strength’ Olodumare continued.
‘So Obatala created us all?’ Jemimah asked. ‘Keep watching’ Oduduwa replied and the scene changed again, we saw Obatala at the worship house washing himself in different rivers of gold but he skipped two as he was rushing.
‘He is supposed to wash himself in all the hundred rivers so that he will be strengthened enough to do the job Olodumare had sent him but he didn’t.’ Oduduwa continued. And the scene changed. Here we saw obatala with a long chain, a cock, sand and herbs and as he walked down to the edge where he would hook the chain and climb down to earth. Esu came from behind and planted something in him without him knowing and he got so thirsty, that he drank a whole river of palm wine and he got drunk and slept off.
Olodumare watched from above and was disappointed in Obatala, so he called Odu
duwa to go and complete the job, which he did. He used the chain as a means of support and climbed down to earth and we climbed down with him.
‘I used the sand to make lands, herbs to make the plants and tress then cock to make all humans and animals’ Oduduwa said.
‘Wait! My powers are fading away, I have used too much of it to take you all to the past. Open you eyes’ he screamed and then disappeared. As Jemimah and I opened our eyes, we discovered we looked like thirty years old but one thing shocked us more, the water boundaries began to fall, the stars died down and the whole land was gradually covered in water. I held Jemimah’s hand and we ran, crying to call the attention of others but their eyes were all still closed, I ran to Baba Agba's side, but he looked too old, he even looked like a dead man, even Mama looked same, so me and Jemimah ran to a broken tree that had began to float. Jemimah was weeping already, I held her tightly and she closed her eyes. We both sat on the broken tree in fear and the water rose until it was the same height with the main ocean but we still floated on the tree, we were saved but no one else was, so we wept and wept for days that we floated on the sea. All that flowed through my head was the old men who had thought Itutu Kilomin was there happy ending.
When we were tired of weeping, Jemimah told me she would tell me the story of her grandmother that her father had told her, the great queen Amina so that we won’t be bored till we reached lands.”
I paused, I saw the looks on my children’s face, they looked happy and so I was happy with myself too.
“I will continue the story later; it’s getting really late,” I said and they shouted, “oh God, why does time have to move so fast?”
“Don’t worry” I told them, “tomorrow, I will tell you of the story she told me and how and what happened before we reached land.”
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