HOW “AAYE” AND “AIGBORAN” BECAME ENEMIES BY TOLU AKINWALE

Long time ago, there was a man called “Aigboran”. He got married to a very beautiful woman whom he cherished and worshipped like a god. Everybody in the village of “Ojutaye” knew that Aigboran’s wife was the most beautiful woman in the village. Instead of the man to be happy about his luck, he was very much disturbed about the beauty of his wife that he started monitoring her around the village. “Aaye”, the beautiful wife was a trader who sells ewa (beans) like other women in that village. A lot of the village men always made jest of her. One day, one of the closest friends to Aigboran was playing aayo olopon among other groups of men as Aaye was passing with her calabash of  beans, he called “Aaye, Eewa re nda mi loran..ma ta ewa fun mi, eewa re ni mo f era,se wa taa fun mi?(Aaye, your beauty is mesmerizing me, don’t sell beans for me, its your beauty I want to buy, will you sell it to me?

Other men in the group joined in the jest and refused to pay Aaye, everyone insisted that such beauty was not meant for one man but the woman just carried her calabash and left in tears. The rumour of what transpired between the men and his wife got to Aigboran. Then he decided to be more watchful. He consulted an herbalist and asked him to put “magun” (thunderbolt) on his wife. The herbalist advised him against such wicked acts, but he refused. Aigboran went ahead to Orunmila. Orunmila said he could never assist Aigboran in such bad acts, Orunmila however consulted Ifa and ensured Aigboran that his wife was not having any extra-marital affair. Aigboran did not believe Orunmila; he wanted to be very sure nobody in the village was sleeping with his wife. All the warnings of Orunmila fell on the deaf ears of Aigboran. He went to Esu, who gave him a solution to his problem. Esu taught Aigboran how to remove his eyes and pasted it on the calabash of Aaye whenever she was going to sell beans. That was how Aigboran made sure his eyes went with his wife whenever she was not in the house. When she returns, he would remove his eyes from the calabash and put it in his eye balls again. That meant that Aigboran would be blind until his wife return from her trading.

One fateful day, Aaye sold her beans together with the calabash to a man who wanted to do a ritual. She was glad to sell because the man gave her a huge sum of money. She got home and started counting her money when her husband asked from inside the room.

“Aaye mi, Ni bo ni Igba ewa re wa? Mo n wa oju mi o?

(Aaye dear, where is your calabash of beans, am searching for my eyes?”

Aaye gladly and innocently informed the husband that she had sold the calabash

 together with her beans for large sum. Aigboran screamed on top of his voice and started weeping profusely. He narrated to his wife how he used to remove his eyes to monitor Aaye whenever she was going out to sell.

Aaye, out of fear that his husband had become blind since she could not locate the man who bought the calabash, ran away from her husband till date.

A good Samaritan helped Aigboran to Orunmila’s house but Orunmila  told Aigboran in simple terms: Ti aba ri Aaye, O leri oju re o”. Airi oju re, lowo Aaye lowa” (if we cannot find Aaye, you can never get your eyes, You cant get your eyes, because its in the power of Aaye). That was how Esu laalu caused Airoju Airaye in people’s life till date. Of course, Aigboran remained blind till death because Aaye could not be found in the village or anywhere around.

This generated the popular sayings of  the Yoruba Kingdom on  “Airoju Airaye” whenever there is trouble or chaos till today.

Key Words and its Yoruba meanings

*Aaye: A Yoruba word for Alive or space.

*Aigboran: Disobedience

*Ojutaye : The name of the village. Ojutaye means an open space that can be viewed by everybody around.

*Ayo Olopon: An indoor game in the Yoruba culture.

*Magun (thunderbolt):  The Yoruba traditional uses this thing on a woman to detect if the woman is promiscuous. If such woman had been laid with thunderbolt, the man having sexual affair with the woman will die immediately after the sexual act.

HOW TORTOISE'S SHELL BECAME ROUGH BY OLADEJO, KOLAWOLE OROBOLA

HOW TORTOISE'S SHELL BECAME ROUGH.

      Once upon a time, a feast was organized for birds in the sky. Tortoise persuaded birds that he would love to go with them. Birds refused to allow Tortoise go with them because Tortoise is not a bird and he is known to be very greedy and cunning too. After much appeal from Tortoise, Birds agreed to allow him go with them. Birds contributed their feathers together and gave it to Tortoise to enable him fly like them. At the point of departure, Tortoise suggested that each of them be given a name for better identification when they get to the feast. Birds also agreed with Tortoise and Tortoise did the christening. Tortoise gave names to all the Birds and named himself “All of you”.

They {including Tortoise} flew to the sky and they got there safely. At the point when food was to be served, the host brought the food and said “This food is for all of you”.

Hearing this, Tortoise jumped at the food and claimed it was meant for him since he was the only one bearing the name. He ate the food while Birds watched in amazement, anger and annoyance. In the same manner he drank all the wines brought for them. At the end, none of the birds had anything to eat.

       In annoyance, Birds agreed to collect their feathers from Tortoise. This sanction was to prevent Tortoise from flying home. They collected their feathers from Tortoise and began to leave one after the other. When the last bird was about to leave tortoise sent a message  through the bird to his wife that his wife should gather foams in large number and spread the foams outside so that when he jumped from the sky, the foams will guarantee him safe landing. The last bird agreed to deliver the message. When the last bird got to tortoise’s wife, he distorted the message. He told tortoise’s wife that she should gather hard materials like stones, broken bottles, nails etc and spread them outside for her husband. The wife did as instructed. After this, a signal was sent to tortoise to jump down. Tortoise jumped, landed on the sharp objects, sustained serious injury and had his shell broken in the process. The injury left his shell with scars till today.

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ANIMAL INSTINCTS: The Hunter and the Leopard .......by Babatunde Ogunlana

ANIMAL  INSTINCTS; The Hunter and the Leopard......by Babatunde Ogunlana

Agbede was a prominent hunter in Agbado Village. His prominence was not attained from hunting but from his ownership of a leopard which was tamed and domesticated for entertainment. He had returned from hunting one morning with the spotted animal around his neck.

An unusual catch for a hunter indeed who was known for killing, but this day, Agbede became a hero as the entire village and neighbouring settlements gathered to catch a glimpse of his hunting escapade. The cub had been retrieved from its mother who escaped with wounds inflicted on it by Agbede’s gunpowder. The king summoned Agbede and warned him of the danger the young leopard posed to the entire community.

‘’It is only a baby’’ he retorted ‘’ besides, I have tamed it, it cannot harm anybody. Its a  domestic leopard’’ he insisted. Soon his fame spread throughout the region as he became a popular entertainer at coronation ceremonies, traditional festivals and rites of passage for dignitaries in and out of Agbado village. As the cub grew and Agbede’s  strength wane, he relinquish the leopard to his son (Odewaye) to look after, being his only child. One day, Odewale took the leopard to the stream for washing when he stumbled over a hill and bruised his knee and bled.

His only companion, (the leopard) was sorry and sad, but could not help him in any way. As the bleeding continued, it moved closer to him, wagged its tail and curled itself around him, a mutual sign of friendship between the duo. Thereafter ,it began to lick the blood from the wound as a dressing. While at it, it made an unusual squeak sound and looked steadily direct into Odewale’s eyes, a gesture which he mistook for empathy and gently stroke his hands repeatedly on its back.

The cat resumed its ‘dressing’ and made a second sound. This time, its eye balls turned round and its ‘’tamed’’ claws grew out of their shield and it attacked him mercilessly drawing more blood. He died in the jaws of his ‘harmless’ friend whom he thought he had under control....(tamed).

The moral of the story............do not cast your pearls before swine, an animal will always be an animal.

THE TORTOISE’S REVENGE by Omolola Adeosun

One day in the animal kingdom, the elephant and the monkey had a misunderstanding, the monkey had cheated the tortoise and he had promised he would make him pay. The monkey laughed at the tortoise telling him that he was too slow and helpless to defend himself. After thinking about a clever way to make the monkey pay, the tortoise went to his home and told his wife Yanibo to make him sweet bean cakes which he wrapped nicely and took to the elephant’s house. After exchanging pleasantries tortoise offered the elephant the sweet bean cakes his wife had made. The elephant thoroughly enjoyed the cakes and asked the tortoise where he got it from. “Oh I made it from the feaces of the monkey, all I did was beat him till the sweet ones came out!” the elephant then thanked his friend the tortoise and proceeded to the monkey’s house to get more of the sweet bean cakes.

The elephant beat the monkey so much asking him to pass out the sweet bean cakes while the monkey kept pleading assuring the elephant that he knew nothing of the sweet bean cakes. From time to time, the elephant would stop to taste the feaces the monkey had passed out but kept beating him because he had not yet tasted the sweet bean cakes.

Tortoise who had been hiding in the bush then came out laughing so hard “I told you I would deal with you” he exclaimed. It was at this point the elephant discovered he had been tricked by the tortoise and released the already weak and battered monkey.

Lesson: never underestimate anyone.

The History of Creation By Olumide Oduntan

The History of creation

By Olumide Oduntan

Many years ago, the earth and the mouse had an argument about who was the oldest between the two of them.  The mouse said that when he was created, the whole earth was filled with water and that nothing else was in the world.

According to the mouse, when his mother died, he could not find a place to bury her because there was no land in which to dig a grave as there was nothing else apart from water.

The mouse agued that since he did not find a place to bury his mother, he decided to carry her on his head. He concluded that after a while, his mother’s decomposed body began to affect him negatively. This, according to him, is the reason why he is different from other rat species and smells terribly today.

On its part, the earth told the mouse that he was the first to come to the world thereby making him the oldest creation. He insisted that before the creator created anything else, he first created the earth. He argued that all other things were only created after the earth had been created, thereby maintaining its seniority.

In order to settle the argument between them, the mouse and the earth took the matter to Orunmila (the father of secrets).

On getting to Orunmila, he told them that the earth is the oldest. He said that it was after the earth was created that every other thing began to come to be. He added that at the end of time, it is the land that will consume everything.

WHY THE DOG LIVES WITH MAN By IRIRI ANTHONIA EMUOBONUVIE

Long, long, long time ago, the dog used to live in the Forest like the Fox, Hare and the Hyena. Something happened that made it run away and live with Man. There was a terrible famine in the land so great that the animals decided to eat their parents in turn. This idea was not acceptable to the dog whose only surviving parent was his mother he loved so much and he could not voice his reservations.

He could not imagine her death not to talk of him being the cause of her death. The turn of the Lion came for him to present his father and mother, with pain he offered them and the whole animals ate them even though not sufficient but it provided them something in their stomach for the day. Soon it was time for the Elephant, Tiger, Fox ,Hippopotamus , Leopard ,Hare, Tortoise etc

All the while the dog was not happy, he was alive solely for his mother. An idea occurred to him. He quickly grabbed it and decided to act along. Few days to his turn, he told the entire kingdom that his mum was sick with chicken pox, all the animals stayed away from her because of the fear of being infected. Two days later he announced her death, The animals mourned with him and told him to go ahead and bury her.

The Dog took his mother high up a tree and would everyday communicate with her. Each time he is to see the mother she would throw down a rope for him to climb and meet her up there. This continued for a while before the fox noticed that the dog was always absent at a particular time of the day and would reappear at the same time. He began to observe him and when he was very sure, he decided to follow him. He could not believe what he saw ,so the dog lied to deceive all and keep his mother while he ate that of others.

He quickly ran back and informed the others. They were all angry and decided to deal with the dog. They all marched to the place while they were some miles to the place ,Mother Dog looked from the Tree and saw the other animals coming with anger towards them. It dawned on them that their secret has been discovered and imminent death awaits the two of them.

They quickly came down and ran away  from the forest and barely made it outside the forest. They knew they could never return to the forest so they decided to live with man. That is how dogs have ever lived with man

WHY THE TORTOISE HAS A BALD HEAD BY KIKELOMOOIZA OGBODO

WHY THE TORTOISE HAS A BALD HEAD

Once upon a time, in the animal kingdom, there lived an animal called the tortoise. The tortoise is married to Yanribo. The tortoise also has a concubine known as Osemi.
There is a woman that fries `akara’ (bean cakes) by the road side in the neighborhood. Her bean cakes are very delicious and many people always line up to buy bean cakes in the mornings from the woman. Anytime the tortoise is passing by the place the woman is selling `akara’,he is always enticed by the aroma of the bean cake and would wish to buy some, but he did not have any money. He envied those who buy the woman`s akara every morning.
One day he told Yaribo, his wife about the woman’s bean cakes. He said they always make his mouth water but that he does not have money to buy some. He told the wife, ``give me some money to buy akara or I will go to Osemi`s house to collect money from her”. Yanribo replied, ‘I don’t have money, but here is the little money I have”. She gave him a penny. He took the money with his cap on his head and went straight to where the woman was selling bean cakes. When he got there, he met a lot of people waiting to buy bean cakes. He was discouraged but decided to wait for his turn, so he stayed on the queue. When the crowd has lessened and it was nearly his turn to buy bean cake,suddenly,somebody called the woman selling bean cake that she should stop everything she was doing oh!,that her attention was needed at home and that she had some visitors. The woman now appealed to the tortoise to help her watch over the bean cakes on the fire so that they don’t get burnt. The tortoise accepted and was very happy to watch over the bean cakes for the woman.
The moment the woman left, he started eating the bean cakes. As he was frying, he was eating it with relish. He said to himself, ``I will eat and eat and eat and I will keep some in my cap’’. He had not finished talking to himself when he saw the bean cake woman from afar. He immediately began to put some bean cakes in his cap and wore the cap on his head. The bean cakes were hot and he began twisting his neck. When the woman arrived, she thanked the tortoise and also gave him some bean cakes in appreciation. She observed that the tortoise was twisting his neck vigorously, so she asked, ``is anything wrong with you?’’ He said nothing was wrong and he wanted to leave, so he left. The tortoise wanted to remove the bean cakes from his cap on the road, but he couldn`t because people were greeting him and exchanging pleasantries with him as he was going. He then decided to go to Osemi, his concubine’s house. When he got there, he met Osemi, and her relatives. He greeted everyone and was asked to sit down. After he sat down, he was twisting his neck vigorously. When they asked him what was wrong, he replied, `` nothing’’. He said he was okay and would like to take his leave. Osemi’s relatives now said, ``the way you are twisting your neck is too much’’, then his concubine went and removed the cap from the head of the tortoise. Behold! To the surprise of everyone, bean cakes dropped from his head, his hair was burnt and he left there with shame.
That is the reason why the tortoise has no hair on his head and is bald till today. From this story, we learn a lesson that it is not good to be greedy.