The Parable.

This is the story of a man called Ojo-Ola (Future). I wrote this in African setting; Our culture and Way of life to be precise. Keep calm as you read.

There lived a man in the village of Adara (it will be alright) whose name was Ojo-ola (future); he was a very hard working man who almost used every hours of his in working.  He didn’t have a wife, less talking about children. No mother, no father, living all alone without a family in his lively game of survival.

He had a boss who was namely called Idiwo (Obstacle). Idiwo was a very successful man, and in fact the king of the great village. He had many farms where he planted maize, rice, cocoa, rubber, cassava, and many more. When it comes to rating, he was absolutely the richest in the whole village. Despite his popularity and riches, he has no male child to be his prince. He was only blessed with a girl who was known by everyone to be his princess.

Ojo-ola the gentle poor man had been serving Idiwo since his arrival at the village about some years back.  He had been working for him in term of helping him to eradicate the weeds that were in his farm with some other common people who also do the same work as he does. But whenever Ojo-ola goes to the king for his wages, he would either be paid half of his worth or sometime won’t be paid at all. This was a kind of miserable life type that Ojo-ola had been living.

One day, when he had finish clearing about three bushy plots of land, he came to king Idiwo for his wages. He merely entered into the palace gate when the palace guard started to harass him. Even though they try to drive him out of the compound but when the king heard about this, he came out of his hurt and ordered his guards to return to their position, and then he walked closer to Ojo-ola.

When he got to where the gentleman was standing, he dipped his hand inside his pocket and brought out some cowries clothed in a very small sack. He brought out five pieces and threw them at him. “You dead man, take your money and leave my compound. You are really not worth of living. Just because of five cowries, you are disturbing my guard.” this was the sentences that came out of the king mouth after he had thrown the money at him.

In reproach and shame, Ojo-ola picked the cowries and walked out of the palace with tears almost rolling down his cheek. He almost fell down when he mistakenly hit his leg at a stump. When he had left, the king went back into his palace.

At night, the poor man was sitting in his little hut thinking about his life.  The memories of what the king said to him earlier now started to come back into his mind. Throughout the night, he wasn’t able to sleep. He sometime made up his mind never to work on the king’s farm again but when he saw that he has no other source of income, he found himself inside the world of confusion.

Month after months, he kept on working for the king. Despite that the king was so harsh on him; he kept on doing the best he can. He didn’t take his boss actions to be an act of embarrassment. Instead, he took it to be an act of challenging and a source of experience.

One afternoon, as he was busy working on one of his master’s farms, he unintentionally cut a stand of maize plant down. When one of his co-workers who was there saw this, he shouted to call the attention of others that are on the farm, saying that Ojo-ola has destroyed the king’s farm. In the wink of an eye they had gathered around him and started to threaten him that they will report him to their master. He even tried to explain to them that it was by accident, which wasn’t intentionally done, but none of them were ready to listen to his explication.

Some minutes later, the news has gotten to the king of what had happened in his farm and without hesitating, he ordered his guard to go and bring the criminal for judgment. The guards swiftly left the palace and head toward the farm. Getting there, they pull him up terribly from the ground with his cloth and continue to kick him up along the way as they head back to the palace.

When Ojo-ola was brought to the present of the king, the king stared at him furiously and commanded his guards to get him locked up inside his dungeon without considering the work and stress he had gone through.

Some month later, Idiwo was badly ill as a result of a heart disease. His money, his property and even everything he had could not save him. He was just there on bed without a hope to survive.

When the chieftains of the village saw that their king is getting closer to the grave, they had a surreptitious meeting, where they all concurred together to appoint a new king, For they were afraid that if the king hear about it, he may put a curse on them or be against it.

On a faithful day at the village square, people were drumming, singing and dancing. Entertainments were cherry over entertainment. Everyone was enjoying themselves with palm wine and roasted yam, for the day was life a new yam harvest festival. Dancing competition were held, wrestle competition was another challenge, more fun were been derived from palm wine drinking competition.

Five men, who were known to be warriors in the village, were nominated to be the next king. They were made to wrestle in order to know the one who will be the next to sit on the king’s throne.

As this was going on, the sound of the drum reached to the king’s ear and he asked one of his guards what the cause of the drum is. And the man told him that it was the sound of the celebration of the kingship ceremony. He even illuminated it further that the chieftains was planning to put another man on the throne.

The king sighed deeply and made a heart-edge smile, then he said, “Men with this their unusual act. They can only acknowledge you when you are with them. But when you are gone, they’ll remember you not.” then he ordered the man to go to the market square and called him the head chief that he had something so important to discuss with him, and at the same time told him to branch at baba ifa’s (oracle consultant) house that the king want to see him.

The guard head out immediately and went on his assignment. Some minutes later, he came back to the palace with the head chief. When the head chief arrived, the king ordered him to sit down. Then he himself managed to get on his seat with the help of two of his guards. When had gain his balance on the seat, he said, “greetings to you Otun-oye. I called you here, because I heard the sound of the drum of your celebration for the crowning of your next king to be. Though, you didn’t let me to be aware of it but I’ll give a support to your move, since I don’t have much time to spend with you here again.”

“Kabiyesi o, we didn’t made it known to you because, we all know it would create a painful feeling in your mind. Kabiyesi, ema binu.” the head chief apologized.

“Well…, I’m not really annoyed. I just want us to do it in a proper way. I have ordered one of my guards to call for Baba ifa, and I know he would be here soon.” said the king.

They were still discussing about this when they heard the voice of baba Ifa who said, “ago onile o.” which means greetings to everyone that is at home. And they answered him by saying, “eni tonbo ko wole o.” meaning the person at the door should enter.

Baba ifa entered and sat down on a mat in front of the king with his oracle spread out to in front of him. Then the king spoke up and said, “Baba Ifagbemi, I called you here to consult the god for us that who should we choose to be our next king, since my time is now running out. Would you please help us to ask?” said the king.

“Kabiyesi o, I will ask the oracle right here before you, and we shall see what the god will say about this.” said Baba Ifagbemi as he unfolded the white piece of cloth that was with him. He stretched the cloth over a calabash-like object and took up his opele (oracle bead). Then he started an incantation,

“Iwaju opon ogbo o, eyin opon ogbo o.

Olumoran lotun, olumoran losi.

Aarin eta orun kedere, bi o base ri ni ki ewi funmi o”

Then, he threw the opele on the piece of cloth and used a deity image to re-arrange it. After some seconds of re-arrangement, he started to speak again, “Kabiyesi o, the oracle has spoken. He said, there is somebody in this village that will be the king…,” as he was speaking, the king interrupted. “How could we recognize the person?” then he answered, “Ifa said we should get a lot of palm oil poured on the mountain Osorongun, the mountain of the gods and a crown model should be placed on its peak. Then all the men of the village, including the prisoners and the freemen should participate in climbing the oiled mountain. And whosoever got to the mountain peak to get the crown should be the next king.” baba Ifa concluded.

The king made a solemn sigh and sent for the town crier to announce the news to the entire people of the village about what Baba Ifa said. This announcement caused all the villagers that were at the village square to dispersed immediately without anyone saying goodbye to another, for they fear what the king could do.

It was also announced all over the village that the women should get their pot and go to fetch palm oil from a palm oil expert called Asepo. The men were to make bamboo chairs around the mountain for the spectators to sit.

On the following morning, even before the first c**k crew, the women legs have been going to and fro on the road that merged Asepo’s house and the mountain Osorongun. They kept pouring the palm oil over the mountain until the sun began to rise above the horizon while the men did the construction of the little arena.

The contestants wore Kembe trousers, and covered their upper body with charcoal powder for a divine strength and as directed by Baba Ifa.

Children below the age of eighteen were not included; they were all order to sit on the prepared seats. Women of old and young, old men and those with disabilities were all on the spectators sector to watch the invincible game of the gods. In fact, the day was like the expectation of a heavenly being.

When every preparation has been made and the young men of the village were ready, the king from his palace ordered his official to trigger the competition.

The men started immediately they heard the sound of the metal gong; Agogo by its Yoruba name, and the entire spectators were singing, dancing and shouting as the young men were trying to make the impossibility possible. The competition involved over forty contestants. All were above the age of eighteen and below the age of sixty.

There among the contestants was Ojo-ola, the poor man. He was dress in the same attire as others with the fire of courage burning in him. Some of the spectators were singing an abusive song against him, while some keep scoffing at him. All this was source of fuel that made his courage glow wider.

Before a quarter of an hour exceeded, some of the competitors has withdrawn, for they were tired of searching for the unsearchable. Many of them continue to try as much as they could but they couldn’t make a crawl on the mountain wall, because, it was very oily.

As the time keeps passing by, many were quitting the completion, due to tiredness and been shabby, with the thought that the race has no end. Over an hour later, Ojo-ola and some other three contenders were left to keep on battling the mountain.

When the sun was about to be at the center of the head; in a very hot moments, the oil started to dry off. During the time, the poor Ojo-ola was the only one left with the mountain. No song were heard from anywhere again, even though, the drummer were tired of drumming. The dancers were no more different from the  quiet spectators. The whole event became boring like the gods has just left the land.

To them, Ojo-ola was like a mad man. Some of them said, “What a normal human being doesn’t achieve, how would a lowly abnormal man achieves that?” while some said it will be better for him to grow wing and fly rather than acting like a man insane.

After a lot of effort and stress, he started to make success by climbing it, though it was a bit slippery. People couldn’t believe their visions when they saw him doing this. This made those contenders that had been resting to stand up from where they were sitting and run towards the mountain to start the journey again, but to their surprise, they couldn’t.

After Ojo-ola had been in the fight against the force of gravity through the slippery slope of the igneous rock for some minutes, he made it up to the peak. He picked up the crown model and raised it up for everyone to see. Immediately, all those that were against him started to be on his side. They started to sing for him the song of victory.

From there, the boring moments started to act lively again. The drummers, the singers and the dancers, all came back to their normal scene, singing to him the songs of victory. 

They quickly made a ladder from bamboo trees that were left behind during the arena construction. They placed the long ladder against the mountain, so that their new king will be able to come down easily.

Without any hesitation, they headed towards the palace with songs in their mouths. They dance on along the way and were filled with divine joy. Although, other contestants felt so reluctant at first but when they saw that there’s nothing else they could do, they join the happy team.

On their arrival at the palace compound, the king was brought out of his palace to meet the people with his back lying on the sick bed. When the people saw that their king, they all chorus, saying, “Kabiyesi o.” the men were prostrating while the women were kneeling down. They were all showing the traditional tactic of honoring the king.

The king held up his Irukere; a kingship horsetail handheld and said, “greetings to you all my fellow people of Adara village. I’m happy for you about what the gods has done for us today. You said someone won the competition, who is that?”

”Ojo-ola!” they all shouted.

“Hmmm…, I can remember the day just like yesterday, when all of you that were here today were against him. You were all standing at the same point that you are now when I was casting my judgment upon him. We all maltreated him just like someone without future.

Oh! What a pity. The same man is the one you are rejoicing with today, the one standing now in front of you as the next to seat on my throne.” said the king.

At the end of the king’s speech, the silencing angel swift over the whole place, to the extent that a pin drop could be heard from afar. Then he continued with his speech, “Since the very day he arrived to this palace that I’ve knew him to be a hard working man, but all his effort wasn’t bringing his adoration into mind, I was always like kicking his food of the table. But now, my conscience keeps being against me that I sent him to the prison.

Yesterday morning, when you are doing your self-elected kingship election, though, you intended to do it secretly, but I overheard you by the help of the gods. I took some step about it immediately in order to avoid electing a king who the gods are not in support with. Even before that, I had a dream that an abandon lion cub, who had been left over to die in the deep forest became a king of the jungle. I tried to get the understanding of what the dream meant, but I couldn’t, not knowing that he was the one the dream was referring to.” he make himself a little more comfortable on the royal bamboo bed. Then, he continued. “Well…, glory is to the Olodumare, the God who always knows the end from the beginning. That reminds me of a saying, which says, “oni lari, kosi eni ti o mo ola.” which means you can only know the present, no one can ever know what will happen tomorrow. And also, his hardworking, his loyalty, his sincerity and his faithfulness results in all that are happening to him today.

My advice to you all that are here now is that, in any circumstance that you may found yourself, you should contribute to your environment positively. Even if your effort is not acknowledged at that time, you should know that the best reward awaits you in the future, just like this young man.”

The king had a female child, whose name was ere mi, meaning my reward. She was the only child of the king, who everyone in the village called omo oba. She is a beautiful, splendid and humble lady of almost the same age as Ojo-ola.

The king called out his daughter and in the present of the entire villagers, he joined her hand with Ojo-ola’s in marriage. 

“Go on with the celebration, and merry on. Drink, eat and enjoy the goodness of life, for the gods has given you a greater king.” the king concluded.

Then, the palace became like an earthly paradise, when the entertainers started to make the whole place cheerful. And then, the merriment continues while Ojo-ola and his new bride dance on to the sound of the Bata drum.

 

 

Author's Note

Please, what do you think of this short story?
I'll be glad to know you points of view.
Thanks.