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  • Forum - Nigeria Cultures and Languages

    ELEMI RIVER IN IGEDE EKITI.

    Discussion started by NaijaSubway on July 12, 2020 at 7:47 PM

    Virtually every town or villages in Nigeria has one taboo or the other. Anyone who violates these taboos goes through a huge punishment. There is a village called Igede-Ekiti, headquarters of Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State that happened to not be an exception to this rule.

    The ancestor of the town, Ake and his wife, Erindo, migrated from Ile-Ife. The patriarch, according to Oba Aladelusi, had 16 children who grew up to become very powerful. After his death, the power struggle over who would ascend the throne led to a serious crisis, to the extent that they resorted to using diabolical means to fight one another.

    Legend has it that four of the children transformed into rivers, while some of the rest disappeared into the ground alive! Among those who reportedly turned into rivers were Osun, Elemi, Ogbese and Orunro.

    According to Igede mythology, the Elemi River in Igede- Ekiti till today was the Elemi, son of Igede the founder, while the River Osun which flows to Osogbo, in Osun State, is believed to be the Osun, another son of the founder of Igede-Ekiti. Likewise, Ogbese and Orunro rivers are also in Igede. But while Ogbese is like a brook in Igede, Orunro is at the boundary of Igede and Awo-Ekiti.

    The Elemi River has been helpful. It was said that, If someone is sick or childless and visits the river, the river has therapeutic power of healing the sick and providing a child for someone who is childless and in need of one. Consequently, the river is worshipped annually in the month of May. But with the advent of Christianity, such belief and worship have suffered a great decline.

    There is a relationship between River Elemi and the people of Osun or River Osun, Elemi is different from River Osun. And Elemi is the one that resides in Igede Ekiti and River Osun flows through the two bridges in Ara and also before you get to Ijero in Ekiti State. River Osun also flows through that area, down to Imesi-Ile area in Osun State and to many different areas.

    Igede means “incantation”. It was gathered that the last born of the founder of Igede named Okunsosi, was a hunter who did not have much power as his other siblings. So, he did not turn into anything. After the whole crisis had ended, he was chosen by the people around then to be the king over the land.

    Going by the myth, the land was neither referred to as Igede nor the monarch named Onigede. The name Igede came to being after Okunsosi became the king, when people started referring to the settlement as the place where people chanted a lot of incantation. Since then, the town has been referred to as Igede.

    Oba Aladelusi: “But we never knew what the town was being called before then. The only thing we knew was that it was located on a hill called ‘Ori Oke Su’. There was one notable idol at the Oke Su where the Post and Telecommunications erected its mast.

    “The Oke Su was the first settlement of the early settlers. But as they increased in number, they moved away from the hill to settle at the present site of Ekiti Baptist High School.

    It was gather that Both the Onigede and Aworo Oloro used to meet for a particular sacrifice in those days, because that place was their home before they left there.. However, it was not the only plalace they had then because there was another palace at Odugede.”

    The monarch of the town Oba Aladelusi noted that there were a lot of festivals in the town since the time of their forefathers which are not much celebrated again due to advent of Christianity: “Because Igede happens to be one of the towns that embraced Christianity so early. But in the olden days, the people did worship and celebrate Osun, Ogbese, Elemi and Ogun.”

    Notable idols worshipped by the Igede people included Oromo. The Oromo is one of the sons of the ancestor of Igede who disappeared into the ground and promised the people of the town to always call on him whenever the people of Igede were faced with any difficulties, especially war. He was reported to have won a battle for them since which the people of Igede have continued to worship him

    The monarch said that it is a taboo to shout aloud unnecessarily around the Elemi River. He added that in the olden days the river did give out chickens (both male and female) as gifts to people. He said there are places in the Onigede’s palace where no one is allowed to shout aloud.

    He said anyone who violated such taboos were forced to pay for it by buying a male goat which he or she would bring for sacrifice. Nowadays, such taboos are seen as superstitions and not hearkened. The cause of this, according to Oba Aladelusi, is the belief of people in Christianity and rejection of tradition.

    Source: The Daily sun Nigeria

    New reply 9 months, 2 weeks ago by beautifulhome 5 Members · 4 Replies
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