Obatala & His Kettle Drum !

Oriṣaala, lover of song and drum
Also an elder among all oriṣas
He has a large number of followers
with a beautiful temple.
Every week day of oriṣa, the devotees
who worship at the shrine organized a service of song and drum
But Obatala had no drum
As a powerful Oriṣa he spoke to animals, birds and human beings
He also had some animals as followers who came to the temple to worship.
Among the animals that used to come to the shrine were ira, otolo and Ehoro (Hare).
Hare was a close servant of Obatala
When Obatala discussed the matter of making a drum
it was in the presence of Hare
But Hare hid as though he was not aware of the discussions. They all agreed to invite all animals to come home during the weekday celebration.
As Obatala loved the Hare, when members of his cult finished discussing
He told the Hare to informs all animals that when they come for the weekday celebration, they should remain after the service because of an important matter the supreme Obatala had to discuss with them.
But Hare did the opposite by revealing the secret of the matter to the animals.
All animals came to worship at the shrine, and to Obatala’s surprise, they all left after the service.
Obatala later found the truth of the matter from Hare who out of fear confessed. The person holding Hare stripped him of his skin.
Hare ran to his mother Mobikugbe to seek treatment. Mobikugbe consulted Ifa and a sacrifice of egg, cotton wool and shea butter was prescribed.
Obatala then summoned all his followers to a meeting to discuss the matter further.
Obatala told them his intentions, to make the kettle drum
so that all the people from near and far would hear of their service.

He said-
“We wanted to beat àgbá at home
We would like to beat ìgbìn at a temple
To enable all devotees who heard
To enable everyone to arrive on time…”

But to the surprise of Obatala, all the animals present at the meeting said
“We heard at home
We also heard on the road
The King Obatala would like to strip off all animals’ skin.”

Now it is clear that Hare had leaked the secret
Since then Obatala rejected Hare as a pet.
However, Obatala made his drum from other animal’s skin
And till this day, when Obatala devotees would like to make a drum
They don’t use hare skin, and it is too soft.
The Hare himself did not heal well, and his skin remained soft
Because the original had been removed. – (Ogunda Kete)