Onisegun – Another Interesting Story

Alake was the daughter of Ajao, the palm-wine tapper who took residence in Ojulari. Ajao was not indigene of Ojulari, he fled Aba-Kamu to escape gripping poverty and squalor that ensued as result of many years’ draught in Aba-Kamu. The people of Aba-Kamu had been said to have offended one of the three ancestral spirits ruling the land at the time.

Months after Ajao left Aba-Kamu, the people had made a pleasing sacrifice to the angry deity. Rain had fell and the prosperity had been restored to the town but many sons that left had not returned, Ajao was one of these.
When Ajao entered Ojulari, search for a place to stay had become a big challenge for him until some people had pointed out Alabi to him.

Alabi was Alani’s grandfather. People always commented that Alani took after his late grandfather in hospitality. It was Alabi that quartered Ajao in his compound. Ajao took to palm-wine tapping as he had no big farmland to work on. He pays commission to the landowners on whose land the palm-trees were grown. Ajao was industrious and it was not long before he married Aweni who bore him three sons and a daughter, Alake.

Alake was the last-child of the duo, who was two years younger than the first grandson of her father’s host. Aweni had been a beautiful woman and many of the old towns-people still wonder why Aweni got married to the lowly palm-wine tapper since she had many well to do suitors.
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Growing up was fun in Alabi’s compound. Any child there had a dozen mothers and the child is free to eat or sleep anywhere in the compound. The fathers were kins and Alabi, who was the oldest in the clan at the time was the Olori-Ebi which roughly translate as the Head of the Compound. As the Olori-Ebi, he was the overseer of the daily conduct of his subordinates; he speaks for the family and he is the perceived father of all the children in the big compound. Thus, the children had a dozen mothers but one father figure. Alabi was the father of all.

Alabi was an herbalist of note too and was quite famous for his work all over the neighbouring villages. Patients troop from far away villages to consult Alabi who was noted to be very conversant with the language of herbs and the deities. This was the skill inherited by Alani who was the first grandson of the legendary Alabi. Alabi died of ripe old age at 138. Then, Laani who was the eldest in the clan succeeded him as the Olori-Ebi. Laani was already very old before he succeeded Alabi and his ceaseless ranting and blatant forgetfulness make people to boycott him and seek leadership in much younger Alani who had inherited both his grandfather’s skills and hospitality.

Laani was around 100 years old when he assumed the position of the Olori-Ebi. Alani’s father had died while he was still young and his mother had remarried one of the kinsmen in the compound. Alani had known only Alabi as his father. Old-men often say that Alani was the splitting image of his grandfather when the later was much younger. But both men had shared a bond that others can infiltrate.
Alani inherited all his grandfather’s magic and much more; his sagely essence. This earned respect from both his mates and people older than him. His magical skills and philanthropic stance endeared many more to him, as such, Alani was widely loved and respected in all of Ojulari and beyond.
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