OKEIGBO PEOPLE AND CULTURE

OKEIGBO PEOPLE AND CULTURE

............Tolu’ Elusiyan

Okeigbo! That bush in the hill

That is her popular name,

That is what she’s known for,

Her comic language can make heavy hearts light

The mother of great people

Kind people they are,

But their minds you cannot know

They are people of tradition
Who can never do without their History

You make good name hear

It follows you for ever

You make bad appellation here

It lingers in the hearts of many

What a place, what a people

Whose welcoming attitude,

Can make an illness healed.

The journey of two royal men,

Of the houses of the Oni of Ife

Derin and Kugbayigbe and other comrades,

Founded it in the midst of the hills

Time has passed away, years have passed away

But then it has move from where it used to be

Maybe a bit of influence

By education and innovation

Freshness and newness

Stylishness and inventiveness

And so education now becomes her tools

Igbo-Olodumare acclaimed evil forest emerged

A forest of doom! Fagunwa exclaimed!!

Long walk to its bosom

First glance was the tortoise,

Bigger than human being

With an old man scary like scape

Dazzled with a hint of cape

Fuzzes like sight of tape

Upon closeness, what I saw bits my imagination

My imagination becomes illusion

My illusion becomes transformation

The transformation becomes my mission

My mission becomes my task

The task that was never asked

I saw, I felt, I touched and I grasped

All were creative works of art

And maybe they were there in the time of Fagunwa

But nothing was visible to me

All were creative works of arts

Myth and folklore they were.

Aluku! Aluku!! Aluku!!!

Do not put on your light

Do not work at Night

Do not talk, it’s her time

He or her we do not even know

Mystery they are, is all we know

The owner of the night

Respect his night

Oh Aluku! A mysterious festival

Who’s secretive is enigmatical

Men of fury, manipulating the Spiritual world

Spirit of bilocation is what we experienced

Double voice effect cannot be replaced

Abusive words of Aluku are like thorns in the flesh

So mouthed than that of the parrot

As I journey through exodus

Certain revelations began to unfold

Egungun! Egungun!! Egungun!!!

Also trop in like a chameleon

A cooking pot for the chameleon

Is a cooking pot for the lizard

Long sticks I could see

Pointing sorrowfully towards the sky

It does not come down with reason

But will surely come down to inflict

Unlimited flogging

With passion, aggression and pride

I could see the paradoxes

I could taste the complexities

I could feel the perplexities

Oh Okeigbo people and culture

Histories were made, stories were told

Okeigbo! I am proud to be from you

We are not Okeigbo people

Because we were born in Okeigbo

But we are Okeigbo people

Because Okeigbo was born in us

This poem was composed by TOLULOPE ELUSIYAN on the 21st of February, 2017