The lesson not learnt from Oluronbi

 


For those who do not know; Oluronbi is a popular Yoruba folklore about a woman who in desperation asked an iroko tree for a child and pledged the same child in return to the iroko tree. Well, she did have the child, a girl whom she named Aponbepore and when it was difficult to honour her pledge the iroko tree took the girl away.

Now, I am very familiar with this story. I must have heard it a couple of times when I was younger and I count it a privilege to have watched a live musical (written and directed by Mister Rain) about it on Sunday the 19th of July 2021 at Glover Memorial Hall, Customs Street, Lagos.

After the show ended, most of us expressed our opinion on how foolish Oluronbi had been. Why did she pledge a child when others pledged animals and foodstuff? was it out of arrogance to show her friends she was the best or was it out of disbelief that the iroko tree was not able to give her a child? There were many ‘lessons to learn’ with the chief one being don’t make promises you cannot or you do not intend to keep.

A few days had gone by and I had started to have this odd feeling about the whole trajectory of the story and the judgments we made. There are so many lessons we fail to learn from the Oluronbi story with the chief one being that no one has the right to make a judgment about someone else’s decisions (Well except you are in a court of law). Yes, we can tell their story, dance about it and sing it but we will never know the degree of pain, disbelief, abundance, ridicule, joy, arrogance, confusion, lack, piety, shame, sense of hope, lack of confidence, lack of faith or lack of a better judgment that make people make the choices they make.


P.s- Her story is incomplete without the song.

Oníkálukú jèjé ewúré (Some offered a goat),                                                        
Ewúré, ewúré (Goat, goat).
Oníkálukú jèjé àgùtàn, (Some offered a sheep),
Agùtàn bòlòjò (A healthy sheep).
Olúrónbí jèjé omo re (Oluronbi offered her child)
Omo re a pón bíi epo (Her beautiful fair child),
Olúrónbí ò (Oluronbi O!)
Joun joun
Ìrókò (Iroko tree),
Joun joun

I wonder what joun joun means?

 

Photocredit: Story for the gods-Facebook

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