OOSA: This night may be our last
Singing and dancing at a ritual site
Be careful not to stop else you get lost
The sound of drums begin at sunset
The tempo is rising, like the wings of a hummingbird
We hear singers, voices distinct with spirit and sorrowful fear
Crying with high tongues in the soul of our ears.
But we dare not take a peep
Out beyond the shut lids of our creaking windows.
We know of Aganmu,
The proud prince without a tribal mark.
He rapes and loots and kills in lots.
But he is Prince,
Thus, none could punish
But in his misfortune, none also could lovingly correct;
As his father is king.
All our gods are merciless
We frightfully worship them with dozens of festivals
We bow to their statues and fear their thunderous roars
All seven of them
But of just one, you will find mercy
His name is Oosa, the god of the sea.
My father is Olokun, the chief priest
He intercedes our pleas to the ears of the seas
My mother was once the Olosa
The sacred bearer of the gourd of fire
An earth made fire that Oosa cannot quench
She renounced her vows, that my father she could wed
The priestly Olokun of the white clan of Osokun
They are the priests of the waters
The only merciful ones in the temple of gods…
But tonight there’ll be no mercy.
In the crimes of fire and a taste of the red pit
For while he raped, many must have cried
Many girls even rejoice,
Hoping to have a baby for the prince
But when you rape the Olosa
A girl of purity, the servant of death
Given to the waters as a proof of submission;
Then you really must have gone mad.
You think you know beauty
You think you have seen it all
Beautiful girls are in our village
But to describe this one as beautiful will be a taboo
For words do not yet exist to contain her magnificence.
From her skin, beauty was carved.
She is the spotless sacrifice
The virgin that carries the calabash of fire
She is the untouchable
The one that must sleep naked by the riverside
For every night, Osun must have a taste of her goodness
Of the offering our village offers in subjection.
She is Olosa
The bride of the water.
When Aganmu couldn’t find anymore ladies to taunt
One night, after he had filled his belly with wine
A gallon of wine with two slabs of asun
Aganmu staggered to the riverside.
He finds the naked Olosa asleep
Without a thought, he rushes at her
Spreading his weighty legs over her,
And putting his filthy lust inside her.
The waters became sour
Our forest began to dry
The land lost its life
And our fires lost their glow
Osun is merciful
Aganmu could have been forgiven
Osun is merciful
Aganmu could have been pardoned
But Olosa, the untouchable
Becomes pregnant with a human child.
Now the prince must die
For life for life, that death may be life;
A life must be taken.
Tonight the drums roll,
Tonight is the appointed day.
The atonement for our desolate land
For our greens to be green
And for the water to be appeased.
Olokun, my father must sever the royal head
He will sprinkle his royal blood by the riverside
Right where the deed was done,
Just as the full moon emerges.
Lest the death toll rises again till our land is barren
And our soil is soiled with blood from each hamlet
Down to each family and home
The village will gravely suffer
At the beastly wrath of our calmest god.
Again my mother, Akosa
Was the erstwhile Olosa
The former bride of the water
The one who once slept by the darkened river
She fell in love with mortal man
And renounced her rites
By the runes of Amosun
She renounced her rites
But not her memories
Tonight as the men match to the ritual site
My mother is yet asleep in her lamp lit room
Tonight again she begins to chant,
And if what she says in her dream is true
The chants she says when she sleeps
The chant of a language only the bride of Oosa can speak
The chants I magically understand
Then something really bad will happen
Something that could cause the wrath of all seven gods
The absolute eradication of a great people
The moonlight tonight may be the last we’ll see
Now, of a fact, Olosa was raped
But the truth they did not know
The truth that could change it all
Is that, never was she rapped by the drunk lustful prince, Aganmu.
But by my father
The Olokun of Oosa
The one who intercedes with the waters
That night, he was there. As the drunk prince passed out by the riverside
Drunk to stupor and vague in consciousness
That night he had seen an opportunity
Sleep with her and blame the prince.
Yes! the man who will behead the prince tonight.
The same one whose child now defiles two brides of water.
First, my mother, the former Olosa
And now the nameless, the new Olosa.
He is my father, the Olokun,
The legend who challenges even gods for their wives
If he is not killed tonight, our land is doomed.
But the one person that knows this truth
The sole man that can save our land
Is me, the only begotten of my loving father.
In the cage of my dilemma, I ask
What do I do?
