*Reflections Without Mirror– Niyi Aborisade*
*The Masquerades and the Vengeance of God*
The history that I am about to narrate today spanned for about two decades . I watched the event from when I was a minor till when I was mature. I learnt a lot from these matters that I am about to share. I have learnt that the destruction of the poor is in the poverty; the destruction of the rich is their vanity, and the destruction of the powerful is putting trust in their own strength .
As a young boy, I loved watching Masquerades , I followed them with my siblings and friends. Sometimes , we would go to the family house where a masquerade would come out and follow him throughout the day. Sometimes, we followed them with our primary school uniform . It was a great carnival for us then. It should have been a great carnival indeed if our people had not idolised them and referred to them as heavenly beings because they were not. They are human beings, of course
Notable amongst the *Masquerades were Sokoro Agugu, Oyi laluba, Iponriku, Dakeja bi Esu, Abidi Elege, Atipako , Agbo Ogede, Sali Alapala, Gbodogbodo, Oloolu and Alapa n sanpa.* Alapansanpa was always a spectacle to watch, he had a ritual that he always performed before venturing out. He would put his left leg on his deity ( *Esu stone* )the symbol of Esu deity and uttered some prayers that ‘as he was going out , may they kill people on his behalf and may he kill someone today’ . At the end of the prayers, his followers would use Canes to lift the left leg from the deity, Esulalu Ogiri oko. it was a serious trial of endurance and strength where you would see men beating each other with canes without any animosity towards each other. There was a song that is attached to Alapansanpa , ” Alapansanpa ko de ile Olubadan , Ibadan o fararo”. That is, if Alapansanpa has not visited the Olubadan, Ibadan is not at peace. That was the venerability of Alapansanpa to the extent that other Masquerades like Oyi Laluba followers incorporated the use of beating each other with Canes into their own outing as well. It encouraged more people to follow him. It was a test of strength for young men to engage in the Cane-beating rituals and pride for them also . Later, some young ladies joined the cane- beating rituals as well. I had many cousins who were OK then but every year they made sure that they took part in the rituals of the canes. I never joined the rituals but I watched from distance . I was forced to pay for canes by one of the young men one day when he saw me where I was hiding in a shop at Oje Market, actually I was going to church that day when I encountered them. At that time, I had ceased from following Masquerades.
We were taught to believe that masquerades are heavenly beings, our ancestors and they were greeted like this ‘ Araorun kinkin ” meaning the impeccable celestial beings even though they knew it was a deception and they were not celestial beings. Some people would even request prayers from these masquerades. Women who were barren were offered prayers to have the fruit of the womb , prayer for success, or to live long. I suggest Egungun festival should be like other carnivals for entertainment and cultural purposes.
Now , Oyi Laluba became so strong because of his followers , the area boys from Oje and its surbub had adopted him as their own and offered him unqualified support . He now became terror to other less powerful Masquerades. As a young boy, what we always looked for was meeting of Masquerades where fight will ensue. In the 70s, Oyi humiliated one Masquerade with the help of the area boys to the extent that from that time the Masquerade never came out again . Oyi must have thought that he had got away with it because that incident happened in the 70s but a day of reckoning was coming.
In the late 80s, there was one man called Alado, he was a popular man , he had his own command amongst the thugs in Ibadan or should I use the word Street fighters. He had built a reputation for himself in this field. He was feared than respected . I do not know the grievances that he had against Oyi Laluba but one day when Abidielege came out , (Abidielege usually comes out once in 3 years,) Alado used the advantage to attack Oyi at Mapo, it was rumoured then that Alado never carried weapon by himself but he had spiritual ability to command weapons and on that day when he attacked Oyi people just saw machete in his hand and he used it to remove the mask from Oyi’s face and everyone saw the man behind the masq called Oyi. it was the greatest humiliation any Masquerade can suffer. He beat Oyi like a baby, there was one man behind Oyi named ‘ Owolabi’ a very strong man too , he tried to confront Alado and Alado tried his machete on him with no result because the machete did no penetrate.
He was well fortified but because all the other area boys around Oyi had rabbited it , this one man army cannot match Alado and his followers. The news spread everywhere, Alado had succeded in his pre- meditated attack against unprepared Oyi. He had treaded where no man has treaded before; he humiliated the great Oyi Laluba, one of the greatest Masquerades of our time . Oyi ‘ ara orun kinkin’ ( the celestial being) afterall was a human being and he was taken to hospital that day where he was treated. He survived the humiliation and came out in full force the next Sunday but Alado was not interested anymore. He had made his bone anyway. Alado took his trophy, the masq that he removed from Oyi’s face to Abidielege house but the latter rejected it and renounced his behaviour. They made it clear to him that they had no part in what he did.
After so many years, Alado thought he had gotten away with it , A child cursed Iroko tree and looked back but Oluwere would not deal with him on that day, the day of reckoning was coming.
It was during Military regime in the early 90s, there was fuel scarcity as usual , Alado came with his boys and forced people to give way for him, the big boss had priority over anyone . However, the Khaki boys came on the scene , Alado would not cower before anyone , he had to maintain his standard otherwise he would lose face . Nigerian soldiers had no respect for anyone, Alado had crossed the boundary and must be taught a lesson , they apprehended Alado , but on that day , it was either his juju failed him or he had none because he failed to command any weapon to defend himself on that day, they tossed him around like a child. He did not survive the beaten . He died as a result of the injuries from the beatens and the juju died with the man. I may not know what also happened to those soldiers thereafter, may be they have met their Waterloo also if they had done wrong.
I, Niyi Aborisade, saw these things and documented these events in my memory that spanned for more than two decades interval. I noted that all the protagonists did not get away with the evil they had committed . I give glory to God that there is a God of vengeance and no wicked shall prosper unless they repented of their evil way. *If you have heart do evil but when you remember the death of Bashorun Gaa do good. ‘ Bo ba laya ko se ika bi o ba ranti Iku Gaa ki o so otito. “*
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, a Human Right Activist and an Historian.
