Even The Gods Must Repent

by Akeredolu Ojo

Among his failure was the continuous dominance of diabolical power in the kingdom, children continued to go missing, and corruption is on the high among the chiefs, about this he was totally helpless.

  “Have you gone to notify the rainmaker regarding the anniversary?” The king’s mother asked his son.

  “Never heard of him, who is that?”

  The mother took time to lecture his son, “the rainmakers is a notorious entity in the kingdom, he has the mastery of rain, and have to be visited and pacify if anyone has an important celebration coming up in the kingdom”, the king’s mother even implied that the heavy rain that disrupted his coronation, may be because they forgot to pay respect to the rainmaker.

  “Can this Rainmaker of a man make the rain fall in the dry season?” The king mocked what he assumed was a superstition belief.

  “Just do it, you never can tell with this people”, the king’s mother pleaded with him.

  The king ignored this instruction, and the anniversary witness abnormal rain fall, at a point it was discovered the rain was only falling within the perimeter of the palace, and when anybody that is part of the celebration went outside the perimeter, the rain will canopy them to and from wherever they go.

  It was obvious that the rain was not ordinary, but how that was possible still puzzled the king, the whole celebration was disrupted. He did not because of this compromise his stand against the diabolical forces in his kingdom.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Pandemonium struck at Kakuta, there was a commotion at the market place opposite the palace, door of stores were slammed, those unfortunate to be aiming to escape to the safety of open shop had their hope dash as the shops were shut on their faces.

  It was not different in the residential areas where parent shout for their children playing outside or ventured out and force their children into the house in a flash before shutting the door, those left in the open scattered everywhere looking for place to hide.

  Ebiti was the source of this confusion. He was the priest of the snake god, he also double as the executioner of the witches, where he was rumour to regularly slaughter people in the spirit world.

  This afternoon, Ebiti was carrying a sacrifice, he was nude except for some powder which he painted all over his body, going by the record of the kingdom, this sacrifice is evil, anyone unfortunate to sight the sacrifice will die or be afflicted with terrible disease. This was terrorism of the highest other.

  It was as a guard was trying to shut the gate on the people rushing to the safety of the palace that caught the attention of the king, who intervened promptly, “what is wrong with you, are you going to shut the gate on the people approaching the palace?”

  The guard went ahead to shot the gate before he replied, “Your highness, today is such day that doom comes to town”.

  “What doom? Open the gate this minutes!” the king ordered.

  Before the guard could complete this order, the crowd pushed through and run to the safety of the palace, it was only then the king saw the nude man carrying the sacrifice.

  King Ojopagogo chuckled, he knew the naked man was no doubt the source of the confusion, “Is this not ridiculous?” he began rhetorically, as he approach the man, when the two of them met the king went on, “Come on, game over, throw away the content of the calabash in your hand and find yourself some decent cloth...”

  Ebiti stared at him vacantly, it seems he was starring pass the king to the distance, “you are dead”, he directed to the king without looking at him, then went on speaking incoherently, “thanks mothers, yes, the deed is done, thanks for accepting this sacrifice.......”.

  “Hey! Snap out of this stupidity”, the king snapped his fingers on Ebiti’s face, “I am arresting you for the interruption of peace in the kingdom”, he shouted for the guard but nobody answered the call.

  Since Ebitit was slim, he weighs very little and he was not putting up any resistance, so the king pushed the sacrifice out his hand first and dragged him to the detention in the palace all by himself.

  Even after getting rid of the sacrifice, and it was clear Ebiti is not putting up a fight, everybody still flee the palace, but the king went ahead to lock Ebiti up, even the terrible criminals at the detention were afraid to share the same detention with Ebiti.

  The king’s mother was worried, she knew that nobody can defiled the witches or the snake god and get away with it, but try as she may to prevail on the king to release Ebiti the other refused.

  The council of witches come to threaten the king the next day, king Ojopagogo recalled the face of one of the witches, from his preparatory ritual for coronation, she made him suck her stinking breast, because of her he was determine not to release Ebiti, he was holding him as a collateral in case anything untoward happen in the kingdom.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Ojopagogo fled his room, while the Queen screamed for the king’s mother when they find a python in their bedroom, the King’s mother came running and chastised the king for taking up weapon against what she termed as his ancestor, the king was holding his semi automatic machine gun against the reptile though he could not use it, “come on put that thing away”, she make sure the king complied her instruction before she moved any further.

  “Mum don’t go in there, the python is vicious”, king Ojopagogo tried to prevent the mother who was already making her way into the bedroom.

  The king’s mother opened the door gently and entered, the king and the Queen stayed some distance away craning their neck to see what she was going to do, “Omo Osunla, Omo ayun oboto ma sanwo, oboto nile isu, akin mu ewura debe.......” she started the cognomen of the royal family, then appealing to the reptile not to be vexed with the king as if it could hear her.

  King Ojopagogo felt she was wasting her time, he begin to wonder how a python could get into his room in the first place, when the house was in the centre of the city, not in some jungle.

  The King was in his study when he heard his wife screamed, he rushed down to check what it was, and he found this huge python coiling up on his bed, looking menacingly, he shouted and run like his wife earlier.

  It never occurred to him to call the palace guard, he went to retrieve his semi automatic machine gun, loaded it, but when he aimed and pulled the trigger, the gun only click but did not fire, he was trying to fix the gun when his mother came along.

  His thought was interrupted when he saw the snake crawling out, he jumped out of the way following the lead of the Queen, the python moved slowly, all the time the king’s mother was following it, saying the praise chant like she was using a remote control on it.

  The python went through the back exit, when it has passed where the king was standing he started following his mother, the python was disappearing into a hole beside the brick fence when it occur to the king to act.

  He shouted for the guards, but some guards were nearby, they were watching the python with a king of reference and the oldest of the guard, signal to the king to keep quiet, not to disturbed the king’s mother, who had the situation under control.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The king has not seeing his mother this angry in all his life, she never allow him a say in this matter, “you are out of you mind, the way you have been desecrating the gods”, she attributed the snake incident to the continued detention of the snake priest.

  “Mother it is only a snake”. The king tried to assure her.

  “Snake!” She exclaimed, “You will throw away the throne the way you are doing”.

  King Ojopagogo shrugged, “What is the big deal?” He does not feel so great about being king anyway.

  “You are not only going to jeopardize your chance, but you will put the entire kingdom in trouble”. She was still talking when the kingdom’s oracle priest walked in he was a very old man

  “You! What do you want here?” The king demanded from the oracle priest harshly. He had banned him from the palace.

  “That is no way to treat an elderly man”, the king’s mother cut
in, but as the king does not yield she added, “I invited him”, then she told the old man “have a seat Baba!”

  “Mother do you know that he made me eat the heart of my father during the ritual for the coronation, they never told me what it was, and I thought it was a meat”. The King lamented.

  “Stop been childish, that was what made you a king”. The king’s mother lectured him as if he was an idiot not to know.

  He felt so defeated, “Mum you too”, king Ojopagogo sprang up and begin to leave. About that time though the priest had consulted the oracle and the priest stood to block his path.

  “The gods are angry! the visit of the diva (the python) is the last warning, before they will vent their anger on you”. The priest told what he had divined from the oracle.

  “Let me past! Or I will be sorry for the consequence of my actions”. The king threatened, not giving a thought to what the oracle priest said.

  “Will you shut up and seat down!” The king’s mother ordered and ensures he seats, before she turned to the priest, “what does the god’s require to pacify them”.

  “The gods want the immediate release of the priest of the snake god who is in detention”.

  The king’s mother shot the king a searching look, she had insisted that the priest be released, she cannot imagine that the king will ignore her advice.

  “Mother the priest of snake god threatened to kill me, he is the collateral to ensure nothing happen to me or anybody in the kingdom”.

  Hissing, the king’s mother stood, “I will only take a minute”. She took excuse of the oracle priest and departed the meeting, she came back with Gbonka, the head of palace guard. “Now go and set the priest of snake god free”. She did for the benefit of the king, just so the guard will know her action has the approval of the king.

  The guard smiled in a kind of way that indicate he was pleased with this decision.

  The king’s mother nodded for the oracle priest to go ahead after the guard had left, “and we are already behind schedule in the four-four year’s ritual to the snake god”. The Oracle priest said.

  King Ojopagogo claps his hand, “after all I have told you, and you still bring this ritual up?”

  The oracle priest reaction was devoid of emotion. “The god’s demanded a compensation of a human head, ten cows, ten pigs, ten rams, ten gallons of palm oil, ten kegs of palm wine for interrupting the priest of the snake god’s opening ritual”.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Mother there is no way I can give my approval to human sacrifice”. King Ojopagogo continued the debate about the ritual with his mother after the oracle priest had left.

  “You don’t need to give your approval, just look the other way”. The king’s mother argued. “The priest will sort things out on their own”.

  “You are talking like an illiterate”, he condemned his mother for buying into such idea. “I am responsible for the safety of everybody in this kingdom”.

  “The human sacrifice doesn’t have to be from this kingdom, the common practice is that the soldiers will kidnap some stranger”, she was explaining when the King started shaking his head. “Will you feel better if there is mass snake attack in the kingdom then?” She queried.

  The king chuckled, “you and I know that the snake attack is only an excuse to commit this evil”. He said mocking.

  “Just as you wouldn’t believe a python will crawl into your bedroom if I had told you”. The king mother seems to get her son there, because he become somehow sober and did not respond immediately.

  When the king came out of his reveries, his voice was weak, “mother is it true that the snake god yearly take its pick of human sacrifice from the kingdom?” He had been told how the snake god usually sneak into the kingdom, from it evil forest and bite unsuspecting victim to death, such victim who are unfortunate to be wandering at night, or anybody who wander too close to the evil forest.

  The king’s mother did not address the question directly she took it from different angle, taking the king through the history of the kingdom. “our ancestors were the last to branch out of the centre of creation, which was at Ile Ife, where the entire world started from”. The king’s mother begins, “by the time our ancestor left, all the good land has been taking except our current location”.

  “That was because it was the farthest land to Ile Ife, and it opens to the ocean”, king Ojopagogo speculated.

  The king’s mother shook her head, signifying that he was wrong, “in those days the farther you are from Ile Ife the best it is for you”.

  “Why?”

  “It was because Ile Ife rulers were that exploitative”.

  “They are still very cruel”.

  “Not as in those days anyway where they enslave everybody, the empire could not have survive this long with that level of cruelty”.

  “Let’s go back to the history”, the king cut in, “so why was this land not occupied”.

  “It was swimming with all kinds of snakes”.

  “That is because this place is very close to the sea”. The king concluded.

  The king mother chose not to argue with him, “people have to build huge walls you see around here, grow plant that repel snake, and carry anti dote to snake bite along everywhere they go”.

  King Ojopagogo sigh, he wanted to speak but kept silent.

  “But there were occasion of snakes whose venom were not known, the big snakes like python which can scale any wall, and at a point the kingdom gather to find a permanent solution to the problem”.

  “How was the problem solved?” King Ojopagogo asked.

  “It’s your great, great, grand-father, the king Ojopagogo the first”. The king’s mother pointed her thumb backward to emphasize how long it was.

  King Ojopagogo was really impressed that it was his great grandfather that solve the problem, though he knew he shouldn’t be reaching conclusion when he had not hear all the story.

  “I was told that he made a flute, after he had told everybody to lock themselves in for a whole day, he sang and the snakes all came forward, dancing drunkenly after him until he led them to the evil forest, where he succeeded in banishing them”.

  “What about the pythons that continued to trouble us every other time?” The king asked.

  “After this, the kingdom was free of snakes relatively, people were so grateful that they made Ojopagogo the first the king, that was how your family become the royal family”. The King’s mother continued.

  Though king Ojopagogo was impressed with this accomplishment, he was more interested in knowing how the snake continues to plague the kingdom, “how does this snake manage to come back?”

  “Ojopagogo made a pact with a god that borrowed him the flute he used to expel the snakes from the land, the deal was to make yearly ritual and a big ritual once in four years”. The king’s mother revealed weakly.

  “Human sacrifice is outrageous!” There is no way this is acceptable to king Ojopagogo .

  “How will you appreciate him, when you don’t realise that people die per day before this solution”. The king mother defended.

  “Mother if the first Ojopagogo can solve the problem then, I can rid the kingdom of this nonsense”. The mother wanted to argue but he added, “just give me seven days”.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dangunro become the king’s right hand man after he had helped him recover his identity, he even prevented the King from punishing the Queen over that incident, he had helped the king through the thick and thin. But Dangunro distanced himself from this snake business.

  “There should be something we can do”. The king confided on Danguro who had always offers a way out in all his trouble.

  “If there was one, your father would have explored it”. Dangunro concluded that there was no way out.

  King Ojopagogo reflected for a while, “You know, I have a friend way back in Ireland, her name was Brigitta, she was a Christian, once while preaching to me, she told me a similar story”.

>   “Really!” Dangunro who was pacing the king’s court, racking his brain for solution to this problem, come to seat opposite the king to hear the full gist.

  “Brigitta told me of a Catholic priest, a saint Patrick, who came along when the republic of Ireland was confronted with a snake invasion”. King Ojopagogo had to rephrased, “Ireland was swimming with snake too, and priest Patrick made a bagpipe....”

  “What is a bagpipe?” Dangunro asked.

  King Ojopagogo show him a picture of a bagpipe from a magazine, “the priest blow his pipe, just the way my great grandfather did, and round off all the snake in Ireland out to the sea, except in his case the snake never bother them again”.

  “That is good enough”. Dangunro was excited, “So let call Patricia or what do you call her name, she is our best chance”.

  “It was not Brigitta that solve this problem she said it was Saint Patrick”. The king said and added, “besides Brigitta has passed on”.

  “And you don’t know anybody from her Church that might be able to help?” Dangunro asked.

  “I don’t”.

  “We can gather all the Christian in the kingdom to fast and pray”. Dangunro suggested.

  “Are you kidding me?” King Ojopagogo has no regards for Kakuta Christian base on his experience with the prophet the other time, “those that needed repentance themselves”.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Solution came to king Ojopagogo two days later when some new Church came to start a branch at the Kakuta kingdom.

  The leader of the new Church, The Deeper Lifer, was a mighty minister of God, he had been going about preaching, and pointing out the spate of wickedness in the kingdom to the chiefs, for this reason the Church has won lots of poor people as convert.

  All the chiefs were bitter and ganged up against the man of God because of the bad image he was given them, except chief Ajere whose son was delivered from chronic madness by the hand of the man of God.

  The chiefs could tolerate the occasional crusades the church come to hold in the kingdom, until the church attempted to start a branch of the church at Kakuta and this meet with stiff resistance from the chiefs.

  All the chiefs resisted the request to start the church except chief Ajere, the others will rather the Deeper Lifer is banish from the land totally.