Town of Witches

There is a small town on your way to Oyo, just behind Fiditi, it’s called Ilu Ajẹ. Literally, it translates to “Town of Witches”.

In the late 80s,  there used to be a sign board in Fiditi that pointed to the path to the village,  the signboard had the inscription :

“WAY TO ILU AJẸ, HOME OF SCIENCE!”.

Lots of people used to fear indigenes of Ilu Ajẹ because it was said that every man in Ilu Ajẹ is born of a witch, and every woman in ilu Ajẹ is a witch!

TownHall Gist  visited Ilu Ajẹ to find out why a whole village would be populated by witches.

Because the Baale (village head) is dead and no replacement has been chosen yet, we met with the chiefs who told us the history of the town….

The father of the current Alaafin, i.e Alaafin Adeyemi II was said to have many siblings when he was young. One of his siblings got missing!

A king’s son got missing ke? Infact, scrap it,  Alaafin of Oyo in those days was not a king,  he was an Emperor! No, a deity!

When the son of such an entity gets missing, of course it’s a very big trouble in the whole empire!

Hunters were commisioned to look for the son. Every nook and corner of Oyo town was searched. Every crevice was checked, all hilltops were visited, yet the Alaafin’s son couldn’t be found.

Like the shepherd who had 99 sheep but was despondent about the lone missing sheep,  the father was heart broken about his missing son.

Herbalists were consulted,  from Oyo to Ife. Sorcerers were recruited from Egbado to Ilaje,  yet no one could help find the missing son. Kabiyesi was sad, Olori was pained, the whole empire was gloomy.

One evening, three months later, as the king and chiefs were in the open court deliberating on the issue, a Babalawo strolled into the palace court with his apo ifa (oracle bag),  everyone looked at him in askance, “Baba,  what do you want, why are you here, who do you want to see?  Can’t you see we are in the middle of a serious issue?” the chiefs asked him….