Oduduwa.

ODUDUWA

Oduduwa, father of the Yoruba

There are two oral traditions among the Yoruba about the identity of Oduduwa, the father of the Yoruba.

First Story:

The first oral tradition states that he descended from heaven and he was specifically sent to the world by
God to rule mankind. He was said to have no earthly parents.
According to this story, the creator of the world was Olodumare (The only almighty God).
Before the world was created, there was only a watery, marshy waste.
Olodumare live in heaven. In order to create the earth, Olodumare sent his son Oduduwa down from heaven.
First, Olodumare let his son down with a chain carrying a handful of earth, a cockerel and a palmnut.
From these things, plants and animals grew.
Oduduwa spread the earth over the marshes, the cockerel scratched it and the palm tree grew up
in it from which all people came.

Yoruba Proverbs

• Who doesn't buy a lie, cannot buy the truth.
• Who doen't store food on the shelf cannot eat from the shelf
• If a road is walk in the day, it night is even more difficult.

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Yoruba Mithology

Creation according to to the Yoruba belief

In the beginning of time the earth was a desolate marsh, a watery waste. 
One day, Olorun, (the owner of the Sky and the Supreme Being), called the chief of the divinities, Orisha Nla, (the great god) and asked him to go down with a snail shell, full of sands, in order to create firm, solid ground on the earth below. Orisha Nla took with him a pigeon, and a hen with five toes as Olorun commanded him.
The great god Orisha Nla, slid down to the marshy waste and tossed the sands from the shell onto a small section of the watery earth. Then he set the pigeon and the hen down on top of the sands, where they began to scratch and scratch.
Soon they had spread the sands over a large portion of the marsh and had created solid ground. Later, Olorun sent Chameleon to inspect the earth and see if it was really solid and true. Slowly and carefully,
Chameleon descended and slowly walked over the solid ground and rolled his eyes around, taking in everything.
His colour slowly changed from blue of the sky to the brown of the soil. Then he reported to Olorun, that earth
was wide, but it was not dry enough. 
Olorun sent him once again to see if the land was both wide and dry.  Chameleon descended and walked over the
land a second time, and returned to report this time, that the land was both wide and dry.
Olorun named the land IfÈ, which means ìwideî and later added the word IlÈ, which means house.
This would be the house from which all other houses would originate.
The city of IlÈ-IfÈ, became the sacred city of the Yoruba, and still stands today.
It took four days to create the earth, and on the fifth day, the Great God was to be worshiped as the creator, but Olorun had not finished, and calling again on Orisha Nla, he told him, to plant trees for the humans for their nourishment and to give them wealth. He gave Orisha Nla a palm nut that would provide the humans with oil and juice for drinking, and other seeds for three more trees. When the Orisha Nla had finished planting, rain fell
and the trees flourished. 
Then Olorun asked Orisha Nla to mold figures from the earth and bring them to me so that he might life into them.
Orisha Nla did as he was told, but he was jealous of the life-giving powers that Olorun alone
could bestow on the mud figures.
In the night, Orisha Nla decided to hide behind the figures and discover how Olorun brings them to life, but Olorun
 knew everything, and all the thought of Orisha Nla, so he sent him into a deep sleep. When Orisha Nla, finally awoke from his deep slumber, Olorun had already given life to the humans.
To this day, Orisha Nla, still makes only the bodies and heads of humans, but he cannot give life to them, and he sometimes leaves marks on their bodies to show how unhappy he is.

The End

Yoruba Proverbs:

• A farmer that spread his coacoa in the sun to dry, will have to dry with them, (If  he doesn't
  want the goat to eat them.
• We don't enter into the water and start to be afraid of the cold (It has to be before)
• It the rope is not stabble it is useless for the hen to jump on to it (Both will fall)

The Flying Tortoise

Do birds and tortoises with the same feathers flock together? Yes, they do in The Flying Tortoise by Ben Oduwole.

Tortoise's wish to soar with the birds skyrockets this tale right into the hearts of children. The Birds are famished, and they are searching for sweet fruit. Their hunger drives them to make an unusual pact with Tortoise: "If you guide us to a place where the fruits are plentiful, we will agree to teach you how to fly." Tortoise is eager to start his newest adventure. After he glues bird feathers onto his shell, he climbs onto the back of one of the biggest birds and takes off in search of a meal. Tortoise is true to his word. He guides the birds to a rich and fertile field. As The Birds prepare tasty bundles to enjoy at home, greedy tortoise prepares the biggest bundle of them all. Follow the adventures of Tortoise, the Birds, and the many other amazing characters that grace Oduwole's fables. You will treasure the savannah, the jungle, and the underwater settings that decorate this delightful collection of original African fables.

Yoruba Proverbs:

• Whoever wants to do what no one has done before, he or she will see what no one has seen before!
• Whoever opens the coconut shell with his head will not eat out of it!
• Whoever spits upward,  will receive it with his/her eyes!                   

Yoruba Proverbs:

• Proverbs help to drive the point home
• The door doesn’t disturb the thief from entering in the house, we
  only put the door not to hold the goat back.
• He who goes to fetch the water from the pot says he sees a snake, what about
  the person who went to fetch the water from the river?
  
  
  

Duel under the Moon

    
Once upon a time in a village, there was a very beautiful girl that was contested by two young men, and she didn’t know which of the two to choose, because she liked them both. She didn’t want to disappoint any of them, so she kept dragging on.
Though Muthinda knew that she had to choose one, so she promised to make her choice during the  new yam harvest celebration.
The new yam and other farm produce were usually first offered to the gods to thank and appease them before the folks could consume them.
During this event, young men and women could  marry, or choose a partner, and at that time  Muthinda was contended by two young men. She didn’t know what to do, even if she had a preference among the two. Mudinga was a shy, but kind and gentle, while Kalu his rival, was arrogant, and liked flirting with many village girls.

Princess Kurama

Once upon a time, there was a young, beautiful princess in the land with a very strong character.
She was very famous throughout the kingdom as the “golden spinster”, because of her refusal to take husband.
Many young princes and middle aged lords tried in vain to woo her into marriage, but she resisted them all.
“I’m not ready yet!” She would tell them. The princess remained single while she played and teased the men promising to choose one of them as partner soon.
“Tomorrow, I’ll give you my answer.” She would promise again and again, but tomorrow didn’t come.
Then Kurama became the leader of her army and decided to lead the men to wars by herself.
Underneath her, served many capable generals and solders of valour, but not in any of them did she found any to marry.

The Vulture

Once upon a time, in the savannah, there was a big vulture that was  eating all the time much, and wherever there was a party, he was always the first to get there.
He would fly in and hover over meats and all that was edible to him, trying to consume as many pieces as he could get. In actual fact he was eating always between meals, that is continuously and never stopped to eat.
All the other birds, and animals wondered how he could ate that much, consuming food when he was not even hungry. After the Lions and Leopard had caught and ate, the vulture will arrive to clean up the rest. As time went by as he didn’t stop to eat between meals, he began to loose the hairs on his head little by little.
Still the vulture continued in his habit, and he completely lost his hairs and became bald
up till today. That’s why the Vulture is bald, without hairs on his head!

The End

         Yoruba Proverbs     

• Sometime a treatment that occurs to the wife is likely to occur to the mistress.
• Instead of putting in the world a thousand of Idiots, it’s much better to give birth to
• one that’ll be a leader.   The house of the King that got burnt, will only add beauty to it (when it is renovated).