Browsing: children

The tale of the scorpion is in its tail. Here’s the tale of Erelu Bede, a woman who lived in the time of Orunmila, the Yoruba deity of wisdom and divination. The Araba of Osogbo, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon, told me this tale in detail. The tale grew popular and became a collection in the series of Ifa teachings called Ogundabede. In this article, I intend to use the tale of Ogundabede aka ‘Ikunmú àgbà’ as a metaphor that weaves the power of language and culture into a tapestry, like a hairdresser using the ilari cutting comb to part the customer’s hair into three per time before weaving each three it into strands of knee-length box braids. ‘Ikunmú àgbà’ is the mucus in the nose of the elderly, difficult for the young to point out.