Orisha Obatala

A very long time ago, Olodumare, the God of all gods looked down from his golden throne in heaven. All he saw a vast area of emptiness and nothingness. He wanted more colour in the world and wanted to make you and me and all the rest of the beautiful people in the world today. So, he sent for all his sons and daughters the Orishas, they were the gods and goddesses that lived with Him in his big, beautiful palace in Heaven

When the Orishas came before Olodumare, they took off their shiny golden colored crowns and worshipped Him. Olodumare was very pleased, He shared his big idea with them and asked what they thought.

Eesu was one of the Orishas, he was very wise but also very cunning. He loved to play tricks on people but never really meant anyone harm. He went before Olodumare and bowed before him. He asked him, “Father, aren’t you pleased with we your children anymore? Why do you want to create things that will replace us?”

Olodumare smiled at him gently and lovingly. He looked deeply into his eyes and said, “None of you can ever be replaced, this vast emptiness and nothingness needs some colorful creation to make our world even more beautiful and exciting"

Orishanla Obatala was another of Olodumares sons, He was titled Orishanla which means the great god because he was the chief of all the other Orishas. Obatala disagreed with Eesu and so he removed his white feathered crown from his head, bowed before Olodumare and asked him, “Greatest God and father of all of us, may I speak please?” Olodumare smiled at him and nodded allowing him to speak.

“Let me go to this vast land of emptiness and nothingness and I will make creation out of it. I will make Okunrin and Obinrin, Men and women, I will make some wonderful creeping creatures, some swimming creatures, some magnificent flying creatures to make the skies more beautiful and I will put wonder in this vast land of emptiness and nothingness, I will call this emptiness and nothingness, Ile aye and it will be the new world”.

All of the other Orishas loved Obatalas idea, they began to clap their hands with excitement, Olodumare was very happy with Obatalas willingness to serve. He stood up from His golden throne and began to dance. The other orishas joined him and began to sing with excitement together will all the servants of Olodumare in heaven, all but Eesu.

Olodumare noticed this and stopped dancing, He asked Eesu why he was unhappy. Eesu pretended to cough and then sulkily began to complain, “But father, we don’t need more creatures, these Okunrin and Obinrin what if they turn on us one day and become really mean to us? I don’t think it is a wise idea..” As he spoke, Osun the most beautiful and loving of all the goddesses threw herself at Olodumares feet and began to cry, “Oh father please don’t listen to our brother Eesu, you know he can sometimes be selfish, I will go with Obatala to Ile Aye and I will teach all the Okunrin and Obinrin to be kind and how to love each other, I will also put my healing powers in the world and spread my beauty everywhere I go”

Olodumare was very pleased. He sat on His throne and held his gold scepter up. “I have made a decision.” He said. “Obatala will go to create Ile aye, Osun will go with him and you too Eesu”. Eesu wasn’t very happy but he bowed before Olodumare and said to Him “We won’t disappoint you father”.

All the Orishas cheered and began to dance once more.

So, Olodumare gathered fourteen other Orishas to go with Obatala Alawo funfun, Eesu and Osun to Ile aye and make it a beautiful world.

On the day they were to go, Olodumare blessed them all and gave Obatala some items to help with creation. He gave him some soil in a gourd and a five toed pigeon. Together with the all the other orishas, his brothers and sisters, they all descended to the vast area of emptiness and nothingness.

Obatala began to scatter lumps of soil wherever his feet touched as they descended the vast area of emptiness and nothingness, the five toed pigeon began to scatter them about, as it did so, the area became land. Obatala also created the sea and asked his brother Olookun to care for it so he could continue to create more beautiful things. Osun took a strand from her beautiful thick black hair and began to weave plants into the soil. When she finished making the plants, she kissed the branches and then magically, flowers of different kinds and colours began to appear. These flowers were singing flowers, they sang really beautiful songs in the morning when the sun came out but sadly they do not exist anymore.

After very many days of creating the land, the seas and the plants. Obatala decided they could begin to create the Okunrin, the Obinrin, men and women and the other creatures known as animals today. He took some of the clay from the ground, added some water from the streams Olookun was caring for and began to mould human beings. Oh, these beings were so beautiful! He made some tall he made some short, he made some old he made some young. He made different animals too. He made some swim, he called them Eja- fishes and put them in the sea. He made some really fast and some really slow like the Ekun -Lion and the tortoise- Ijapa. When Osun saw them, she clapped her hands in excitement and kissed each one of them, as she did so, these animals began to have different wonderful colours.

When the orishas saw all that Obatala had made, they were very happy and excited. Eesu decided to throw a party to celebrate this wonderful feat. Egungun the god of masquerades led the dancing and all the Okunrin and Obinrin Obatala created joined the orishas in dancing. The orishas taught all the Okunrin, the Obinrin and all the animals to dance and there was plenty singing.

The Orishas began to sing praise songs to Obatala for all his hard work and as the songs praising Obatala increased Eesu became jealous of all the praise Obatala was receiving, no one had even remembered to say thank you to him for the wonderful party. He felt very sad and un appreciated.

Eesu wanted to be acknowledged so badly so he decided to play a trick on Obatala by putting him to sleep. He gave him some palm wine which made people very drowsy and told him it was juice from one of the fruits they had created. Obatala immediately felt very sleepy and stopped working. He lay down under the shade of a bamboo tree to get some rest. As soon as Obatala was out of sight, the orishas forgot all about him and began to sing praises to Eesu to thank him for the party. This made Eesu very happy.

When Obatala woke up from his drunken state, he quickly jumped back into work, he began to make some more Obinrin and Okunrin but he was still very sleepy and tired from the palm wine. Soon, he began to make mistakes, he made some Obinrin with one eye instead of two, some Okunrin with one leg instead of two. Everything he made began to look deformed. When Eesu saw this, he ran back to Olodumare to report. Olodumare looked down from heaven and was very sad. He sent Oduduwa who was also his son and an orisha to fix the mistakes Obatala made.

When Oduduwa got to Ile Aiye, he ordered Obatala as directed by Olodumare to take some needed rest and began to fix all the deformities, he taught the Okunrin and Obinrin how to cook and make food for themselves, how to take care of each other and how to live very responsibly. The Okunrin and Obinrin decided to make him their king. Obatala resigned to his hut to take a rest as he was very disappointed with himself.

When he woke up, he saw that all the Okunrin and Obinrin had crowned Oduduwa as their king. He decided to be at peace with Oduduwa not to challenge him for his rightful place but to return to heaven to continue ruling with Olodumare.

Oduduwa became the father of all human beings. He started the first kingdom on earth which is called the world Ile Ife and is still in Nigeria, West Africa today.

Some Orishas decided to stay with Oduduwa, and some went back to heaven with Obatala, and about Eesu, or Osun the most beautiful goddess or of Olookun the god of the sea? Those are very interesting stories for another day.