Izogie; the tale of a cursed throne (short story)

Izogie’s countenance changed as he walked away, ignoring the greeting of the court guard. He would have preferred to storm out, but his Father was still the Oba. On this morning just like the others, he had joined in the customary courtyard meetings with the Uzama. As had been the case recently, he was distracted. Lost in thoughts and awkward smiles only he could explain. The Ezomo had picked on his frivolities and reported to the Oba, but even the king had noticed it. So, when the Uzama left today, Izogie was summoned.

“Ediaken, ..do you even realize what that title means?”

The Oba darted his eyes directly at Izogie who was a bit thrown off by the question.

“You are the heir to an immortal throne. Does that mean anything to you”.

Izogie dared to look his father in the eye, then dropped them immediately for fear of the unknown. In all of his arrogance, it was important to remember that his father was a spiritual being. So, he remained in a still rage.

“You cannot be found smiling sheepishly to yourself over a woman.”

Izogie was startled, wondering how his father knew about her. Moreover, their litte love adventure had only just begun. But everything in the palace answers to the Oba. The walls of Eguae they say, is also a palace guard. Bearing eyes and ears just like a human, or so it is believed. So Izogie ceased to wonder.

“Oba gha to kpere!”

He worshiped his Father as he rubbed his hands on his head.

“I know nothing happens outside of your knowledge. But I love this girl. Surely the walls of the palace could also minister this truth to you”.

Izogie quickly rubbed his hands on the floor and dabbed his forehead. Again, he had spoken ahead of his manners.

The arrogance of a prince is not new to the throne. But an Ediaken never fails to raise the bar. One generation after another, each one comes with his own taste of egotism and entitlement to a throne he is already betrothed to. For this reason, his father and all the others before him in the ancestry, have had to be banished from the palace until their coronation. Just so that their fate would not be like Eghosa, an Ediaken told to have been found dead without his tongue after talking back at the Oba.

The courtyard remained quiet for a while as Izogie continued to rub his palm on his head, in a bid to pacify the gods for disregarding the king with his speech.

Oba looked distressed as the Ezomo continued to plead with him for Izogie, then he spoke in a grim tone.

“Do you know I did a lot less before my father sent me away from here”.

The Oba looked at Ezomo who immediately dropped his eyes to floor, raised his hands, and rubbed them towards the king.

“Oba gha to kpere!. …. Let us not open that ugly page of history”.

Ezomo looked sternly at Izogie, as if to warn him to take heed to his Father’s words. It was weird to be kept in the dark since he was now a member of the Uzama, by virtue of his heirship. There were no secrets of the past or present he was not privy to. Izogie looked at the two older men with interest, and they could tell from his looks that he wanted to hear all of it.

But these types of stories are not told, they are witnessed. And those who witness them carry it to their graves. Borne from these stories, our traditions seem to know all the dos and donts, but never the whys. Certainly, the whys exist but are kept secret for a good reason. They are probably so many tales like this one, but who would know of a thing that is not talked about. It is of the Oba, just before he was to be named Ediaken. He was to become heir to the sacred ancient throne and newest member of the Uzama. Very unlike his own case, Izogie’s Father had many siblings. As expected, the heir naming ceremonies under such circumstances came with a lot more fuss. The eldest prince is customarily the throne’s successor, but the kingdom has seen enough surprises over the centuries to be too certain. The traditions of the dynasty and its successions are ultimately divine, so no first-born son of the Oba can be too sure of anything. As the people drowned in the mere pleasure of knowing who would be chosen to rule, the atmosphere within the walls of the palace was saturated with anxiousness. Even as the divine forces would always prevail, there is always the human sense of greed and want for power to contend with. As expected, this is where the drama is.

The Eguae is perpetually a home to many wives, at the pleasure of the Oba. But only one of them becomes Iye-oba, the kings mother. Even though the king’s eldest son is the most likely heir, each wife is to put forth her most preferred son as a prospective Ediaken. Tradition demands that it be so. There have been times when the position of Iye-oba did not cause the wives to lose their minds, but the wives of Izogie’s grandfather were not particularly custodians of peace. So, when the time to pick an heir came, there was a need for each wife to protect their candidates. Ivie was the eldest wife and Izogie’s grandmother, who had only become a part of the palace fiasco courtesy of the other wives. She was not naturally troublesome. That would be Adesuwa, the youngest wife. Her ravishing beauty came with just as much trouble. Sadly, when it came to competing to produce an heir, she did not have the clearance to partake. It was reserved for the wives who had sons. Adesuwa had only a daughter. That was all she could bear at the time, and she somehow found content with it. Aisosa took all of her mother’s beauty and even got a handful extra from the gods. She was the palace’s sweetheart, loved even by the other wives who could not stand her mother, Adesuwa. The Oba equally adored her and would request her company to statutory parades. A duty reserved for the sons of the king only. She may have been a lady but had the mind of a son.

In the midst of Adesuwa’s unpopularity in the palace, she had a perfect rapport with Igbinosa. The head of the royal kitchen with whom she shared ancestral roots. It is only proper that Igbinosa was just as vicious, to keep friends with a person like Adesuwa. Their friendship nursed wickedness and many evil plots against the other wives, and just anyone they were not pleased with. So, when the time drew close for an Ediaken to be named, Igbinosa started to fill Adesuwa’s head with the things she liked to hear.

“Ivie and Idiaghen would kill to have one of their sons to be named Ediaken, but you are not permitted to even wish for it.”

Adesuwa looked at her friend and wondered where that came from, since it was totally unrelated to the conversation they were having. Igbinosa tilted the curtains of Adesuwa’s court, and peeped out the window to be sure no one was approaching.

“Maybe I haven’t told you yet, but I’m truly disappointed by how shortsighted you have been all this while”.

Adesuwa’s brows dipped unconsciously, as she became curious and a bit offended too.

“Igbi.. you need to start talking before I conclude that you’re insulting me. Don’t forget what I am. The…”

Knowing Adesuwa, she was surely about to sing praises to herself, so Igbinosa cut in abruptly

“Please… I have not forgotten your eulogies. But what if your inability to have a son is not your fault?”.

From that instant, Adesuwa harbored Igbinosa’s words in her heart, and that was the onset of a very treacherous scheme. The type only Adesuwa could pull.

The announcement ceremony of the Ediaken had begun, and Izogie’s Father was shown to the people as the chosen successor. But that was only a customary occasion. There were no divine implications of an heir until the ritual later that night in the palace. After the day’s ceremony and royal banquet, everyone rested since it was a sacred night ahead. The members of the royal family stood outside of the Oba’s courts, while the chosen heir was taken in for the rituals by the diviners. One of which was Aikodon, Igbinosa’s husband. Adesuwa stood with the other family members, rest assured that her daughter was about to be named Ediaken. She had disguised Aisosa as a man and sneaked her in. Aikodon had guaranteed them that a female Ediaken was not an abomination, so there was nothing to fear. The ritual had just begun when the moon turned bright red, and everyone scampered to safety. The diviners were alerted by the noise outside, and as they all began to wonder what abomination had been committed, Aisosa confessed out of fear.

Izogies’s father was found later that night in a deep sleep, while Adesuwa and Igbinosa were dead by the the next morning. Aikodon suffered an unknown sickness for a year before joining them. In truth, Aikodon did not lie about the legitimacy of a female Ediaken. But Aisosa was on her ‘red day’. A woman in such condition cannot commune with the spirit, so she was rejected. The next day, the Oba banished Izogie’s Father form the palace until it was time for him to reign. Not on the grounds of arrogance as it is with many other Ediaken, but for allowing himself to be drugged by Igbinosa. Many would agree that the banishment was a bit rash, but it was really just to keep him safe.

These are the kinds of stories that cannot be told, and the reason Ezomo asked that the Oba leave that page of history to rest. Izogie on the other hand was not satisfied with whatever his father had said. He could not understand why falling in love with a palace maiden was wrong. The Ezomo saw the protest on his face, so he tried to explain further.

“Eh… Ediaken, your ceremony is tomorrow. It is not good if you’re seen with the maiden that attends to your mother’s errands. It is not fitting.”

Behind all his warnings, the Oba only cared about what people would say. That, and the fact that Izogie was still young and could become careless. He was the only surviving child of the Oba, so the title of Ediaken was already his. A had been set to formalize things and seek consent from the spirits. At present, he was entitled to all the human benefits of an Ediaken and it got into his head.

The Oba in his nature cannot over flog an issue, so he spoke no further about it. But the Ezomo persuaded further.

“In all you do, do not bring us shame. Once you cross that line, there’s no going back. She must become your wife”.

With those words, the Ezomo unconsciously sowed a seed in the heart of Izogie. And as he continued to walk further away from the court, the seed germinated quite quickly. He stopped abruptly and smiled to himself. Then he turned back and waved at the guard by the court gate, whose greeting he had just ignored on his way out.

The evening was calm and cool. Exactly how Izogie had prayed that it should be. He arrived at their secret spot and Ese was already waiting. She looked tired from all the tedious work in preparation for the ceremony. The place was unusually dark, so Ese easily noticed that he did not bring any flamed torch. He claimed to have forgotten it, but seeing how he had struggled through the bushes to get to here, that was clearly a lie. However, she could not ask him too many questions. He started to make certain funny movements, that suggested something more than their usual friendly chatter. Ese did not like the idea initially, but his Ediaken announcement ceremony was only hours away. If he were to impregnate her, they would be compulsorily wedded according to tradition. At the thought that she too might become Iye-oba someday, she gave in completely. They consummated their love that night.

Just as it were in the time of his Father, the people were happy. Even though it was clear that Izogie was the unequivocal heir, he watched them go agog over his announcement as if they expected a different outcome. The Ediaken naming ceremony had clearly become for them, just another festival. This time however, there was no tension in the palace, and Izogie could not be more satisfied with himself. No extra wives to compete with his mother for the title of Iye-oba. Nor could anyone truncate his relationship with Ese after last night. Even no sisters to take his place at the divine ritual. Everything was going perfectly. Evening came and the ritual was about to commence. The Oba had started to panic a lot, but he was not human, so he could not show weakness. The Ezomo who was however human, had known him too well not to notice.

“Oba gha to kpere…”

He rubbed his palms together in loyalty to the throne.

“Do you truly worry that calamity would rise again? Our generation cannot be too unlucky”

He tried to smile as he spoke, but the Oba was not having it. Clearly the king was traumatized from his own experience. For this singular reason, he married just one woman. A thing never heard about an Oba. He just could not bear another Ediaken going through what he went through.

The evening came, and the diviners took Izogie in. The Oba and all those who witnessed his misfortune on a night like this waited in anxiety, as they watched and envied the younger ones in their innocent excitement. After what felt like forever, the rites where concluded, and Izogie came out of the courts. The Oba looked proudly at his son who had just successfully become a bonafide Ediaken, when the moon grew bright red. Everyone scampered to safety, but the Oba did not move. At this point, he did not care what would happen to him. He stood under the red moon and whispered to himself.

“If the gods have become so angry, then they should stretch out their hands of death to a fellow immortal like me”.

Nothing happened to the Oba that day, but Izogie and Ese were found dead the next morning. Since Ese was on her red day before the ceremony the gods rejected and killed Izogie for carrying the dark blood of a woman into the coronation ritual. The Oba lived his days in regret. Crux of which is not marrying as many wives as he wanted. If he had other sons, he would never have anointed Izogie as heir. Hence, it is now an abomination to name a female Ediaken, or for a male heir to meet a woman before his ceremony.

Just like the preceding one, Izogie’s Ediaken ceremony is another tale that cannot be told. All who witnessed it, must take it to their graves. And if they are stubborn enough to tell it, the listeners die. This is because a story cannot harm its teller. It is the one who listens to a tale beyond himself that is at risk.