HISTORY OF QUEEN MOREMI AJASORO

                                                    

                                        Proudly Yorùbá

The story of Queen Moremi.
NB: "Professional historians have insisted that Igbo people
in this essay are not the contemporary Igbos of south-east
Nigeria".
 

There once lived a woman called Moremi who hailed from
Ile-Ife, she had a young son, Ela. Moremi who was a wife of
King Oranmiyan of Ife was beautiful and as well virtuous.
 

The nation of the Ife was at a time faced with constant
harsh raids from adjourning tribe known as the forest
people (or Igbo literally in Yoruba language) who were of
such weird appearance in battlefield that the Ifes thought of
them as aliens, The ifes believed they were a visitation sent
by the gods as punishment for some evil deeds they had
committed.
 

The Ifes offered sacrifices to the gods in vain; the raids of
these uncanny beings would continue and the land was
thrown into a state of panic.
The heroic Moremi whose desire to change the destiny of
her people overwhelmed her pride, she sought to bring an
end to the condition of affairs, she resolved to letting herself
be captured during one of the raids, so that she might be
taken as a prisoner to the land of the Igbos and learn all
their secrets.
 

She sought the assistance of her god for spiritual guidance
for her mission as she went to a certain stream to make an
oath to the god of the stream that, if her attempt was
successful, she would offer to it the richest sacrifice she
could afford.
As she cunningly planned it, she was captured by the Igbos
and taken away to their capital as a prisoner. On account of
her beauty she was given to the King of the Igbos as a
slave and on account of her intelligence and noble heart she
soon gained the respect of all and rose to a position of
importance, she later married the ruler as the anointed
queen.
 

No sooner had she been in the country than she had learned
all the secrets of the enemies. She found that they were not
gods but ordinary men. She got to know that whenever they
are going into battle, they would wear strange mantles of
grass and bamboo fibre, this accounted for their unnatural
appearance.
She also learned that because of these mantles of dry grass,
they were much afraid of fire, and that if the Ifes were to
attack them with lighted torches, they would easily be
defeated.
As soon as it was possible, she eluded from the palace and
from the territories of the Igbos to return to her own people.
She returned to her first husband, King Oramiyan of Ife (and
later Oyo), who immediately had her re-instated as his
Princess Consort. Her news was happily received at Ile-Ife,
and shortly afterwards the Igbos were completely defeated
by the tricks Moremi had suggested.
 

          Moremi who proceeded to the stream to make a huge

sacrifice of fowls, sheep, and bullocks as vowed but the god
of the stream wasn't satisfied, it demanded Ela the son of
Moremi.
Unwillingly, Moremi was forced to agree, she sacrificed the
handsome Ela. The Ifes wept to see this sad spectacle, in
order to make up for her loss, they promised to be her sons
and daughters forever.
Ela as he lay upon the ground, he was only half dead. When
the people had departed, he gained consciousness and
sprang up. He made a rope from grass which he used to
ascend to heaven. It is believed that he will someday return
to reap the benefits of his mother’s noble sacrifice