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| Queen Moremi's status. |
Story! Story!!
Once upon a time in the Yoruba land of Ile Ife, there lived a queen called Moremi Ajasoro. Queen Moremi was originally from Offa, a city located in the Kwara South Senatorial District of Nigeria. She was married to Oranmiyan Omoluabi, the king of Ife.
At that time, the people of Ile Ife had spent years hiding from the forest people - a dreadful neighboring tribe (believed to be the Igbo tribe of Nigeria) that had been terrorizing them. To the people of Ile Ife, the forest people were spirit because they often invaded their lands covered in raffia leaves and masquerades. They believed they were sent by the gods to punish them for the evil deeds they had committed. To evade the raids, the Ife people had offered sacrifices to the gods but the forest people continued throwing them into a state of fear and panic.
Moremi being a brave and strong woman, one day decided to put an end to the death and life of fear of her people. She came up with a plan; to let herself be captured during one of the raids so she might be taken as a prisoner to the land of the Igbos and learn all their secrets. Since Moremi was just a mortal and did not know what the forest people were capable of, she decided to seek the assistance of Esimirin, the spirit of the river.
"Oh, great Esimirin, the spirit of our great waters! I have come to seek your help to discover the strength of the enemies of Ile Ife called the forest people. In return for my victory, great one, I will offer before you something precious to me," Moremi declared, kneeling before the shrine of Esimirin.
After pledging, Queen Moremi went into the camp of the enemy as a captured slave. With the backing of Esimirin, the king of the forest people fell in love with her beauty and charm and soon made her his queen. As the queen of the Igbo people, Moremi was loved and respected by all the forest people. She, however, never lost sight of why she was there - to discover the strength of the enemy tribe. Day after day, Moremi did all she could to get the trust of the king and his army. When that happened, she began to spy on them to know their strength, their battle strategies, and secrets. When she had gathered all the information she needed, she escaped to Ile Ife to share the secrets of the forest people with her people.
On reaching Ile Ife, her first husband, the king of Ile Ife immediately welcomed her back and remade her as his queen. Moremi gathered the people of Ile Ife and told them that the forest people were not gods but ordinary men dressed in strange mantles of grasses and bamboo fiber. She went ahead and told them that the only way to stop the forest people from attacking Ile Ife was for the people to attack them back with lighted torches and fire which they were extremely afraid of.
Her news was happily accepted by all the people and shortly afterward the Igbo people came for another attack, this time the Ile Ife defeated them using Moremi's tricks.
In jubilation, Moremi danced to Esimirin, the spirit of the river with a huge sacrifice of healthy fowls, sheep, and bullocks to redeem the vow she made if she was victorious. But to Moremi's surprise, Esimirin rejected her sacrifice and demanded that Ela, the son of Moremi be offered instead. In pain and tears, Moremi sacrificed her handsome son, Ela to Esimirin to avert the anger of the kind spirit on the land. All the people of Ile Ife wept bitterly for Moremi's loss and promised to be her sons and daughters forever.
Up until this day, the Yoruba people hold Moremi in high esteem because of her selfless sacrifice to save them.
MORAL LESSONS
Sometimes, for us to achieve peace, we need to sacrifice pride, comfort, and fear.
We must learn to always keep to our words.
Being intentional about what we want helps us make plans to get it. Moremi wanted peace for her people, she made drastic decisions towards it and took action to achieve that which she wanted.
In any situation, be strong, brave, and determined to succeed .
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