OBATALA and the SICK

I am from Obatala - Ogun lineage traditionally. Obatala deity frowns at mocking the sickly people or handicapped but sets its rules for the sick not to be mocked. That's the reason handicapped traditionally called  Omo Orisha Obatala don't present themselves to be kings in Yoruba land else they will be mocked. Or have you seen any physically challenged Oba in Yoruba land? No way.

It's an agelong maxim in Yoruba land that : "Omo Orisha ki n'je Oba". Handicapped don't become kings. In Yoruba land (Egba land especially) physically challenged are referred to as "Omo Orisha Obatala" because it's believed Obatala is responsible for the moulding of people's bodies and can give congenital or acquired illness at creation or thereafter.

Traditionally, if you are sick and you are treated with our own brand of calamine lotion, ie white powder spiritual lotion applied to all parts of your body, you are advised to keep indoors for you not to be mocked especially by innocent children cashing fun at you, or you may  be subjected to avoidable enquiry by neighbours and outsiders. The event of an angry  Sanponna deity and his victimised neighbors comes to mind here.

In my grandmother's lineage which is Obatala, descendants are not expected to drink palm wine, failure to obey the injunction, you suffer  physical and spiritual consequences to be mocked as a defiant to the rules. One of such consequences is to have your lips bleached off to be mocked as a punishment  by neighbours or outsiders so as to serve as detergents to other Obatala adherents. It means Obatala's protection of the sickly or handicapped from being mocked is not totally given contrary to Prof Soyinka's given impression, the rules of the deity must be obeyed to avoid ridicule.

The first time my grandmother, Iyagbore of blessed memory from Obatala tradition saw me drinking palm wine with my secondary school friends in her house, she exclaimed: "Lailai o ko gbodo mun emun nile mi, Olobatala re mi, awa ki n'memu" (never you drink palmwine in my house, I am an Olabata adherent, we don't drink palmwine). I asked my dear  Obatala -Iyagbore the consequences of an Olobatala person for drinking palmwine. She replied me that the least punishment that would happen to me was that my lips would be bleached off to white or red or to both colors for people to mock me and for the Obatala faithful  to know that a defiant  Omo Orisha had been punished. So in essence there are rules that guide Omo Orisha to avoid being mocked.

I guess my great father's Ogun lineage abated the punishment of lips bleaching by Obatala on me because Ogun deity  drinks palm wine and his adherents are free to drink the "holy water". But Iyagbore didn't want to hear about my palm wine drinking immunity courtesy my father's Ogun lineage. "Go and drink palmwine in your father's house" was Iyagbore's frank joke to me That's the interesting complexity of culture, tradition, faith and multiple ancestral heritage in Yoruba land.

Of course if one looks closely at my lips, especially those who have been fortunate to kiss me, they would have  noticed the touch of Obatala on my lips.

Written by Adeola Soetan