THE LEGEND OF A LEOPARD TAMER (PART 1)

This story you are about to read actually happened. For it is there in the family panegyric of an ancient clan call Ìjí-Àlògbó, anyone from this family would bear me witness. But I shall not tell it the way it happened because I was not there. I will tell you how I imagined it happened in the distant past. I also want to entertain and educate you about our culture and our heroes in the distant past. So, consider this my seasoned version of the real story.

In the ancient world in this part of Africa, life was a mix of good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant in equal measure. Among the many problems the people of this time faced was carnivorous animals. Lions, leopards, hyenas, and a host of other deadly animals that can kill people. You wouldn't want to take a selfie all alone in this jungle of beautiful flowers and birds with colourful plumage, least you become the answer to Mr leopard 's prayers.

In a dingy village off Ọ̀yọ́ the capital city of Yorùbá land, lived a hunter of humble birth. His name was “Ìjí-Àlògbó ọmọ ẹkùn n'íbà” – Ìjí-Àlògbó the son of leopard in its den. He was a brave hunter who had roamed even the forbidden predators’ forest. Igbó Agbénimì had swallowed the bravest hunters and adventure lovers alike. No body dare venture into such forest without having been boiled hard in the broth of the gods themselves. Yet, Ìjí-Àlògbó had gone on hunting expeditions to this deadly forest on several occasions, he just wouldn't brag about it.

In far away capital city of Ọ̀yọ́ ilé, a king ruled. A tyrannical king who sends warriors to their early grave just for the fun of it. He did not become wicked just for fun; something lead to his actions. It is often said that the most wicked people are wicked because they are weak. The king would not want any of his warriors to grow wings and challenge him. He was always in constant fear of this. So, even though peace reigned in the land, the king must find a way to cut down the number of warriors in his kingdom so that they will not rise against him one day.

The king as a result of this had devised a way of cutting down these teaming and hard to control warriors. He had a set of diviners who had come up with a brilliant idea on how the king can achieve this. This idea was so ingenious that no body suspected he was performing population control on the warriors and their families at large.
However, to understand this evil strategy, you have to understand tottemism and its importance in the Yorùbá land of yesteryears. Totemism is the practice of clan identifying with objects in nature, either flora or fauna, as the object representing their family anywhere they are. It is believed that the spirit of such object, especially animals, guards each and every member of the clan wherever they might go in life. So we have:

Those who identify with peacock as Ìyẹ̀rú Òkín. The family of Ọlálọmí or Ọlọ́fà are well known for this.
Those who identify with elephant could be called Àlàbí Erin. They are usually the royal blood of men of Ọ̀yọ́.
There are those who identify with òpó the pillar. These are often praised as Òpómúléró Maja àlekàn. They are the families of noble men of Ọ̀yọ́.

We also have Òkè, Àgán, Èdú, Ọ̀gọ̀ and so on.
Need I say totemism is not only for the high born, we have Ìkọ́ ọmọ okùn ọlà. They are the family of onigusun or singers.
For the family of Ìjí-Àlògbó, we don't know for now. For it seems the family has not come to prominence when this event happened. This is the story that brought them to limelight. What we know for sure was that the patriarch, Ìjí-Àlògbó himself, lived in the hilly white land of the northern Yoruba land. Hilly because there were many hills, white land because there was hard white mineral deposit which had come to the surface. Then the place is notorious for chilly harmattan which always makes the air around white in its season. So the people attribute the whiteness of the landscape to the hash harmattan. To them, it is a place of perennial harmattan.

Anyway, what did the king do to checkmate his warriors and weed off emerging powers and potential rivals among them? Stay tuned.