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There was
no land only water every where and the four sons were in a canoe,
sailing, drifting, propelled by the power of eziza (wind). In the
middle of the water stood a tree on top of which lived (Owonwon) the
toucan. The importance of the emergence of the tree before man on
earth is not lost on modern science, which recognizes that without
the tree manufacturing oxygen, life on earth would have been
impossible. Modern science has also confirmed the Bini cosmology
that birds, insects etc preceded man to earth. The Bini myth of
creation was earth based in scope.
When the children
got to the middle of the water, the youngest son turned his snail
shell upside down resulting in an explosion from the bottom of the
water that forced volumes and volumes of sand to gush out of the
water and fill up space around them for as far as the eyes could
see. With the explosion, the four elements of creation, amen
(water), eziza (air), arhen (fire) and oto (sand or land) were in
place. Land was every where but the kids did not know what it was.
They were afraid to climb
out of the canoe to step on the land, so they sent the Chameleon to
test its firmness. That is why the Chameleon walks with
hesitation.
The
youngest son of Osanobua was the only spirit out of the four sons
who could have the physical human body attribute on stepping on the
land, because that was the advantage of the physical or material
choice he made. It was put in his hand from heaven. The other sons
were deities. The youngest son, the ruler of the earth, represents
innocence and so is susceptible to the powers of the deities, his
brothers. These same weak and strong, good and evil, physical and
spiritual, influences form the basic elements of all modern
religions, with man endowed with the power to make choices.
Junior wanted his older spirit brothers to
remain with him on his land. The oldest brother chose to take his spirit gift
and live in what was left of the water. The other two brothers accepted
junior’s invitation and deposited their spirit selves and gifts on the land as
soon as they stepped on it from the canoe. Junior stepped on his land gingerly
at first, then vigorously, stamping hard and repeatedly on it, running and
rolling over it. He looked around and felt good and happy with his enormous
gift. He called his land agbon (earth), and himself, Idu, meaning the first
human on earth. He decided to walk around and explore the extent and nature of
his gift. It had trees, shrubs, birds, animals, insects, which all came out of
water with the land, and the land sprawled endlessly. After walking for a while
pushing through shrubs; almost stepping on insects, ants and crawlers; talking
to birds that appeared to be serenading him and animals that came close or ran
from him, he was tired. He sat on the stump of a tree to rest, later lying on
the ground to sleep.
While asleep, Osanobua
came down with a chain from heaven, looked around to ensure that everything was
in place, including the Sun and the Moon that were to regulate day and night and
the seasons. When Idu woke up, he was excited to find himself in the presence
of a huge, soothing illumination, surrounded by darkness. The earth was dark.
He knew he was in the presence of the ‘Almighty’ and did not want to look
directly at the illumination. He went down humbly and quickly on his knees to
thank Osanobua for the immense earth gift bestowed on him.
“You are happy then?” Osanobua
asked Idu. “Very, very,” Idu said, adding humbly, “but I am hungry. I have not
eaten since I arrived here? What do I do for food?” Osanobua said, “Stretch
your hand up above your head; the sky would respond by coming close to your
hand. Pluck what ever you need from the sky. Don’t pluck more than you need to
eat to satisfy your hunger at any one time though.” ”I won’t, I won’t,” Idu
said eagerly, stretching his right hand right away to pluck a mouthful of food
from the sky. As he munched away
happily, eyes and head rolling to show joy and satisfaction, he managed to
mumble, “it tastes very nice, I love it.”
“What else do you
need?” Osanobua asked Idu. “Dad, I could do with a human companion. I am
lonely. My brothers are spirits and I can no longer relate with them,” Idu
said. Osanobua said, “You are not flesh and blood alone. You are part spirit
too. Your spirit brothers are not far away. Experience would teach you how to
harness wisdom, one of your spirit brothers, which would teach you how to
combine your physical and spiritual energies to cultivate wealth and spiritual
fulfillment, your other two spirit brothers.”
Osanobua gave the
oldest son control of the waters. The Bini call this son, Olokun (meaning the
god of the waters). Olokun represents aspects of life such as good health, long
life, good luck, prosperity and happiness, to which man may appeal through
ritual purity. The other spirit sons were allowed the freedom to use their
magical powers to balance out the negative and positive forces of nature. To
shorten the process of acquiring spiritual wisdom, Osanobua strengthened the
mystical energy with three new forces: Oguega, Ominigbon and Iha, to provide
humans with spiritual guidance to differentiate rights from wrongs.
Osanobua then told Idu
to take sand with both palms from the ground and stretch his hands close
together in front of him. As soon as Idu did as he was told, Osanobua called
forth a female person, pointing His staff where she appeared in front of Idu. “Whao,”
Idu exclaimed on beholding the beautiful female person standing in front of
him. She smiled happily and went down on her knees to greet Osanobua, looking
at Idu who she also greeted. Idu held her hands in response and hugged her.
Osanobua said, “She is Eteghohi (a woman) and you are Etebite, (a man). In
marriage you would multiply to ensure there is no shortage of hands in the
management of the earth’s resources.”
As Osanobua was making
to leave, Idu politely asked: “what if we have other problems and want to reach
our creator quickly?” Osanobua said, “you can individually live for up to five
hundred years, but you can come to me at will through your individual spirit
self, ehi, whose double is permanently with me in heaven. All you would need to
do is climb the Alubode hill and you are with ehi in heaven, who would bring you
to me.”
As Osanobua left to his
abode where the earth, water, and the sky meet, darkness was lifted from the
earth. Life was sweet and easy and before long, Idu and his wife, Eteghohi,
were making babies. As the years rolled by, generations of extended Idu’s
family began to spread out in all directions, setting up communities, villages
and towns. The different communities farthest from base spoke variations of Idu
language and knew that they came from one common ancestor, Papa Idu, the
ancestor of all mankind. Everything went well for thousands of years until one
day when Emose, a pregnant woman, out of greed, cut more food than she needed to
eat at once, from the sky. There was an immediate explosion and the sky began
receding from human reach. Direct interaction with Osanobua from then on became
difficult because humans could no longer walk in and out of heaven at will.
Emose’s greed destroyed the age of innocence and brought into human affairs, two
new spirits, Esun and Idodo, both representing obstacles humans must now
overcome to reach heaven. Idodo is the spirit ‘police’ that ensures that
natural or divine laws are obeyed. Idodo seeks to ensure we repent and atone
for our sins. Esun is the ‘servant’ spirit or angel that takes genuine human
pleas, performed in the purity of heart, before Osanobua.
Emose’s greed also
brought a lot of suffering and pains to humans. Forests were soon depleted of
their natural food supply, so humans began to toil hard clearing forests,
burning bushes, tilling the land, planting, weeding, nurturing, threshing and
harvesting. It was not easy. Before long, the lazy began to die like fowls in
the desert. Farming activities began to take their toll on the ecological
balance of the earth too, causing droughts, unpredictable seasons, and
environmental degradation. The soil began to suffer and die from over use,
yielding less and less food despite the use of excrement as manure, which in
turn caused its peculiar illness, pains and deaths.
Two new spiritual
forces of nature were now evident and critical to human survival. They were Uwu
(death), the harbinger of death, and Ogi’uwu (the spirit of death), representing
mourning, evil omen, and diseases. Ogi’uwu owns the blood of all living
things. Uwu and Ogi’uwu were causing havoc among humans. Humans who could live
before for ukpo iyisen-iyisen vb’ iyisen (five hundred years) at a stretch, were
now dying prematurely. Death was ready to take life at any time, and Ogi’uwu
was sending every one who disobeyed Osanobua (or nodiyi-Osa) to death,
regardless of age.
To convince Idodo to prevail on
Uwu and Ogi’uwu to temper justice with mercy and get Esun to take our pleas to
Osanobua to control the forces required the services of our own individual
spirit called ‘ehi.’ Ehi could no longer go directly to Osanobua because of
Emose’s sin, except at the point before our birth. The Bini say there are two
aspects of man. One half is ehi, which
is the spirit essence, and the other half is the okpa, which is the physical
person. Before birth, ehi, (the spirit essence) of the individual, humbly goes
before Osanobua to request endorsement of the kind of life the individual would
wish to live on earth (agbon). The request is obviously made with a baby’s
sense of innocence about rights and wrongs, and the weight of the karmic debt
and credit baggage of the individual from previous life cycles and styles.
However, the choice of the new life style is patently and entirely the
individual’s, and could be any of one or a combination of scenarios. The
individual may want to be a powerful spiritualist, a rich business man or
farmer, a great warrior or soldier, a happy or unhappy family man, a wimp or
beggar, a revered medicine man, a famous chief, politician, or popular king, and
even a notorious or very successful thief.
The request process is
called ‘hi’ and leads to Osanobua stamping his sacred staff on the floor to seal
the wish. The approved secret wish is only known to ehi, who is entrusted with
the responsibility of ensuring that his second half, okpa, (the physical human
self), keeps to the promises made before Osanobua. Ehi is the spiritual
counterpart of okpa in heaven. Half of ehi comes with okpa to earth to ensure
permanent link with ehi in heaven. That half is called orhion. When okpa dies,
orhion stays close to okpa until okpa is properly buried and all rites are
completed. Orhion, cleansed of sins, returns to heaven to be one with ehi. Ehi
and okpa may come back 7 times each, making a total of fourteen times in all.
Each return, known as reincarnation, provides the opportunity to atone for the
sins committed in previous life times. When cleansing is complete, ehi takes
its proper place in Eguae Osanobua vb’ Erinmwin (heavenly paradise). |
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