Every year the Egba people of Ogun State led by their paramount ruler, the Alake of Egba land go to the Lisabi Forest to pray for peace in their land. ERNEST NWOKOLO writes on this year’s edition.
The people live closely with one another and inhabit one of the convoluted terrains of the rocky Abeokuta, the capital of modern day Ogun state. They are unique because of their historical acts of bravery and commitment to a cause considered dear to them.
Welcome to the seedy agrarian community of Igbein, the home of the first Balogun (Prime minister) and hero of Egbaland, Lisabi Agbongbo Akala, a warrior who braved the odds to free the Egba people from the tyrannical and exploitative hegemony of the 18th century Alaafin of Oyo.
An account had it that he came from Ile – Ife in the Osun state and settled in Igbein area of Abeokuta. And over 100 years after he was gone, neither his kinsmen nor Egba land in general have forgotten his exploit.
The Nation visited the community this week and was shown an old mud house in various stages of dereliction and which is believed to be the place where Lisabi lived when he walked this earth.
Although he is being celebrated annually since 1972 when Oba Oyebade Lipede before joining his ancestors, declared that a day should be set aside in honour of Lisabi and unite the Egba people, but little is known about him regarding marriage, save that he fathered a daughter or fostered one, who unofficial source said was sent out to meet a tough Prince and warrior from Republic of Benin and since then nothing is heard or known again about her.
And curiously, a man who lived adjacent to the house said to be that of Lisabi, said he never knew that was where the Egba hero once lived before he passed on.
The Lisa of Igbein land, Chief Atanda Odesola, said Lisabi was an Ifa Priest, hunter and a farmer who wielded much influence on his peers and generation with his Ifa mystic power.
Odesola said he helped fight their wars and that shortly after his death his spirit was often summoned to help defend Egba land from external attacks.
The Lisa who spoke through an interpreter, Mr Ayodele Soyoye of Baåogun Idowu Soye Compound, Igbein, rued that their hero does not appear any longer to fight their battle.
He said when Lisabi was lured to the site where he slipped into what could pass for a dungeon, a mystery chain surfaced few days after at the spot.
He told The Nation that the chain in the past was being used to arouse Lisabi to action in the event of any tribal war raging against the Egba but on one occasion, when he (spirit) was called out to defend his people, he emerged and killed many but upon looking closely at the dead, it dawned on him that they were his Egba children.
Since that day, he (Lisabi) vowed that no more would he appear to violently fight the cause of the Egba people but to go about it through ensuring that peace and unity prevail in the land when they gather at his shrine to offer prayers.
Last March, the Paramount ruler and Alake of Egba land, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, led the Egba traditional rulers, chiefs and sons of the land – all clad in white attires, to the Lisabi’s burial site in a forest (Igbo Lisabi) off Oba community – about an hour drive from Abeokuta, to offer prayers for the unity and progress of Egba land.
The journey to Igbo Lisabi is a spiritual exercise of sort. The Alake officiates at the prayer session and slaughters the sacrificial ram.
At the final point leading to the grove, three priests mount guard. Here, everybody entering the forest have his feet and hands washed with a mixture of herbs, water and whitish substance.
It is aimed at warding off danger and neutralizing negative forces, it was learnt, even as strangers, in their interest and safety were barred from coming near the forest.
Oba Adedotun said they do not bow to any idol while the rams which are slaughtered during the prayers are done within the shrine housing the burial site.
There are various accounts of events leading to his death. The Alake, Oba Gbadebo, said Lisabi was a giant who did not slow down even with age.
According to the Paramount ruler of Egba, after Lisabi personally murdered 250 tax collectors (Ajeles) in the service of Oloyo (Alaafin) of Oyo, he also instructed others to kill the Ajeles in their various townships.
Later, he turned his extraordinary strength inward and began to oppress his Egba brethren.
The Egba people who could not cope any longer with his overbearing influence, plotted to get rid of him, rounded him up and took him to a secluded thick forest in the remote Oba village where with a chain, they hauled him alive into a deep pit.
Adedotun said: “Lisabi did not die. He did not slow down. They took him to a pit there (in Igbo Lisabi) and threw him down. He was a giant of a man. The chain used to throw him down is still there for any permitted person to see. He alone killed 250 tax collectors of Alaafin in one day and asked his chiefs to do same in their various townships.”
But the Lisa of Igbein land, Atanda Odesola, said after the killing of the 250 Ajeles, Lisabi knew that the Alaafin would launch a full scale reprisal attack on the Egba and so, prepared before hand to repel such it.
According to the Lisa, after he had consulted an Ifa oracle and was assured that the Alaafin of Oyo would advance into Egba land with his army through the Odo – Ogun (Ogun River) in Lafenwa, he first gathered the women and children and hid them in an underground tunnel (Ogunmeleogun) to shield them from harm.
As expected, the Alaafin soldiers invaded Egba land but Lisabi and his Egbe Aaro were able to successfully repel the invaders and librated the Egba finally from the Alaafin but he was soon to pay for his popularity and prowess.
The accolades he garnered from his acts of heroism soon drew grumbling reactions from his people who were unhappy that Lisabi was singlehandedly taking all the glory of the struggle for Egba liberation.
The grumbling morphed into a conspiracy with his people rushing to the Alake to complain that Lisabi harbours a plot to unseat him and an instruction was given that he be brought to the Ake Palace but along the line, his captors instead took him to the forest (Igbo Lisabi) and threw him into a pit dug for that purpose.
Odesola explained that Lisabi considered the treatment meted out to him by his people as that of betrayal after he had risked his life several times over to deliver them from the Alaafin hegemony.
According to Odesola, Lisabi was said to have made far reaching pronouncements at the time on Egba land to the effect that unity would continue to elude them and that respite won’t come until the 9th Alake who happened to be Oba Oyebade Lipede, ascended the throne and used Lisabi annual festival to unite the people.
