Tag Archives: African mythology

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE. PART FIVE HERE. PART SIX HERE. PART SEVEN HERE. PART EIGHT HERE.

PART NINE – Ozidi’s character development will continue in this installment. It starts out like the previous part, with our main character being sought by another who has heard of the many powerful opponents that Ozidi has slain and wanting to see for himself how well the young man can fight.

This time the challenger to Ozidi is Tebesonoma of the Seven Crowns. Tebesenoma is a giant man with seven heads and on each head sits a crown made of writhing demons. The giant’s long arms reach all the way down to the ground, letting him more easily reach and kill his opponents.

Tebesonoma roams the jungles near the Niger River until he comes face to face with Ozidi, who as usual stalks the land looking for adventure. The seven-headed giant speaks to Ozidi about how much he has heard about him and goes down a list of all the figures who have fallen in combat with him. He then challenges our hero to battle.

(This exchange reminds me of Old West gunfighters with one of them wanting to blow away a gunslinger with a big reputation.)

Ozidi draws his lightning-sword from his mouth and, since his retinue of musicians, singers, a lizard and a monkey were already at his side, he fights Tebesonoma.    Continue reading →

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE. PART FIVE HERE. PART SIX HERE. 

PART SEVEN – Picking up where we left off, Ofe the chief conspirator in the murder of Ozidi the Elder had cowardly fled once again rather than face the avenging son Ozidi the Younger in combat. Ozidi’s grandmother Oreame cast spells to flush out Ofe no matter where he was hidden.

Ofe’s magic had let him hide underneath the ground itself and he now involuntarily sprang upward from that hiding spot and stood face to face with Ozidi the Younger. With the eyes of everyone living in Orua on the combatants, Ofe had no choice but to at long last stand his ground and face his fate.

Ozidi advanced, wielding his sword made of lightning while his musicians played and sang his glories. Though Ofe was a coward he possessed powerful magic and fought Ozidi to a draw.

As the hours passed, our hero at last got past the defenses of Ofe’s own mystical weaponry and prepared to deliver the death blow. Ozidi’s lightning sword sliced his foe’s body in half at the waist. Continue reading →

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE. FOR PART THREE CLICK HERE. FOR PART FOUR CLICK HERE.   

PART FIVE: At the conclusion of Part Four, the hero Ozidi, who possessed the strength of ten men, a lightning sword and the ability to pull other weapons out of his mouth/ innards, had killed yet another of his father’s murderers. That latest fallen foe was Akpobrisi, Wielder of Net Weapons as well as his troops.

Ofe, the main villain behind the slaying of our hero’s father, had hoped Akpobrisi and his soldiers would be capable of eliminating Ozidi. Ofe was expected to be the next man to face the avenging Ozidi but he was far too craven to do so. He blamed the citizens of Orua for the murder of Ozidi the Elder, lying that they pressured him to betray the dead victim even though the ambition of him and his co-conspirators was truly to blame.

Still, cowardly Ofe sought to throw another against Ozidi the Younger. He forced his right-hand man Badoba to face Ozidi in battle. Badoba tried to convince the despicable Ofe that they should both attack the hero together. Ofe refused, still hoping to avoid facing Ozidi in combat. Continue reading →

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE. FOR PART THREE CLICK HERE.     

PART FOUR: When our previous installment ended, Ozidi had killed and beheaded three of his father’s murderers, bringing his soul that much closer to being freed from the deadlands limbo where it was stranded.

He and his sorceress grandmother Oreame began planning to deal with Ofe, the leader of the conspirators who murdered Ozidi the Elder so that they could rule Orua through the elder Ozidi’s mentally unfit brother, King Temugedege. Ofe was growing to fear Ozidi the Younger after the power and skill he had demonstrated in killing his first three opponents.

Ofe manipulated one of his other co-conspirators, Akpobrisi the Net-Wielder Whose Touch Was Death, into attacking Ozidi at the home of his uncle, King Temugedege. And not one-on-one like the three dead and decapitated men Ozidi the Younger had already slain, but with an army of men at his side. Continue reading →

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE.

PART THREE: When we left off, our hero Ozidi the Younger had just finished slaying the first of his father’s murderers and Ozidi reminded his mentally unfit uncle, King Temugedege, that he is having to take care of the family business that he is incapable of. When all of the killers of Ozidi the Elder have been dealt with, his father’s spirit will be free from the deadlands limbo in which it currently dwells. 

Azezabife the Half Man (also called Kemepara), another of his father’s murderers, is the next to confront Ozidi. The narrative makes it clear that despite his bluster and his graphic description of the way he intends to kill our hero, Azezabife is frightened deep down.   

This figure is called the Half Man because one half of his body is normal while the other half is hideous and monstrous. Azezabife was spawned by the deadlands and in that limbo there is another of him whose body is human on the half where the living Azezafife is monstrous and vice versa. Continue reading →

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE.

PART TWO: Ozidi’s maternal grandmother Oreame performs the ritual to transform him from a mere mortal into a spiritual warrior who is as strong as ten men, has eyes that blaze like lightning and can see through the lies of deceitful men and ears that can hear the whispers of the Niger River gods. The ritual includes bathing Ozidi in palm oil and river water.

The sky gods send down a hawk which perches on our hero’s shoulder and serves as his messenger. Next, Oreame summons the sorcerer Bou-Akarakarabiri, who uses a spell that reduces all manner of tools, weapons and animals into a potion.

Oreame forces the potion down Ozidi’s throat so that it rests in his intestines. The magical mixture will enable him to summon any of the tools, weapons and animals out of his mouth to use them during his adventures. Continue reading →

OZIDI – Over the years, Balladeer’s Blog has examined several epic myths from around the world. I’ve reviewed Navajo, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Greek, Roman and African epics. Among the African epics I’ve examined were the Mwindo Epic, the Woi Epic, the sagas of Aiwel Longar, Bakaridjan Kone and others.

For today, the subject is the tale of Ozidi of the Ijo/ Ijaw people in what is now Nigeria. It is another African Epic performed in words and music over the course of several days. Every major character has a musical theme of their own which gets repeated throughout the performance of this epic, a wonderful anticipation of modern-day musical scores for movies.  

PART ONE: Among the Orua, the nation’s kingship is rotated among each of its royal clans. (In the popular 1990s adaptations this was instead depicted as the rotating series of political candidates who rise to become the head of state.) It is now the turn of the clan of Ozidi the Elder, commander of the army but Ozidi himself is the second-oldest son and therefore not eligible to become king. Continue reading →