Image source: pixabay
As a lady born and bred in Osun State, I have been told the story of how Ile-Ife (a part of Osun) was almost destroyed due to attacks from the Igbo people many years ago.
The heroine that saved the day was Moremi.
This is one of my favourites folktales which was repeatedly told by my aunty to my siblings and I.
Then, before she starts, she would introduce the familiar song associated with her and we would sing the chorus.
The song which is sang in yoruba goes thus:
My aunty: Un o palo fun un yin (I want to tell you a folktale)
Chorus: Alooo x2 (folktale)
My Aunty: Aloo mi alo o (a folktale a folktale)
Chorus: Aloo (folktale)
My Aunty: Itan Moremi (The story of Moremi)
Chorus: Aloo (folktale)
My Aunty: Itan Oluorogbo ( The story of Oluorogbo)
Chorus : Aloo (folktale)
My Aunty: Alo mi alo o (a folktale a folktale)
Chorus Aloo (folktale)
After singing this, my aunty would start the story. It goes thus:
Ife, the ancestral home of the Yorubas once witnessed a great disaster, an invasion from unknown people. At the end of the encounter, the invaders would carry their farm products, take the unlucky weaker men, women and children who were not able to escape as slaves.
The Ife people thought that their gods were angry with them because their invaders often come masked.
Moremi, an Ife woman of great beauty and royalty felt concerned and made recourse to Esinmirin, the river goddess.
Esinmirin accepted and taught Moremi what to do. During the next attack, just as planned with Esinmirin, Moremi allowed herself to be captured, and because of her great beauty and royalty, she was given to the strange king as wife.
From there, she got to know the secrets of their enemies. While coming to invade them, they would dress in leaves to make themselves look scary.
They could be conqured if they are being burnt.
One night, she sneaked out of the palace and was able to escape back to Ife.
During the next attack of the invaders, Moremi who had already taught her her people what to do led them to defeat their enemies.
In appreciation of their victory, Moremi went to Esinmirin with different things such as goats, fowls, snails and other things as a sign of her appreciation, but unfortunately, Esinmirin refused everything.
The goddess rejected everything and requested that Moremi's only son, Oluorogbo should be sacrificed to her.
This was a very huge blow to Moremi. Since she was not left with much choice, she had to do as instructed.
As a result of the fact that Moremi made the ultimate sacrifice by giving her only son to the goddess, she became honoured, and even till now, not only is she seen as a Mythical-legendary figure, a festival is being done in honour of her deeds yearly, and also, a pageantry is done in her name to celebrate her.
This is my submission for the 
https://steemit.com/sankofa/@sankofa/share-a-part-of-your-heritage-and-win-steem-announcing-sankofa-contest-10