The Inevitable Price

The people of ini would have been lost in antiquity if there had not emerged from them great warriors who led to several wars, conquering many lands and expanding their territory. Ini land was originally made up of small stretches of land full of hills sometime cab with verdure, plateau and fractured ancient mountains.

Thanks to the past days and our heroes both dead and living”, the people would mutter in appreciation of what their warriors did for them. Then they could boast of fertile land, streams, thick bushes and wild forest that harboured a thousand wild animals.

Before the happy day in ini, one could hardly find a hunter let alone talk of hunting in the land. The people managed to extract farmland from a scarcely fertile hill and plateau.

Peace too was elusive. The people were terrorised by their neighbours and sometimes humiliated, especially by the people of kuchikua. whose threats and molestations was the worst

Now the people of ini had a peculiar history. Before they came to settle in their homeland as asylum setters, it was believed that they were part of those who fled from the legendary town of adofia. They suffer greatly from the works of their own hands and untold dreams.

Legend has it that udofia town, whose origin is uncertain was inhabited by dwarfs. This state of dwindled growth made them look inferior before their neighbours.  This later lured them into the preparation of an ogu, a deity that intrigued their prospect of attaining the power of giving birth to giant beings devoid of illness or premature death but rather fill and virile strength.

After instituting the powerful deity with all sort of ingredients including human beings, they named it Oduduwa. By the end that generation. In time run the agile and strength fill youths saw themselves as small gods.

 They abandoned their deity out of total pride. None had time to observe the rules, as prescribe by their oracle. This marked the beginning of her noble and historical warfare. Right from that period, premature death and stunted growth crept in among the people. 

They began to lose their fame until at last they were massacred by their foes. It was this massacre and exodus of the indigenes out of Odufia that led. as believed, to the springing up of the town of Ini  in that period of antiquity.

For many years the Ini people lived as mere slaves to their foes, Kuchikua. They cried in agony to their ancestors but to no avail. In furtherance of the painful threats, Kuchiukua warned them of complete absorption into market slavery should they show any sigh rebellion.

 At the height of suffering in hilly land, they realise their father's fault to the instituted deity of their ancestors. They later reach a decision to consult the oracle to ascertain whether they great Oduduwa could grant them bail from the ever-increasing and unbearable suffering that accompanied their fault and their father's.

Following the appeasement of their spiritual guide, they lived in the optimism that one day, they would be emancipated from their ever –increasing bondage.

Time moved further from their hope. 

The promise of the oracle and their great Oduduwa seemed empty. All of a sudden, a striking figure of a man surfaced. He grew at such a rate that everyone took cognizance of him. He was considered the sturdiest man in Ini. Meanwhile, the gods proved their superiority over men because the eyes of kuchikua and other towns were closed over this great figure amid the slavery or killed if his presence was known earlier by kuchikua.

Odudu, the rising giant, grew to see his people in this miserable misfortune. As a virile man of valour and bravery, he couldn’t by any thought, stand the sight of his people in such bondage. Fully mature in bossom of youthfulness, his stature was fear and dreadful, his voice roared like the gathering thunders. He fed on bread that could serve four men.

Kuchikua warmed up as usual for their otiti oku celebration; a feast celebrated once every decade in honour and disposition of their spiritual guide in all warfare. The feast involved many evil practices. Slaves were brought to be sacrificed during the feast.

This had been part of the inhuman suffering Ini had been going through since her enslavement by kuchikua.

Odudu in his own stead couldn’t continue any longer, witnessing the evil befalling his people. What troubled him the most was that his people were being regarded as slaves to kuchikua. He assure his people of his determine task; to bring back the fame of their ancestors, irrespective of who or what it would take to do so.

When the feast was finally at hand, kuchikua, then aware of a significant figure in Ini, send a message to them demanding that they should release a hundred men including Odudu to them.

They were disappointed when their demand was met by the killing of all the men set to deliver the message. They were incredulous because Ini had never for once disobedient much less killing their messengers.

It happened that Odudu, on seeing the men, was pushed into deadly rage against them he learnt of their mission. He ignored the words of his people and decides to dare the lion in his den, by killing the men sent from kuchikua.

 After killing them he took their bodies to the new shrine of Oduduwa in Ini. As a result kuchikua swore to wipe off everything about Ini. Odudu warned them to kindly an end to all their plans to attack then because if they did, they would fail.

Kuchikua sent their soldiers for a complete devastation of Ini. What they had in mind was to capture the entire people, kill their male adult and sell their children and women to slave dealers who came from faraway lands.

 Before the dispatched army could get to Ini, Odudu had taken up the cudgel. He summoned a group of strong and brave men equipped with dangerous ancient weapons for a face to face combat with the oncoming army whose advancement was reported by spies from Ini.

 Among the strong soldiers of kuchikua, none could withstand the strong power of the sudden attack forged against them. they all ran into perplexity in their confrontation with Odudu and his men.

 The abrupt offensive was far beyond the confines of their power. Before they knew what was happening, they were totally defeated. Not a single survivor could escape without a wound or more. Odudu displayed such bravery and great might that none of his men could explain.

They unusual was seen and heard of. Kuchikua, at least, was disgraced in a battlefield. This drove home the fact that defeat is not always meant for any giving set of people but to all; regardless of strength, race, freedom, or even tradition.

It was a battle fought to the state of frazzle, both in the physical and spiritual realms because as the eyes of the physical fell on physical, the spiritual eyes were being entertained by those of the dreadful spirit in both figures.  

The angry warriors of kuchikua were turned to an abyss of fright which sent them to flight. Their flight was of no use because through the strong angry spirit in Odudu all were taken captive and thereafter, fallen upon and slain.

The news spread like wild fire to other lands spreading fear on all that dwelt around. This marked the beginning of Inis conquest of land- far and wild.

As time moved along it untold paths, it left marks often referred to by men as event or histories concealed in past ages. 

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