The Statue Of Ijaye.
There are many mysteries surrounding the house of Sodeke in Abeokuta- like how the descendants of Sodeke can never live away from their community- they grow, birth and die in their big, ancient and confined edifices; mystery of strange cries of babies that can only be heard by outsiders.
Of all, the biggest mystery is the statue which stands at the entrance of their little community. Wooden. Simple. Scary. Small. The statue of Ijaye. Some accounts say the carving disappears at times at nights, and then reappears in the morning.
Everyone who is not a Sodeke fears it, they try every means to avoid passing before it, but if they absolutely have to, they just walk past and never look.
The fear isn't because it looks scary, it isn't even because of the rumors of how it disappears, or how it winks at passersby, or how no one asides a few elders of Sodeke knows the origin of the statue and how it has come to settle with them, the fear stems from the fact that even though so small and unburied, the statue can never be lifted off the ground.
It is impossible to lift the statue of Ijaye off its position.
Centuries ago, attention was first drawn to the statue when members of the then Abeokuta community discovered that their children would crawl over to a seemingly small statue in front of Sodeke's compound, and attempt to move it. They always failed. Soon, the adults joined and were marveled at how something so small and unburied could be impossible to move. The elders of Sodeke would just watch from their windows and laugh, they knew no one, not even their own children could move the statue. It took only a chosen Sodeke to lift it, and that, according to the family history had happened just six times since the beginning.
Soon, news went far and the statue became a target for thieves.
The first set of robbers arrived one night, they dug and dug, they dug around the statue till it started standing on nothing. When the time came to lift, they tried and tried till they began grunting, till they grunted to death. All of them.
After about 50 sets of heavily armed and fortified men from Abeokuta and other far away lands, including the whites had come, failed and died grunting, every one stopped. It was sudden. Like it just hit them that trying to lift the statue was always going to be a fruitless mission. The fear then started for the statue of Ijaye.
For decades, following the awareness, no human could still lift the statue.
But here was the twist- the Sodekes prayed it remained so. The first three people who lifted it taught everyone the statue was better off on the ground.
Alaran, the third grandson of Sodeke was the first person to lift the statue. It was accidental. One moment, he was crawling around like every normal child, the next, he knocked the statue which seemed to have appeared from nowhere over.
It was unbelievable.
Those who saw it froze. Since the strange statue appeared, they had never seen it on its side.
Next, little Alaran went close, touched and lifted it. Immediately, the unimaginable happened.
Alaran went off the ground and shot upwards as his face got transformed to that of the statue. By the time he came down seconds later, he had grown about ten years older.
It was a petrifying sight.
For the next few days, Alaran rapidly grew physically, he starting having strange abilities- supernatural powers. He quickly became an adult, he built and aggressively expanded the Sodeke's territory, erected edifices, he went to battles alone and came back with the victory. This earned him the name, Ijaye. It meant, to fight and survive.
Alaran became untouchable.
All these would have been great, but the powers soon made him bad and ruthless. He began killing without trials, all he had to do was point the statue, and the person would fall and die. Alaran dethroned the king and ruled without mercy. No one could talk about him in secret, because he always heard, and the person mostly always died. He seemed to be everywhere.
Alaran turned the whole Abeokuta upside down.
One morning, many years later, the people woke up to find out the statue was back at its usual position, when they went to check Alaran, he was dead. Everyone jubilated and danced. For the first time, the statue got a name. The statue of Ijaye.
Few years later, another Sodeke baby knocked down the statue and lifted it. She grew to become ruthless too. For the first time in Yoruba land, a woman had more than a husband. Alarape had 70 husbands, all living in the compound of Sodeke.
It soon became clear that only a Sodeke had the chance of lifting the statue, so when Alarape died, a ritual was begun. Every new child born of a Sodeke would be taken to the statue and made to play with it, maybe they will lift it.
This was how Akinkuye and Alagbagba were discovered. They both became evil too. Theirs was greater. And they couldn't be killed. It began seeming that the level of evil increased with each newly chosen person. Alagbagba once burnt down an entire village and its people because they sent the wrong type of yam tubers.
When the elders of Sodeke realised activating the statue only resulted in the birth of evil and unchecked power, they initiated another ritual.
Whenever a child passed the first ritual and lifted the statue, he or she would be killed immediately before getting the chance to go upwards. This was how Omokunke and Akinolu were killed before they could grow into monsters.
The rituals continued in order to prevent accidental power transfer which was the case of Alaran and Alarape.
Decades after Akinolu died naturally, no Sodeke baby has been found to lift the statue, it is as though the spirit dwelling in the statue of Ijaye is angry and won't come again until one night.
A moonless night.
Another ritual night.
There is a long line of babies crying in their mothers' arms. They are flanked by an equally long line of oil lamps.
One by one, afraid, each woman brings her baby forward to finger and attempt to move the statue of Ijaye.
Whenever a child is unable to move it, their mother will run forward, grab the child and run off exhilarated, before something happens, before the elders change their mind.
That night, when it gets to Adenike's turn. She walks forward amidst intense incantations and gently drops her boy.
The little boy fumbles around for a few seconds, next, in a moment that seems like a dream, he grabs the statue. As easy as lifting a breast off a woman's chest, the statue comes back up in his tiny hands.
Instantly, there is a deafening thunder, followed by a mild land quake. Everyone is thrown off balance. Many mothers find themselves falling, their babies crawling out of their hands, the elders too struggle to take their stand as streaks of lightning fork around the dark sky.
In one swift move, the little boy begin to rise.
Another chosen one has been found.
But before he can go far, a flight of charmed arrows answer from nowhere, they pierce through his tender body exiting the back.
Still, he rises.
When he comes back down, it is with a thud! Dead.
Dead.
There is an eruption of joy.
While the warriors are still celebrating their big victory- that which they have trained for all their life, while mothers try to regain their balance and pick up their babies, someone screams,
"I can't find my baby!"
But it is too late, the missing girl is already at the statue. She picks it.
At that moment, a stronger, angrier thunder rolls.
Before the warriors can regroup, the little girl is gone. She just shoots upward with an unnatural speed.
When she reappears, grown, a useless flight of arrows welcome her.
She lands, the arrows sticking of out her.
One by one, she breaks them off. The stuck parts remain in her, doing her no harm.
They are trained for this, unmoved, the warriors round her up, they draw their weapons again, but before they can release, she speaks, her eyes rolled up,
"don't you dare!"
AUTHOR - Soogun Omoniyi