The nostalgic memory of ARELU can never reach its fullness without its theme song:
Ka ma maa d’oro mo,
Ka ma se wu’wa ika
Ka ma se o, ika o da’a, ka ma se o,
Eyin te n f’omo olomo se’so, te ro pa’ye o lo pin te ro pe’gbaa oro kii fo o, oniwa yio jeere iwaa.
Ka ma maa d’oro mo,
Ka ma se wu’wa ika
Ka ma se o, ika o da’a, ka ma se o,
Wobia fi’nu eniyan se’le, won feru gbaa’bukun kiri, ojo ojo kan nbo wa o, te o f’aso werepe bo’ra
Ka ma maa d’oro mo,
Ka ma se wu’wa ika
Ka ma se o, ika o da’a, ka ma se o,
Ife owo t’omo araye ni lon pa won kuu lo, iku l’owo omo Oduduwa, owo n’iku u, iku u l’owo.
Ka ma maa d’oro,
Ka ma se wuwa ika
Ka ma se o, ika o da’a, ka ma o.
*****
Fadeyi Oloro became more dreadful, everyone that met him must have one or more stories of woe to tell. The Dokunu king’s wife who was heavily pregnant met him and she received a curse from Fadeyi which led to her death on the day she was to put to bed. Feyintola who was betrothed to the royal prince too had her fair share from Fadeyi cruelty.
The only person that Fadeyi could not touch was the notorious iron lady known as Aina Eleyin-Oke, Aina Eleyin-Oke called Fadeyi’s bluffs many times without numbers and she made bold faces out of each one of them all without any consequence.
Orisabunmi became a marriable young pretty lady among the gnomes, though her beauty was irresistible but she had never wished to marry anyone amongst the gnomes. She was always sent on errand to buy foodstuffs like coconuts, banana and other fruits in the market of men because she was the only one amongst them that resembled human being.
In one of her sojourns to the outer-world, she encountered Fadeyi Oloro while he was dealing mercilessly with a pregnant young woman that disrespected him, Osabunmi confronted Fadeyi and set the young pregnant woman free from his snare. Through his spiritual eyes, Fadeyi Oloro knew Orisabunmi was not an ordinary human being he could deal with, so he allowed her to be.
While Fadeyi Oloro iniquities grew, some young boys, six in number, came together and sought ways out to deal with him, after a long heated unruly deliberation, they connived and teamed up as a team of espionage. They went to flatter Fadeyi and there they showed their interests in learning occult power, medicine and herbal crafts. Fadeyi took them and the six-boys were learning but unknown to him they were there as undercovers.
Aderopo too grew up as a brave hunter and as fate would have it, he met Orisabunmi and they became lovers. Their loves grew and later they got married. It was a bizarre wedding of a weird combination of two different folks.
****
Too closely, Osunfunke eyes were watching Orisabunmi, the mother-daughter instinctual bond was growing and at a time it became irrepressible, a birthmark on the back of the left earlobe of Orisabunmi baffled Osunfunke and Aworo for being identical to the one on her lost baby. Osunfunke pushed to know further who was Orisabunmi and it was later revealed by Owo-otori and her husband Toromogbe that Osabunmi was not their biological daughter.
Osunfunke received Orisabunmi as her real daughter and that led to another internal rift with her husband, Aderopo, who later knew Osunfunke was not his real mother. Aderopo was mocked and he packed his luggage and left Dopemu in a journey to seek his own true parent. (Do not forget that Aderopo was a kidnapped grandson of Fadeyi Oloro)
The six-spies were able to poison and kill Fadeyi only son, Fa’atunde, and later they destroyed all his charms and shrines, they set his arsenal on fire and ran away.
Fadeyi got to his power-house to find it burnt down to ashes, he cursed the perpetrators, not knowing they were his apprentices, the six-boys.
All of the six-boys died as cursed by Fadeyi who felt betrayed, many of these boys were children of chiefs of Dokunu town and that triggered an uprising against no one but Fadeyi Oloro because all of them confessed links of their deaths to Fadeyi.
On the other side, Fadeyi Oloro thought that the people of Dopemu were behind the cruel arson attack on his arsenal, he left alone to attack them, as the fate would have it, Fadeyi met his own grandson, Aderopo, by the streamside in the outskirt of Dokunu and in his belligerent characteristic manner, Fadeyi Oloro confronted Aderopo and killed him in the fight that broke between them afterwards. Fadeyi unknowingly killed his own grandson, A s’eni, se’ra e.
Fadeyi went on to the border of Dopemu, he laid siege to attack the people in a vengeful mission for his destroyed arsenal. A counter war was spurred after a series of attack were reported to the palace of Dopemu with the thought that the people of Dokunu were at it again to wage war on them. Orisabunmi and Aworo led the Dopemu troop, and Osunfunke insisted to accompany her newly discovered daughter to the war.
On the other side in Dokunu town, people rose against Fadeyi oppression and his daughter was captured, killed and burnt despite her plea for mercy, Oka b’omo le, o b’oro. Oloye Akogun, baba Ojo, turned-down her plead for mercy and ordered her death. They all proceeded to the border of their town in the searching for Fadeyi Oloro who was obviously on the run.
Then both Dokunu and Dopemu were in pursuit of a one man, Fadeyi Oloro, who was needed to be held responsible for all the atrocities he had wreaked on the people on both sides. In the battle with Fadeyi Oloro, Osunfunke, mother of Orisabunmi, was brought down in the crossfire by the gun of Fadeyi Oloro. Having seen all against him, Fadeyi took to his heels, Kaaka kile kuu, ile yio yaa saa ni, he said and ran into the thick forest towards his own hometown.
Eventually Fadeyi met his waterloo as the two rival towns came together in unison to defeat their common enemy. With the supernatural power bestowed on Orisabunmi by Owo-otori and Toromogbe, Fadeyi was defeated and killed on the mountain amidst shouts of joy.
Orisabunmi was called upon by her foster parents and in unusual circumstance, both Owo-otori and Toromogbe asked her where she got the supernatural power-cloth she wore. She told them she got it from them earlier.
Agbara owo re ta lo ni o
Eyin ni, eyin le ni n ma fi s’agbara, eyin ni.
Both told her to come closer while they were apparently luring her in order to strip her off the power, as they asked her again and again and as they recoiled in to the woods.
Agbara owo re ta lo ni o
Eyin ni, eyin le ni n ma fi s’agbara, eyin ni.
THE END
You can still watch the disjointed episodes of Arelu on the YouTube, very interesting though.
Oladele Idowu Joseph
