Thread by @YorubaHistory

Aole's Curse

At last, an empty covered calabash was sent to the King for his head! A plain indication that he was rejected. He had suspected this all along and was not unprepared for it.

#Yoruba

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There being no alternative, His Majesty set his house in order; but before he committed suicide, he stepped out into the palace quadrangle with face stern and resolute, carrying in his hands an earthenware dish and three arrows.

He shot one to the North, one to the South, & one to the West uttering those ever-memorable imprecations,

"My curse be on ye for your disloyalty and disobedience, so let your children disobey you. If you send them on an errand, let them never return to bring you word again...

..To all the points I shot my arrows will ye be carried as slaves. My curse will carry you to the sea and beyond the seas, slaves will rule over you, and you their masters will become slaves."

With this he raised and dashed the earthenware dish on the ground smashing it into pieces, saying:

" Igba la iso a ki iso awo, beheni ki org mi o se to ! to ! "

(a broken calabash can be mended, but not a broken dish; so let my words be irrevocable!)

He then took poison and died, after which the camp was broken up, and each of the chiefs repaired to his own place. Thus ended an unhappy reign of about seven years, and Prince Adebo succeeded him on the throne.

Asamu Agba-o lekan was the Basgrun of this reign.

Source: History of the Yorubas by Samuel Johnson

This happened Circa 1796 AD.