Dr Freaks Journal - My "Dance" With "Oro" In Esa-Oke -

Dr Freaks Journal serves it HOT!

It happened 25 years ago precisely. I was in my final year at the University of Benin and a very close cousin of mine who was at the time trying to gain admission into the University was putting up with me. To the glory of God, he's a very big boy in England today.


T had just returned from the village where he had gone to fetch foodstuffs and or money, but guess what, he came with his "latest catch". Was I angry, nah nah nah, we were more than close, and before me, he could do no wrong! I welcomed him and his friend and I excused them for some time.

 She left after two days anyways and I could remember that she told me about a beautiful friend of hers who would like to meet me. That was the practice at the time. When you have a babe, your friends would approach her and make a humble prayer before her to link them up with any of her beautiful friend. Funny times.


T and his babe shared beautiful stories about the babe under reference and I had already fallen in love before even setting my eyes on her. Two days after T's girl's departure, T and I decided to travel down to Esa-Oke all the way from Benin. 

It was a pleasurable trip. We left Benin at about 4.00pm and got to Akure as late as 6.30pm, meanwhile we were still going to Ilesa and later Esa-Oke. We got the park in Akure and had to wait for the vehicle to get filled up to maximum capacity. This did not happen earlier than 7.30pm. We eventually got to Ilesa as late as past 8.00 and we were still going to Esa-Oke. 

There were no mobile phones at the time and we were oblivious of what was going on at our destination. No vehicle was heading in that direction, for strange reasons until we saw a Nissan Sunny with two occupants. They were young and we suspected that they were students like us.


The last thing on our innocent minds at the time was whether they could be kidnappers or anything sinister. They offered us a ride and we jumped at it having waited endlessly at the junction. Our guesses were right. They were students. They sought to know whether we were also students and they were like are we not aware of what was going on in the village on that day. 

How could we have known, we wondered. We came in from Benin and we didn't have the slightest inkling of what was going on thereat. Eventually, they opened up and we realized that it was not a good time to enter the village. It was "Oro" season.

 This may interest you, where I come from (my village), "Oro" and "Egungun" (masquerade) are forbidden. What this meant was that I did not know what they were talking about at the time until they proffered an explanation. At this point, I knew that my cousin and I were in trouble. All our shakara and gra-gra don end today!


So what it meant was that some strange looking spirits were going to hurt "our enemies"! Not us oh. At the time, I could not have been scared of physical assault like that, but spiritual and metaphysical, a beg I no dey house oh! 

The boys who gave us that life-saving ride stayed at the outskirts of Esa-Oke and we were still going further. They would have loved to drop us off at our destination, but hey, they were Lagos boys who did not want to have anything to do with "Oro". We alighted at that point. Left to me alone I would have loved to and I was ready to beg these boys to let us sleep on their corridor, at worst but T would not hear of such. He had his ulterior motive, he wanted to see his girlfriend that night. Or am I being selfish here? 

I also wanted to see my own "blind date". The temptation of seeing those girls was more real than the danger of falling into the trap of those "Oro" adherents.

 We summoned up courage, "Oro" or no "Oro", we were unstoppable, we were going to get to the "promised land" that night. We exercised an uncommon faith and continued like true "Akonis" (warriors) heading towards "Òkè Lángbòdó" (Langbodo Hill). T was more familiar with the terrain, he led and I followed like a sheep that was being led to the slaughter. We manoeuvred and even though everywhere was dark and quiet , We were the only natural human beings on the street of Esa-Oke. 

Each time I remembered what we were told I would become terrified for some minutes, but the thoughts of what lies ahead is worth dying for. Fools, we were! Lol. 

Our friends had earlier stated that they had terrestrial powers that could enable them to be at every part of the village at the same and that there was no way we were going to evade their arrest. We however continued, not because we were out to defile the lockdown order (executive order), but because greater was "she" that we were going to meet than all the fear out there. We continued. We saw light.

 Heard scary sounds but we continued until we made it to our destination. T went to the back of the window. He knocked and whispered, no response. We had to hide in the bathroom (made of raffia) that was situated outside the building at the time. It took the intervention to one of our hosts' neighbours who came to ease himself thereat to gain entrance. That was how we gained entrance. 

They were scared to the bone marrow. How did we make it down? Why did we arrive so late? Questions upon questions. T was able answer some of the questions, I was not interested. I had a mission, having taken that kind of risk, it had better been worthwhile.

 "Blind date" turned awry. Hahaha. Exercise a little patience now, I shall come back to the story.


Few minutes later, we heard a voice outside, then an argument ensued, 

''this was where they entered''

''no, no one entered this house''. 

The argument went on and on for few more minutes and at this point, I had already peed in my pant! Then one spirit just came and moved them away from that spot. That was how we survived the looming calamity.


Back to the room, the "blind date" had just come out of a relationship and she was not ready to give love another shot at the moment. Who wanted love anyway?. 

The following day, I continued with the toasting exercise, Omo! She no gree and hey, no time oh. Sadly enough, I had wasted my money, risked my life by coming down to that "Oro-infested village" that night, but at least I had an option to go back to Benin and carry on with my life. Convincing T was not difficult and before 9.00am, we were at the motor park and that was how I kissed Esa-Oke goodbye till today!


Dear God, I thank you today again, for all-round protection and for seeing us all through those dark days.

Stay safe.

I am Kunle