Ejiogbe: the head that was a divinity

Ejiogbe — Ogbe Meyi in Cuban spelling, Èjì Ogbè in the Nigerian one — is the first of the sixteen major Odus: two identical legs, eight single marks, the sign that opens the count. The Tratado treats it with due reverence: it calls the sixteen Meyis "the Olodus, the apostles of Orunmila", and gives Ejiogbe the largest entry in the whole book — more than 160 pages (from p. 557).

And the entry opens with a surprising statement: Ejiogbe's most important work in heaven was revealing how the head — which was, itself, a divinity — came to hold a permanent place on the body (p. 558). In the beginning, the patakí says, the divinities were created without heads. Orí existed apart, rolling through the world, a divinity among divinities.

What changes everything are four kola nuts that no one in heaven could split — and a gesture of hospitality that explains, to this day, why the head touches the ground before Orunmila.