Orisha Oko

Orixá Ocô is the form Reginaldo Prandi uses, in Mitologia dos Orixás, for the orisha of agriculture. In the book’s glossary the entry reads “orixá of agriculture; forgotten in Brazil” and gives the Yoruba form in brackets (Prandi, glossary, entry “orixá ocô”). In the myths the name always carries the title “Orixá”, and the text itself explains that Ocô means farm (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô cria a agricultura com a ajuda de Ogum”). Spellings change with each source’s tradition. The count in the project’s works gives Orixá Ocô in Prandi (70 occurrences), Òrìsà Oko in Verger (Orixás, pp. 42 and 48), Orishaoko in the Tratado Enciclopédico de Ifá (256 occurrences), in Angarica (45) and in Cabrera (3), Òrìşà Oko in Mason and Oricha Oko in Brown. Each speaks of one place: Brazil (Prandi), the Yoruba world and Bahia (Verger), Cuba (Tratado, Angarica, Cabrera, Brown). The site writes Orixá Ocô in Portuguese, Orisha Oko in English and French, and Orishaoko in Spanish; none of the works says that the details of worship are the same from one place to another. The orisha’s standing also varies. Prandi gives him as forgotten in Brazil; Brown records that in Cuba Oricha Oko is regarded, with Olokun and Odúa, as “too big” to be mounted directly on one person’s head (Brown, Santería Enthroned, p. 156 of the PDF).

The domain is cultivated land. Cabrera records, in Cuba, that Olorun divided the universe among his children and that Orishaoko received the earth, the fields and the plantings (Cabrera, El Monte, p. 52 of the PDF). Angarica says Orishaoko “represents the earth” and places him in a list with Olokun, Oke and Yewa (Angarica, Manual del Oriaté, p. 30 of the PDF). Angarica adds features that only he gives in the pages we read: Orishaoko is male, is a deity, is the husband of Olokun and has two faces — by day a handsome man of fine manners; by night, the figure of death (Angarica, pp. 11–12 of the PDF). Verger, speaking of Bahia and Africa, gives another wife: Eléfunlósunlórí, “the wife of Òrìsà Oko” (Verger, Orixás, p. 42). The two accounts are not settled by choosing one: each comes from a tradition. In Cuba, Mason records a drum rhythm for Òrìşà Oko that bears his name (Mason, Orin Òrìṣà, p. 26 of the PDF). In Brazil, Verger observes that Ogum lost his role as protector of farmers, and mentions Òrìsà Oko, “whose cult remained popular in Africa” (Verger, Orixás, pp. 47–48).

He creates agriculture with Ogum. In the beginning Oko was a man with nothing to do; when food ran short, Olorun charged him with planting, but he did not know how. He met a youth turning the earth with a twig; together they discovered, in the fire, that stone melted, and from this came the iron of tools. The youth was Ogum, and both were honored as patrons of agriculture (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô cria a agricultura com a ajuda de Ogum”). Condemned to work the land. In this myth Oko is the son of Yemoja and Obatala, learns the verses of Ifá, sings like no one else and lives in wealth. In his youth he throws a party where he promises a living to whoever drinks a mug of palm oil without breathing; many die. The people judge him and banish him to the countryside, where he lives from what the earth gives (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô é condenado a trabalhar a terra”). Expelled from his kingdom. In Iraô, Oko drives away with a potion the black birds that were destroying the crops and is made king. The people begin to fear his powers and expel him; the crops are lost again. When they come to ask for help, he refuses, vanishes beneath the earth and leaves his staff, to be planted in the ground in time of danger, never used in vain (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô é expulso de seu reino”). He vanishes and leaves the staff. In another account, a very old man who came down from the sky lives in the fields near Iraô. His family takes him to the city, country people begin to bring him gifts and, when he dies, the body disappears and only the staff remains. Offerings come to be placed where the staff stayed, and there is an annual festival (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô desaparece e deixa o cajado em seu lugar”). Other myths. In one, Oko is a solitary old hunter, with a fife and a dog, who judges those accused of sorcery (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô julga os praticantes de feitiçaria”); in another, Obatala gives him power over the yam plantations, because Oko knew how to keep discretion (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô recebe de Obatalá o poder sobre as plantações”); and, in the myth of Yewa, he devours the dead whom Obaluaye brings to him, so that they return to Nana Buruku’s earth (Prandi, myth “Euá se desilude com Xangô e abandona o mundo dos vivos”). In the Tratado Enciclopédico de Ifá, in the Odu Odi Kana, a patakí tells that Orishaoko, plowing the land, discovers Shango, who comes out of the earth as a stone and becomes a man; Olofin blesses him and makes him “king of the earth” (Tratado, pp. 92–93 of the PDF). The Tratado also gives a prayer and an ẹbọ there, which we do not reproduce.

What the sources record depends on the tradition. According to the myth, offerings to Oko are placed where the staff stayed and there is one festival a year (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô desaparece e deixa o cajado em seu lugar”); another myth says guinea fowl offered to him “sing praises of luck” (Prandi, myth “Orixá Ocô tira joias da barriga de suas caças”). In Cuba, Brown reports that the El Palenque community held annual feasts for Ogun and Oricha Oko, “the owner of the land” (Brown, p. 120 of the PDF). As for food, day, color and number, we found nothing to say in the pages read, so we assert nothing. What each case requires belongs to the babalawo’s table — not to a website.

The symbol most repeated in the myths is the staff: Oko leaves it to the people of Iraô and offerings come to be made where it stands (Prandi, myths “Orixá Ocô é expulso de seu reino” and “Orixá Ocô desaparece e deixa o cajado em seu lugar”). In Cuba, Angarica says Africans use as a symbol a roof tile with a palm-frond sheath marked with seven stripes (Angarica, p. 11 of the PDF). Also appearing in the myths are the staff of Iroko (myth “condenado a trabalhar a terra”), the fife and the dog (myth “julga os praticantes de feitiçaria”) and the yam (myth “recebe de Obatalá o poder sobre as plantações”). In the pages we read, we found no color, weekday or number tied to Oko. The gap is stated.

Oko appears in the sources as farmer, hunter, expelled king and an old man who vanishes leaving a staff; the myths do not form a single portrait. The traditions differ on who his wife is and on how much his cult has survived. This text is a study of the cited sources, not a consultation. To go further, read Prandi’s myths in full and the pages of Verger, Angarica and Brown indicated above.