Ẹjì Ogbè

Olódùmarè gave the sixteen Odù a cow to share among themselves. There was enough on it for everybody.

They took it apart in order of seniority, and when they were finished there was a head left over. In those days the head of any animal was reckoned bone. So they gave it to the youngest, and thought nothing of it.

His Babaláwos told him to cook it - and to invite the very men who had insulted him to come and eat it with him. He did. That meal is what made him king.

Twenty-nine nights later they were asked one question: who received the head of the cow I gave you? They answered with contempt. And then nothing - nobody heard anything again from where He had been speaking.

While they waited, beings none of them had ever seen walked the length of the hall, past the tallest of them standing at the front with his hand already rising, and took the smallest one from the very back. They dressed him, crowned him, sat him on the throne, and told the rest to come and pay tribute.

Every one of them did, except one.

The first verse of Ifá says it before the story starts: the one who came to receive the head of the cow was not unimportant at Ifẹ̀ long ago. The hand reaches much higher than the head; young palm fronds reach much higher than old palm fronds.

A painted graphic novel set entirely in Ọ̀run, with the first verse of Ifá, the losing account, and a note on the Odù.