Moremi Ajasoro

Captured by Choice

In Yoruba oral tradition (itan), the city of Ile-Ife was repeatedly raided by a people usually called the Ugbo, who appeared to the Ife as fearsome spirits covered in dried grass and raffia fiber, terrifying the defenders into flight. Moremi, a queen of Ife, chose to let herself be captured during a raid so she could learn the raiders' secret from inside their camp, where she rose in status, in most versions marrying the Ugbo king.

The Secret of the Raffia Spirits

Moremi discovered that the "spirits" were ordinary men disguised in raffia and grass costumes and escaped back to Ife with this knowledge. Armed with it, the Ife were able to defeat the next raid by setting the attackers' costumes alight with fire, ending the threat the Ugbo had posed for years.

A Vow and Its Cost

Before her capture, Moremi had made a vow to the spirit of a local river, most often named as Esimirin, promising a great sacrifice if she returned safely and her plan succeeded. In the tradition's most widely told and most painful version, the price the river spirit demanded was her only son, Oluorogbo, whom she gave up to fulfill her vow. As with much orally transmitted history, different lineages and quarters of Ile-Ife preserve variant details of the story, including which river spirit was owed the debt and the exact nature of what Moremi sacrificed.

A Living Memory

Moremi's story was first set down at length in Reverend Samuel Johnson's The History of the Yorubas, compiled from oral sources around 1897 and published posthumously in 1921, though the tradition itself long predates that written record. Ile-Ife still commemorates her sacrifice and the city's deliverance each year at the Edi Festival.