Episode Five: It’s Jesu! Not Esu

Tadeyanju was urinating against a tree when a guard and Chief Osi walked up behind him. Even before Osi spoke, Tadeyanju knew that it was him. He also knew why he had come, audacious enough to interrupt his private moment. He angled his face slightly to look at Osi, his expression showing he did not welcome the interruption.

“It is time. The palace requires your services,” Osi said.

Tadeyanju hissed and looked away from him. “If it is a service, why do you come with a guard?

Chief Osi sighed, confused about how to answer. Tadeyanju may be an Abobaku, but he was also his friend, and they had enjoyed many moments together. Nobody had imagined that the King would die this early, and in retrospect, getting too close to a person whose death was imminent was probably not a good idea. Despite all sentiments, tradition must be observed.

“Are we no longer friends?” Tadeyanju asked, tucking himself in and facing Osi, but refusing to move closer to him.

“Our friendship is the reason I came to escort you myself,” Osi replied.

“Well, as my friend, you should respect my privacy. I was relieving myself.”

Osi shook his head in frustration. He could see that Tadeyanju was going to make things more difficult than they should be. “But you are done now, so let us go.”

Tadeyanju stared at Osi for what felt like a minute, then said, “This is the first phase. I plan to move towards the inner bush to do the second phase, and you will agree with me that no one will be able to withstand being around for that, so go back to the palace, I will meet you there.”

Chief Osi couldn’t help laughing. The situation was definitely not funny, but he couldn’t help himself. 

Osi’s laughter irked Tadeyanju. “I swore to be buried alive with the King. It is my family’s singular honour. My daughter will gladly do the same when it is time to follow Adeyeri, yet, you do not trust me. If my word is worth nothing, then my life is not worthy to go with the King.”

“My friend,” Osi started to say, thinking of a gentle way to convince Tadeyanju to come with him, but Tadeyanju didn’t let him finish. Instead, he held his buttocks in a dramatic show of his need to relieve himself privately, and began to walk into the bush.

“If I am your friend, you will let me do the needful first, knowing that it may be my last.”

The guard made a move to follow him as he walked further away into the bush, but Osi motioned him to stop, and they both watched as Tadeyanju disappeared behind a tree.

From behind the tree, Tadeyanju peeped to see if the guard and Chief Osi were looking at him. When he saw that they were not, he quickly turned around to face Shade, who had been hiding behind the tree all along. They were in the middle of a conversation when Osi and the guard showed up, and Shade had quickly hid herself because no one  knew about the relationship between her and Tadeyanju. They all thought she was his sister, whom his mother left with when she ran away after her husband died with the King before Adeyanju. Unbeknownst to them, the pregnant woman who had come back to love Tadeyanju some years ago was not his sister, and he was determined to keep everyone in the dark.

Shade was literally shaking. “My son is still very young. I am all he has.”

“And he will have you for a very long time, just be calm, and play your game right. We have not come this far to give up now,” Tadeyanju said, and tried to grab Shade’s hands to comfort her, but she yanked it away, calculating how to escape without being seen.

“Now I understand why Tade’s mother left you. This situation is too dramatic for anyone’s peace of mind. They almost saw us together. What will happen now?”

Tadeyanju looked back to see if Osi and the guard were still distracted. They were. He turned back to Shade.

“I will run away, but you will remain here. Pretend as if you are looking for herbs or something.” Shade stared at him as though she considered him mad. He sighed impatiently. “Even if they see you, they will suspect nothing. You are just a woman on a farm.”

Shade nodded in fear, deciding to try his approach, not seeing any other way out of the situation. Tadeyanju held her hands in a firm grip, trying to drive home his point. “No one must know who Tade is. I was wrong. It is a bad time for her to be here in Iludoyin. Hiding her here will be hard. I will get her out,”  he said, but Shade cut him off.

“How can you help anyone in your situation?”

“I may be a dead man walking, but I will protect my daughter with my last breath. Keep her away from the Prince, and my job will be easier,” he assured her then ran away.

From a distance, Osi saw him running away and hissed in disappointment, yet he stopped the guard from going after him. “We will not use his method. Leave him. He thinks that this is child’s play. Let us go, our work here is done.”

The guard followed Osi obediently, but could not help wondering what the Chief meant.

From a distance, Adeyeri and Banji watched as Tadeyanju ran out of the farm area. Iyalode and two guards were perched at a corner, and as soon as he sat down under a tree to catch his breath, they came out of their hiding place, and the two guards arrested him immediately.

“What is this, Iyalode? Why will I be disrespected like this?” Tadeyanju bellowed.

“I am the back up plan. We knew that you may not follow Osi easily, and we are ready to make sure you do your duty,” Iyalode explained gently. Regardless of his fate, he was still a Chief and deserved to be treated with respect. “Gently,” she said to the guards in a bid to contain their overzealousness.

Tade, who was trying to catch up with Adeyeri and Banji, found them watching as Tadeyanju was arrested and bundled to the palace. Unaware of the cultural importance of what was going on, Tade screamed in a bid to get help for the arrested man.

Immediately, Adeyeri caught her by the waist and covered her mouth with his hands. 

“Shut up woman! What are you about to do?”

Tade tried to break free of his hold, but Adeyeri held fast. “That man is being manhandled,” she explained, hoping Adeyeri would release her. When he didn’t, she glared at him. “With all due respect, I know you are in mourning, but we cannot leave a helpless man to those criminals.”

“Who are you? Where are you from? And how is it that you do not know these things?” Banji asked, genuinely surprised about Tade’s ignorance. 

Rather than respond, she tried to free herself from Adeyeri’s hold, and almost fell down when he suddenly released her and walked away to sit under a tree. He was in no mood to talk, his heart still breaking and heavy from the shock of the previous  night.

Banji sighed. He couldn’t imagine Adeyeri’s pain. “My Prince, we need to go to the palace. As you can see, the Abobaku has been captured. A lot of decisions will be made, and you need to be a part of the decision making process.” Adeyeri stared blankly at him as though trying to process his point, but could not make sense of it. Banji moved closer to him, and tried to use another point to get him to leave with him. “My Prince, this is not a safe place to be. You are the heir, please come with me. The safest place to be right now is the palace, let’s go there.”

Adeyeri laughed sadly. The sound was so shrill, one would think he was crying . “That safe palace swallowed my father,” he responded cryptically, “Do not tell me about safety,” he added coldly, his voice trembling. His pain was palpable, and Tade felt helpless.

She really should leave him alone, at least for now.

“I will go to the palace, my Prince, to be your ears. Please, join me as soon as you are able. May the gods comfort you,” Banji said, and made to leave when Adeyeri spoke again, stopping him in his tracks.

“Go with the witch. Take her away from me!” 

Banji obeyed and promptly attempted to pull Tade with him, but the look she gave him stopped  him  in his action.

“Err… Let her stand guard, my Prince, to ensure that no one bothers you.”

Adeyeri scoffed in a mixture of amusement and indignation while Banji held his shoulder briefly in comfort, then left. How Banji thought that the witch could protect him was ridiculous, but there was nothing amusing about all that was happening, so he maintained a stoic expression and kept his distance. On the other hand, Tade, who had felt compelled to stay behind and comfort Adeyeri, was beginning to feel helpless after almost one hour of just watching him sit still and do nothing,

Pray with him.

“I haven’t stopped praying for him.” 

Pray with him.

Realisation dawning on her, Tade rose to leave. “This is too much, Lord! He already calls me a witch. How would I pray in the name of Jesus without confirming his belief? He doesn’t know You. Praying with him will be rather ambitious.”

Pray.

She heaved a sigh and walked up to him. “God will comfort you,” she said in a forced attempt at prayer, and began to walk past him, leaving him to his sorrows, when Adeyeri held her by the wrist, turning her to face him. Tade shivered despite the heat of the sun. She felt the connection again. Whenever Adeyeri touched her, it was like an awakening, and it bothered her.

I have been delivered from him, why do I still feel so connected?

“I thought you would never leave,” Adeyeri said, his voice husky from prolonged silence.

“I am leaving now,” she replied, shrugging out of his hold, but Adeyeri held on tighter.

“I don’t know about where you are from, but here, I decide who comes and who goes.” 

“But I am not doing anything for you here, and soon, my Aunty will begin to look for me. Please, let me go!”

Adeyeri had expected a protest, and was surprised that she was amenable. He dropped her hand and nodded as though permitting her to leave, but as soon as she began to go, he held her hand again, this time gently.

“I don’t want to be alone,” he confessed.

Tade was surprised to hear him say this. She covered his hand with hers, and sat beside him. “You are never alone. I am always praying for you.”

Adeyeri raised a brow, looking at her quizzingly, then relaxed his back against the trunk of the tree. “Your prayers are the reason I am alive?”

Tade sighed, unsure about the answer to give. “I cannot take the credit, but I believe that God is protecting you.”

“What God?”

“Jesus!”

“Jesus!” Adeyeri said, testing the name, but unable to pronounce it well.

“He is the Almighty.”

Adeyeri pulled his hand out of her hold, fear gripping him. Even though it was just the two of them, he felt another presence.

“I know Sango, Ifa, Orunmila, Obatala and others. Who is this Jesus?”

He wasn’t pronouncing Jesus right.

“Call him Jesu. It will be easier for you to say.”

“Oh! You mean Esu. I know of him,” Adeyeri said, trying to get to the bottom of the power behind Tade’s prophecies. He wanted to harness that power to see the future.

“No, I don’t mean the devil. They are as different as light is from darkness.”

Adeyeri scoffed. “I take it that this your Jesu is the light.”

Tade nodded, uncomfortable with the progression of the conversation. She was not equipped to preach about the Lord, and prayed that he would not ask her any difficult questions.

“I am not going to be scared of you,” Adeyeri said, even though he was overwhelmed with fear. “How do I know that it was not you, with your strange gods, that angered our gods, and wreaked this disaster? Look at me, hiding out in the bush, scared about what will happen next.”

“You don’t have to be afraid, Prince Adeyeri. The Holy Spirit is here with us,” Tade said, holding his hands.

The touch of her hands and the sound of her voice was a soothing balm, yet his mind could not accept her ministration. “Leave me alone!” he stated, and stood. “You will not scare me with the presence of any evil spirit.” Tade moved closer to him, but he stepped away. “Woman, leave me alone! I don’t need help from you, your Jesu or your evil Holy Spirit. Stay away from me.”

Tade was going to leave, embarrassed and tired of the burdens of this man, but the Holy Spirit egged her on, and she found that she couldn’t stop speaking.

“The coming days will be tough. You cannot win on your own. No one wins in this world without spiritual help, because the physical is largely controlled by the spiritual. You cannot be lukewarm, Prince Adeyeri, neither blowing hot nor cold. You have to pick a side, and the only side that is guaranteed to help you win is the Lord’s side.”

Adeyeri stared at her blankly for a second. “Woman, what is wrong with you? I asked you to be my witch, to be on my side and help me, you refused. Now, you are here to force your Jesu down my throat so that I can further annoy our gods and lose their favour after they spared my life?”

“Prince Adeyeri…” Tade started to say, but he did not let her finish.

“Stop calling my name,” he bellowed, but softened when he saw the scared look in her eyes. 

The truth was that the sound of his name on her lips was soothing, but he did not want to have anything to do with her. It would be easy to become bewitched by her, feeding from her hands. She wielded such a power, and even now, it was already a temptation to bury his face in her laps, weep for his loss, and let her take over every decision making. For some reason, he believed that she was capable, yet, he chose to stay away from her, and possibly never see her again. He didn’t understand how a lady would suddenly appear in the village, and the worst disaster followed.

“You are a beautiful woman, and if circumstances were different, I would probably want to know you better and befriend you properly, but you must stay far away from me if you want to avoid getting into trouble. Not all my friends are like Banji, and the Chiefs will throw you into the dungeon, if not sacrifice you to the gods if you continue with your bad news and strange god crusade. So, in your best interest, stay away from me.”

Adeyeri stared at her for a few seconds more, and departed. Tade watched him leave, wondering what she was going to do to help him. She felt out of control.

Pray for him, pray with him, stay with him, comfort him,  and love him.

Banji had suspected that a lot of drama would be happening at the palace, and he was right. The Chiefs had gotten over their initial shock about the King’s death and were already making plans about how things should be done. Banji believed Adeyeri needed to be at the palace before the Council of Chiefs made a decision about what to do with Kabiyesi’s body. He wrestled with the idea of either going back to bring Adeyeri or staying back and blending in with the guards who were already his friends due to his friendship with the Prince. He decided to stay back and find out all that he could. Adeyeri would come when he was ready, but he must not miss any vital information that needed to be passed on.

“We will not bury the King like a common thief,” Chief Otun retorted, annoyed that the other Chiefs were already speaking about burying the King.

“No one is saying we should do that!” Chief Osi replied, trying to calm Otun.

“Then what is the pressure to bury him today?” Chief Otun queried, refusing to be calmed.

“Someone killed the King, and we know that,” the Chief Priest said.

“The more reason we should not rush the burial,” Otun fired back, rising to prove his point.

This did not deter the Chief Priest, who was the one that advised the early burial in the first place. “The investigation can easily be continued after the burial,” he retorted.

Otun replied with a loud hiss. “How easy is it to find out what killed a man after he has already been buried?” he rejoined.

The Chief Priest looked like he was about to burst a vein as he stared angrily at him, ready to respond. Iyalode however intervened, seeing as the men were at each other’s throats.

“He was a King, not just any man,” she stated, looking at the men one after the other, her gaze focused on Osi and the Chief Priest. “I agree with Otun, King Adeyanju should not be buried thoughtlessly.”

The Chief Priest eyed Iyalode as though to imply that she was just dragging everyone back unnecessarily.

“But a lot of thought has been put into this,” Osi began, countering her. “His Abobaku has been captured, and he will be laid to rest beside the late Kings.” Otun was about to respond, but Osi raised his hand to stop him as he continued. “This was not a happy death, let us not drag things unnecessarily.” he finished, hoping to put an end to the matter.

“I agree with Osi,” Iyalode said, and it was Otun’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Pick a side, woman.”

“I am on the side of what is right,” Iyalode quipped, and the men looked at her, confused about what her choice truly was.

The Chief Priest rose. “I need all the Chiefs to agree, so that we can start the necessary rituals, and cleanse the land of all evil.” 

“We have agreed,” Osi stated, and Otun eyed him in disapproval. Osi sighed in frustration. “It is not what I want too, but we need to focus on protecting the land and getting this business behind us.”

“The only thing greater than the King is the land. If there is no land, there is no King,” the Chief Priest said, looking into the sky as though he was summoning nature to lay credence to his words.

“Where is Adeyeri? I have not seen him today. We need to prepare him for the burial, and what is coming,” Iyalode said, but Chief Osi countered her immediately.

“Nothing can come until we discover who killed the King.”

Chief Otun’s face distorted in grievance. “Osi, what are you implying? Adeyeri loved his father, and he is also the crowned Prince; heir apparent to Iludoyin Kingdom. If we won’t delay the King’s burial, then we must not delay his coronation. He is a victim in this matter, he has no motive.”

Iyalode turned her nose up at the statement. “True, he has no motive, except why wait for thirty to forty years for something you can have now.”

“Haa!” Otun exclaimed, and the Chief Priest stepped in.

“Don’t condemn anyone. It can be any of you too.”

Iyalode joined the men, standing up. “What kind of talk is that? I did not imply that he could have killed his father, but let us not deny the fact that he has a motive. Let us just investigate the matter properly before crowning anyone King.”

“Haa!” Otun said again.

“What? I can say it in Adeyeri’s presence. These times call for wisdom.”

She had not finished speaking when Adeyeri entered the palace.

“What can you say in my presence, Iyalode?” Adeyeri asked, and immediately she broke into tears, rushing to him and dropping her condolences while the other Chiefs looked at each other in awe of her drama.

Yet, the real drama was just about to begin, and they all knew it.