Have a Little Talk with Myself: Buffalo Woman and Me

Idin kó sun Idin ó wo Idin ó foju lerun inu-intin A d’Ifá fún Òrúnmìlà Bàbá nla ree kole kán iribiti kiribiti si áárin eleye Ebo ní wòn ní kose Ogbegbo nbè ó rúbo Njé eleyé ilé yi kole pami mòn ó adire opipi kó lapa amufo

Translation:

Idin is not sleeping Idin does not rest Idin does not have patience Made divination for Òrúnmìlà Who was building a house in the midst of witches They advice him to make sacrifice He performed it That is why the witches of this house can not kill me anymore Opipi’s birds do not have wings but fly

One of the things I have found on the way to the elevation in Ifa through my Ori has been a shedding of older forms of thought forms and outmoded ways of thinking. It was one of the most important things that I found in learning about the history of Mali as well as subsequent history’s of the people of Yoruba decent. It was the sad but story of strength and endurance of the daughter of Buffalo Woman, Sogolon Conde and her son Sundiata. The story goes on to say that Sogolon Conde was one of imposing power and was given to the Nare Keita, the ruler of Mali. As a metaphysician the King Nare Keita was a gifted medicine person, a handsome, powerful man and very charismatic. However, Sogolon Conde, as a very young child was chosen to take on the very powerful elemental forces and spirits that are liken to the Iyami Osoronga, in one person as well as other spirits that taught her in her sleep, during the day and invaded her life choosing her to be their priest. Sogolon Conde was physically marred by the powers of the divinities that ruled the land in order for her to master them giving her the rights to work their power for the healing of the people. The physical disabilities turned a physically beautiful girl child to a woman before her time hunched and scarred with power. Yet, she carried this force of the Gods of this land and universe with dignity, grace, and fortitude. It was prophesied Naré Maghann Konaté (also called Maghan Kon Fatta or Maghan the Handsome) was a Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court. The hunter predicted that if Konaté married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Bereté and had a son by her, Dankaran Toumani Keïta. However, when two Traoré hunters from the Do kingdom presented him an ugly, hunchbacked woman named Sogolon; he remembered the prophecy and married her. She soon gave birth to a son.

Sundiata and his mother, who now had given birth to two daughters and adopted a second son from Konaté’s third wife Namandjé, suffered the scorn of the new king and his mother. After an insult against Sogolon, Sundiata requested an iron rod from the blacksmith Nounfari, which he used to pull himself upright and walk. Nonetheless, the hatred of Sassouma Bereté and Dankaran Toumani Keita soon drove Sundiata, his mother, and his two sisters into exile in the Mena kingdom. Meanwhile, Soumaoro Kanté, cruel sorcerer king of Sosso, attacked the Mandinka kingdom, causing Dankaran Toumani Keita to take flight in fear. The oppressed Mandinka people then sent for the exiled Sundiata. Forging a coalition of neighboring small kingdoms, Sundiata waged a war against the Sosso, finally defeating Soumaoro Kanté at the Battle of Kirina (c. 1235). Soumaoro Kanté disappeared in the Koulikoro mountains. Sundiata was later crowned with the title “Mansa,” or “king of kings,” as the first ruler of the Mali Empire. He soon set about organizing the nucleus of the empire, presenting the Gbara of nobles and notables at his coronation with an oral constitution known as the Kouroukan Fouga. His model for government would guide the empire into greatness and beyond its zenith toward its eventual dissolution.

I became interested in this story when I went to see a wonderful storyteller Sule Greg Wilson and he did a musical rendition of the Lion King story of Sundiata and his mother Sogolon. What struck me with fascination when I saw this story was how much Sogolon came alive, as if her spirit was invoked and she was the one telling her story while Sule sang and acted out her part of the story? In this story was a young girl who has tremendous spiritual prowess and intuitive; insight that reach beyond the terrestrial planes and moved in the realm of the cosmological. Yet, with these powers, she is to be subjected to; after the death of her husband; the taunts and slurs of the people at the prompting the first wife who was in jealousy and fear of Sogolon’s awesome power. Sogolon used her gifts for her people while her husband was alive and protecting their handicapped son Sundiata. However, she allows her powers to become dormant as her powers waned, Sundiata began to exhibit his. First, as he is protecting his family against the taunts and slurs instigated by his step mother and brother; then as he becomes the strong and powerful wizard King of Mali.

What I am saying in this assessment of Sogolon is ideally to have an understanding of divinity and the working of spirits within women of divine spiritual attunement and then how they are able to negotiate these forces within their complex lives. The strength of Sogolon was her selflessness. You see, in those days plural marriage was not under the scrutiny of Western mindset community and women were more chattel than considered thinking, feeling entities that operated on their own intellect. How often do we think of ourselves with the power that is given to us by Olodumare, as being that powerful, unless we are operating that power on each other? Taking out our frustrations and insecurities on each person that we encounter, in our relationships or walk in fear for it is easier to hurt someone in secret spiritual evil warfare than to have a conversation which could end in agreeing to disagree.

Sometimes, if we look at the terrestrial powers of elemental spirits that are also cosmological forces developed by Olodumare to this ranking (Iyami Osoronga, Iyami Aje); what I am seeking is the balance within oneself that can like Sogolon Conde eventually find peace. The peace that comes from knowing that you have a higher calling and in that higher calling you effect and change the world. A paradigm shift that will impact generations to come and impact the many generations of women who will not only give birth to other Sundiata’s but become Sogolon as well. When we will understand this calling that calls to us in the above verse of Odi Osun:

Idin is not sleeping Idin does not rest Idin does not have patience Made divination for Òrúnmìlà Who was building a house in the midst of witches They advice him to make sacrifice He performed it That is why the witches of this house can not kill me anymore Opipi’s birds do not have wings but fly

Of troubling and restless nights because we do not have the patience to see our power through to its very end stage; we are not patient with our gifted terrestrial power that we have. In watching it grow through difficulties, our lives take measured steps and the spirits test us with trials, pains, and more test our level of commitment. We cry, we agonize over the trails that our lives must plot and say; “I did not sign up for this”. Yet when the test are mastered, we can now say, “That is why the witches of this house can not kill me anymore.” It may have been thought that it was my insecurities of growing older and the challenges that come with this and the societal outlook of the world on aging, that endeared me to Iya Sogolon. The aspect of the opipi bird does not have wings but can fly gives rise to fly solo; it is our ability to fly and soar beyond the obscure and mundane into the realm of the metaphysical rather than stay locked into the planet’s terra firma. Can we now use our spiritual sight and work in the realms beyond, rather than stay limited and frail? It was the selflessness that made me cry for her choices, for they have been mine and many women like us generations before. While the trials may be different; hers was the infirmed child destined for a glorious destiny if only she have patience. Mine and my relationships with family; yours may be economics and anyone else; may be a myriad of possibilities of problems designed just for our individual paths of life. Iya Sogolon Conde bore the physical, mental and spiritual scars of all the women of her lineage and more. It is my prayer that those who love us understand the legacy of power we must hold and undertake. Generations of women who over the centuries eventually understood that the legacy of Buffalo woman is our legacy today. You see Sogolon left Sundiata after the battle with the Sorcerer King Sosso using her waning power to show her son the true power and force that was his inheritance from his father, as well as his mother. She, then gathered herself, lift her body in the air like the opipi bird with no wings but could fly and shaped shifted leaving all wondering where she had gone. She disappeared leaving everyone but Sundiata wondering where she had gone.

Ire

Fayomi Falade Aworeni Obafemi, Iyanifa Ile Iwosan Orunmila Mimo Temple