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Olowo asked Ugbowo and the unarmed Benin army to join the dancing entourage,
as they danced around the town and back to the palace. The event is now ritually
celebrated in an annual performance dance drama that the Owo people call the Igogo
festival. The Olowo led Ugbowo and the Benin army to a section of the town where the
king settled the Benin people as immigrants and refugees. A few of the soldiers escaped
and ran back to Benin. But most of them stayed, fearing retaliations and punishment from
the king of Benin and the Benin population, who expected them to win the war. Ugbowo
was given a military title, and his name changed to Agbowo.
When the war reporter brought back this report to Eghuavon, the king simply had
a stroke from which he never recovered. Fifty five years later, under the leadership of
Idehen, the Benin army were again about to attack the Owo army, when the news of
the movement of the Igbimo people was brought by a runner, who had been on the road
for three days. Olorogun could not believe that the Igbimo people could be so decisive,
especially after he had taken the ivory cup of their identity from them. The main reason
for taking the cup was to break the spirit of the Igbimo people, turn their land into a
permanent colony and the people into slaves, both mentally and physically. The other
reason was because the court diviner that they consulted had said that they needed the
ivory cup before they could attack the people of Owo. The cup had to be in Olorogun’s
hand before the invasion, to ensure victory.
“If you have the cup in your hand at the time of the invasion,” Kagho, the diviner,
assured the king, “you will conquer the Owo people.”
“Are you sure of this?” Olorogun asked.
“Absolutely,” Kagho reassured the king. “This is what the oracle told me.”
“Does the oracle sometimes go wrong?” Olorogun asked.