Portion - universityofafricanart.org

eal cup, we cannot defeat the Owo. This is what the oracle says.’
Olorogun asked assistants to bring out the box with the Igbimo ivory cup, The king
opened the box carefully and brought out the cup. He examined it carefully. It looked
exactly as it should appear, as Olorogun gently rubbed its fingers on the images of the
king with mudfish legs, artistically rendered on the surface of the ivory cup. But the
inscription was the other way round. Olorogun slowly shook his head, annoyed that he
had been so easily deceived. He returned the ivory cup to the box and closed it. He asked
the diviner to be untied and released. “You have not earned a house with ten rooms,”
Olorogun declared to the grateful diviner. “We did not win. But our loss did not result
from your incompetence. We lost because we failed to crosscheck the authenticity of the
fake ivory cup. We trusted our enemy to tell us the truth. We should have known much
better. We are the ones to blame, not the oracle. Our gods cannot be blamed.”
Just as Olorogun was lamenting his defeat in Benin, Olumoja and the Igbimo
people, now governed by eight different leaders, were celebrating their exodus to their
new grounds. They felt safe among the hills that surrounded them like a natural fortress,
protecting them from any invader or attacker from the outside. Olumoja had called the
council of eight chiefs collectively governing the eight Igbimo villages, to congratulate
them and celebrate the historical occasion. It was here that he announced that he had
deceived the Benin people by giving them the fake ivory cup, rather than the real symbol
of the Igbimo people.
“The real cup is safe and in sound health with me here,” Olumoja said, showing
the council the box with the actual ivory cup. “Now that we are eight villages, the cup is
the symbol that we are still one. Let us rotate the cup through the villages every year. A
replica of the cup, just like the one we gave to the Benin people, will also be carved. We