May we not suffer the fate of a gross misconception, the likes of which devastates the soul, ravages the mind and weakens the body.

This is the story of a certain drummer in Ibadan, of a time long gone, when the mighty men of Valor held courts in the sixteen entrances that led a visitor to Ibadan…

“Ibode” is the border post.
Many cities of that period will have four of such exits and entrances, Ibadan had Sixteen and prominent among the border posts was the one at Lalupon, a small village that welcomes the visitor from the Iwo, Osogbo, Offa, Ejigbo parts… A most important post in those days was the Ibode Lalupon and of equal importance among men of Ibadan was the Onibode Lalupon, The Border Commander…

Lalupon, the then less city, has since become assimilated, and is now part of the steadily expanding suburbia Ibadan.

Lalupon, notorious for being the place of a rail disaster that claimed 370 lives in 1957.
Lalupo,where Major General John Thomas Ummunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi and Colonel Fajuyi were both killed and hastily buried in shallow Graves, in 1966…..
Lalupon……!

Now, the Onibode Lalupon of this post, was a most powerful man, his powers and control over men and their property coming to trade in Ibadan, was akin to decreeing life and death, he could issue both, feared, loved, mostly venerated and wealthy beyond measure was this man of a serious physical defect;
Onibode Lalupon was a most Ugly man…

His physical features bear close remembrance to a baboon, stocky and short.
He does not walk, he struts.
He does not run, he rolls along.
He does not lift his monstrous limbs, he hauls his legs on a path with a certain, thud, thud sound that shakes the earth…

There also lived in the Greater Ibadan at these times, a drummer of repute, great at his trade and such a versatile drummer that was the darling of most mighty men who were his patrons…
Saworo the drummer, does not put his crook to the drum for a peasant; it was a taboo….
Only the high and mighty enjoy the sonorous drumming of Saworo, Ayan Agalu alulu f’Oba, fun ‘joye…
And on every Orun, which is every fifth day of the week, Saworo will make his journey from his home at Oje, all the way to Lalupon to drum and sing the praises of the Border Commander…

For those who are familiar with the Yoruba heritage, each of these mighty men of Valor had their own drumming tone, like we have the individual ringing tone of today…
If I decide to go to my family house on any day, the family drummer, Egbon mi Lere welcomes me with, “Ko mo’yi Erin; eniyan to r’ori Erin la’ate; Ko mo’yi Erin – He that by happenstance comes upon the head of an elephant in the market place thinking it is commonplace, has no regard for the Elephant nor any for the Gallant hunter that felled it.

Saworo, should perhaps know how the Onibode Lalupon should be greeted with his drums, but… Hardly does anyone know the Onibode’s ancestry that well, so Saworo only did the right thing by formulating a befitting greeting for the Onibode and it sure was good enough drumming that goes thus;
“Din din din ndìn ndìn, din din ndìín;
Din din din ndín din dìn ndin dín dín din…”

Suffice it to say, the Onibode was most joyous, happy and elated when this particular part of the drumming is bellowed from Saworo’s experienced booming from the bronze belled Iya Ilu of the lead drum…
And such is ever the joys of Onibode Lalupon that he was always wont to give money, clothing, clothes kolanuts and other valuables, many of such, seized, to Saworo for his Exquisite and Exclusive drumming….

Part 2 on the site later today



Credit: http://ikengachronicles.com/onibode-lalupon-as-a-metaphor-pt-1-mogaji-gboyega-adejumo/

Where the part 2 nau