The Tale of Nana Buluku : The Controversy Behind her Relationship with Ogun.

This is the story of a fearless female goddess who is worshipped mainly in West Africa amongst the Fon people of Benin Republic, the Yoruba and Igbo community of Nigeria and the Ewe people of Togo. She is believed to be a goddess who created the cosmos and went to rest after birthing twins known as Mawu (the moon) and Olisa (the sun).

One interesting yet controversial part of her story is her relationship with the Ogun, the God of Iron. Nana Buluku is believed to be a manifestation of Yemoja in the Yoruba Cult however some believe they are two different deities. In the part of the story where Nana Buluku is the manifestation of Yemoja she suffered disgrace from being raped by her son Ogun after which she fled to Dohomey where she continued to live and be worshipped. She dislikes all items made from iron because of Ogun and does not use any object made from iron. Her subjects when making sacrifice to her drown the animal and use a bamboo tool to cut the animal up hence she is believed to help in issues relating to getting or aborting pregnancy however, she mostly deals with abortion when it comes to rape because of her story.

The other part of the story says Nana Buluku was a very wealthy and powerful woman who helped other women with marital problems. This made men fear her as she was not afraid to go out of her way to ensure women and children were treated well making her seem intimidating hence she was single and searching for a good match. She was not in luck as most men disliked her personality and described her as proud.

Nana knew she wanted a man whom she would bear her children for and she wanted one who was strong and fearless with leadership qualities. This led her to Ogun who was then living in Saki a town in the province of Oyo. In her quest to marry Ogun she consulted the oracle and it assured her that she would be able to marry him however she should perform a sacrifice to show respect to the Orisa of Ogun or it might lead to an undesirable outcome. She did not perform the sacrifice because the news that she will be able to marry Ogun was good enough for her.

Ogun fell head over heels for this goddess and the news of their marriage travelled far and wide. Nana made sure to show everyone that she called the shots and Ogun was too distracted loving her to notice he had become her minion making his villagers do what ever she wanted. He then gifted her a metal blade for her animal sacrifices. Even with all these Nana Buluku had high standard she saw all Oguns actions as him performing his marital duties and she seemed unimpressed.

After a while the people of Saki started to mock Ogun because of how soft he had become. He went to talk to Nana Buluku about the changes they had to make to their relationship but She was not interested in the conversation and this made Ogun angry. When she sensed this anger she raised her voice at Ogun telling him that “if you are unhappy in this relationship go and hang yourself or drown in the Lagoon” after which she spat on his face and at this time people where coming out of their rooms to watch the drama. This did not faze Nana Buluku as she continued to disgrace her husband and eventually sent him out of her room. This was the height of it for Ogun he was so angry that he had transformed from being a mere human to an Irunmole (a supernatural being). He then sent Nana Buluku out of his kingdom and took away all the items he had bestowed on her including the metal blade. After this she and her followers stoped using the instruments of Ogun which is metal instead she uses a bamboo knife.

The story of Nana Buluku is very symbolic as it demonstrates the faith of women in society. Nana Buluku as strong and independent as she was has a very controversial story and I blame this on patriarchy and rape culture. In the first story she fled her home because of a rape incident and went ahead to continue a life as a popular goddess loved and worshipped by a lot of people. While in the second story she is viewed as a proud and arrogant woman who destroyed her marriage due to her ego. This is what a patriarchal society reduced strong independent women to in order to make men superior and women submissive. This story had a drastic twist along the line in history where the victim became the accused and her story changed to that of a proud woman. This happens everyday in our society to women and girls solely because of they are women.

Sources

Obafemi Origunwa, “Nana Buruku: The Obstinate Wife of Ogun”,Obafemio.com, https://www.obafemio.com/blog/nana-buruku-the-obstinate-wife-of-ogun.

Modupe Ocha,“Nana Buruku”, Agolaroye.com, https://agolaroye.com/NanaBuruku.php.