We Captured Olósùnta & Òrólè- The Giant Okitis of Ekiti Land

Like a Half-Cut Egg, Òrólè Stands… like an Olópà’s cap, Olósùnta poses for my camera.

The firmament had just slipped off her plush bed and has changed from her gloomy pyjamas into a robe of mild turquoise.

The chilly air is appraised by the hazy mists that hang over the ancient town of Ikere-Ekiti, a rustic enclave sitting on the southern frontier of Ekiti State, SW Nigeria.

The mists loom above the rust-brown roofs in humongous shrouds. Silhouettes of steeply undulating features seemed to hide behind its drapes.

In some few minutes they clear a little, and like a curtain gently pulled from the window the skies above the enclave receive a deluge of celestial illumination.

From no where, the ‘giants’ appear, the long-acclaimed giant ‘Okitis’ of Ikere land from which the name ‘Ekiti’ got its coinage.

 

With intimidating ardour, they stand rigid and massively around the enclave.

Their peculiar steep slopes and domical tops capture the mind of the observer and leaves him imprisoned in a jail of wonder and admiration for the adroit work of nature on the land of Ekiti.

They are none but the enigmatic Amoye Inselbergs of Ikere-Ekiti.

 

The most fascinating among the inselbergs are Orole and Olosunta, which stand out distinctly among the huge cluster of granite rocks.

Orole is generally observed to assume the form of a half-cut egg while Olosunta takes the form of a police’s cap.

 

A visit to the great inselbergs of Ikere will not be complete without a treat to the fascinating stories that endear them to the people: Watch out for our next post.**

Olósùnta òrun Ìkéré, Òrólè baba òkè (Olosunta: the heavens of Ikere, Orole: the king of the heights).

 

 

Ekiti, Ikere, Olosunta, Orole