Esie: A Mysterious Entombment Of Antique Treasures

To a first time visitor, Esie  town in ifelodun local government area of Kwara State may look ordinary, but inside the thick forest that surround the  ancestral home of the Igbominas lay an ancient museum that houses the mystical Esie stone image which is yet to be discovered by archeologist. To unravel the mystery behind the history of these monumental images, researches were made about the ancestral home of the Igbomina on the mythology surrounding the soap image.

Esie museum is situated in Esie town about 70 kilometers southeast of Ilorin in Kwara state. The museum is the first of its kind in Nigeria which houses this mystical Esie stone image. The stone image which are known as “Esie image” (Ere Esie) are the largest collection of stone carving in Africa. More than 800 of the images have been found under the peregun groove, ranging from 14 centimeters to over one meter in height.

According to my research, an oral history has it that the images in the days of old were human being who settled in the place around 1775. One day, the villagers were said to have been warned by the messenger of God that nobody should go out on a particular day because he would visit the people of the village and give them a special gift,. Everybody was said to have complied with this instruction except the king of the village that went out through the back door to harvest okro in his farm. When the messenger of God came, he was angry that his instruction was not followed and instead of the gift, he inflicted a curse on the people of the village to frozen, changing them to images, according to the posture they had assumed as at the time of the curse. These carved stone figures represent men and women with very elaborate hair styles rendered with great accuracy in soft stone. Some were playing musical instruments and many armed with machetes, some sitting on stools wearing simple necklaces and bracelets. Some of the images also portray the shape of people dancing, breast feeding and some doing one activity or the other. The mystical existence of these stone images made people worship them in those days by the people of Esie. Throughout the reign of 15 Obas of Esie, there has been a festival for the images. Also at various time, supplications accompany by sacrifices are presented to the images through the chief priest. However, the worship of the effigy has ceased since the advent of modern religion.

However, this oral history was said to be debunk by the traditional ruler of Esie, his Royal Highness Oba Yakub Babalola Agboola, Eegunjobi 11 who claimed that it was a mere fable. The traditional ruler said his fore-fathers came from Oyo State, settle at Oke Isanlu before finally relocating to where they are till today. He explained that Baragbon, a formidable hunter was the founder of Esie, when he discovers the images he alerted the king who later sent an emissary to verify the authenticity of the story before he went there to see it. The king thereafter sent someone from the palace to stay with the images for three days to ascertain whether they are spirits or an assembly of effigies. When it was realized that nothing happened to the person sent by the king, an ifa oracle was consulted as the normal practice in those days, “it was the oracle that said the objects were not harmful and it will bring good fortune to them in “future”. Nonetheless, the monarch said that nobody could say precisely how the soap images got there “but I can tell you authoritatively that our fore- fathers met the images at the current location”.

But if these images were discovered by Baragbon, you can imagine that as at then there was no vehicle to transport them, putting into cognizance how heavy some of these objects are, it is practically impossible to carry it with the only means of transportation available then.

In view of all of these beliefs, the mystery behind Esie images is that if a drop of water falls on any of the image, it will be forming and this made it to be well known as Esie soap image. The soap images have been in existence for over two hundred years; however, a careful analysis of these carvings reveals starting contradictions! The more you look at the Esie wonder soap images, the more you keep asking yourself some unanswered questions like: who carved them and with what instrument was it made of? When? And how? To those who believe that the images were brought from somewhere to the place, the yet to be answered question is by what means? Since one of the object weigh 104kg. However, to those who said a curse was invoked on the people of the village before they turned to soap images, in whose presence? In attempt to answer these questions local myth has that the images were actually human being that were turned to their present state by an angry god! and until these questions are answer the Esie soap images will remain a mystery.