The 12th-century time frame of a Nigerian folklore and traditional tales cannot be told without mentioning a brave and selfless woman whose verge to save her people at all cost was her paramount quest in life. Born in Ile-Ife, the ancestral home of the Yoruba land, firmly seated in the southern-west of Nigeria, Moremi is a heroic figure whose story is worth to be told then, now and for centuries to come.
Born to a powerful hunter Lukugga in Ife, Moremi married the then Ooni of Ife (Oranmiyan) making her a queen who eventually offered herself to be captured by the Ugbo (not related to Igbo) tribe who were constant raiders of Ile-Ife. With her wit and beauty she was able to enchant the king of the Ugbo tribe to become his queen to gather all of the information needed before returning to Ile-Ife to strategize, an advantage that led to Ile-Ife’s victory over the Ugbo Tribe – a price that could only be paid by a rare soul.
Worth to be retold in the 21st century, the tale of this brave queen is being re-enacted and witnessed yet again in the modern city of Lagos, a capital and industrial frontier of the Yoruba land. Having being told in a theatrical visualization on stage last December and Easter season, with a richly seasoned cast of notable Nigerian actors like Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Bimbo Manuel, Tosin Akinyemi, Deyemi Okanlawon, Lala Akindoju, Femi Branch, Kehinde Bankole and a host of others, Moremi is now set to be told and viewed again in a much detailed and historically-inclined perspective – a stage play that promises to be an aesthetic show of theatrical brilliance and musical excellence.
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