how did u find out?

Ashe!! Meferefun Oya-Yansa!! I love Mama Oya. I myself haven't had my head officially marked but I've been told several times I'm her child and she comes up to stand and defend me in ALL my readings. I share many of her attributes and her energy is usually with me. She is very close to me,as is Ogun and recently Oshun.

In fact, I JUST woke up this morning after having a dream about Oshun and the first thing I saw when I turned on my computer was this article on a forum I visit often:

Osa Ogunda
Gidigidi - Buffalo Woman

In one of the posts from Ofun Ogbe was the verse and story of Ode the hunter. I mentioned that the same story is found in another verse in which there is only one wife and it is Oya. I finally remembered which Odu had the Oya version. Osa Ogunda. Duh. Osa is Oya’s Odu and of course Ogunda is Ogun’s Odu. The hunter in this version is Ogun, who was married to Oya before she ran off with Sango. But that’s a story for another day. This is just one facet of Oya, the only “hot” female Orisa.

A-ja-tu-eruku efon
To fight and stir up dust like Buffalo (Efon)
a da fun ol’ode
Cast Ifa for the-one-who-is-hunter (Ode)
They said that Ode should make ebo so that he would find a wife to marry during that year. Ode made ebo of two roosters, two hens, maize beer and money. He also made food offerings (adimu) to his Ori. “We will find some yam cuttings (yam is used extensively in ritual, especially the cuttings), and we will pound yam loaf with them and offer them to our Ori.” Ode made the offering.
One day Ode went to the farm. When he climbed to his lookout platform, he saw a Gidigidi (praise name for Buffalo). But when he took aim, the gidigidi turned into a beautiful red-bone woman. When she finished taking off her hide, Ode watched where she put it. He saw her hide it behind a tree; she did not see him. Ode put the hide in his bag and followed the beautiful red-hued woman. She went to the market. When they got to the market Ode approached her, greeted her, and told her he came to market seeking her. This gidigidi that had turned into a woman asked, “Is something wrong?” Ode answered that he wanted to marry her. Gidigidi said that she wasn’t going to marry anyone. After the third time Ode asked, gidigidi asked him if he had seen anything behind her (did he know something about her past). Ode replied that yes he had. She said, “What did you see behind me?” Ode told her that she should come with him, and he would show her what he had seen behind her.
When they got outside the market, the hunter pulled out her hide and showed it to her. When she saw that he had her hide, she agreed to marry him. So she went back to the market and gathered her goods and went with him. But on the way, she told Ode that he must not speak a word of this to anyone. He agreed, and she became his wife and they lived together in his house.
She began to bear children for Ode, but Ode’s first wife always teased Ode about her; where they had met, what village was she from, etc. He told her that she was the child of a woman that came to the farm to buy meat from him, but this did not satisfy the first wife. She asked if she came from this town or that town. Ode told her she was from a different town, but this did not satisfy the senior wife, and she began to ask around. During this time, Gidigidi woman bore her first and second child. The first wife went to the hunter’s elder brother and discussed the matter with him. Ode’s elder brother took him out and gave him lots of palm wine to drink. When he was good and drunk, the elder brother pried him about his second wife. Ode told him she was a Gidigidi, and the rest of the story. Ode’s elder brother then went and told Ode’s first wife everything that Ode had told him.
The next day, Ode went to the farm. Two days later, while he was at the farm, his first wife took a log and struck it against the ground to break it (it is taboo to break wood in this way in a hunter’s house). The Gidigidi woman asked her if Ode had not warned her this was taboo. Then the senior wife answered with contempt, “Take yourself and go away, Wayi (an exclamation of great contempt)! You are both a human being and an animal! Eat and drink, your hide is in the storehouse.” When Gidigidi woman heard this, she said, “Ha!” and she kept quiet. She got ready and went to the storehouse and retrieved her hide from where the hunter had hidden it. She brought it out, and it was dried up, so she drew some water and put the hide in the water for awhile. When it was ready, she got into it, and she had horns on her head. Then she ran at the senior wife, butted her and killed her. When she had butted and killed the senior wife, she pulled off one of her horns, and started towards the farm. When Ode saw her coming, he knew that wood had been broken against the ground in his house. When she went to butt him, Ode said she must not butt him, he said:

Loaf of yam cuttings and pot of maize beer
You cut weeds and cover me
You heap honor upon me

(notice in this chant are mentioned the elements of Ode’s ebo)
Gidigidi woman asked Ode how it was that the senior wife had known about her. He told her how his brother had gotten him very drunk on palm wine and pried the information out of him. She said, “It’s all right.” She said she wouldn’t kill him, but that he should go home and that whenever her children should want to perform their annual festival, he should make ebo with them to the horn that she had pulled off and left at home as a remembrance of her, and also when they might want to propitiate their Ori. From that time on, her children (omo Oya) have continued to sacrifice to the horn when they perform their annual festival. Those that sacrifice to water buffalo horns in this way are the ones that we call omo Efon [eh fun] (children of Buffalo) to this very day.
ase

( This is why worshippers of Oya, the Gidigidi (Efon) woman have a water buffalo horn on their altars and make ebo to the horn. Also why Oya has the praise name Yansan.

Ifa says he sees the blessing of a woman for this person, but that ebo should be made lest the woman die when her children reach two in number; Lest she die and her senior wife die with her; Lest her husband bring illness home from the farm; and lest he die and it be said that his wife has taken him away to Orun. This person should be careful not to reveal secrets regarding something we want to accomplish, lest through this our secrets be made public.
ase


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Congratulations on your discovery. I'm daughter of Oya as well and like you, I didn't think it would be her either. After finding out that she rules my head I have dreams about her all the time...she often comes to me in dreams as a rainbow or a tornado. She blows the winds of change and hopefully she will bring good changes in your life. BTW, I usually honor her on Wednesday (Winds-day).

Hekua Oya!