Barely after the coronation of Adekambi, the new and promising king of Opela, the village experiences panic as a result of the absence of one the symbols of royalty, the calabash. Chief Koya, one of the elders of Idofin Council, out of greed and bad faith, steals the calabash. With the disappearance of the calabash, the new king can no longer rule effectively and the whole royal family is depressed. While the calabash is in the custody of Chief Koya, he finds neither peace nor sleep as it constantly sings of its displacement in the night. Due to this singing of the calabash, he decides to take it out of his house. So, Chief Koya hides the calabash under his garment and transports it to one of his houses in the neighbouring village of Idowa where he buries it. The following day, he returns to Opela. Back in Idowa, the tenants in his house are unable to sleep due to an owl that hoots every night. Even in Opela, Chief Koya is unable to sleep because the singing from the distant calabash becomes louder and persistent every midnight. The next day he decides to pay the King a visit in order to find out the plans of the miserable King. As Chief Koya visits the palace to console the unhappy King, he is informed of a divine revelation about the theft of the calabash. It is revealed that the criminal is a close relative and an elder of the land. He then decides to take it back to the palace. He goes back to Idowa, removes the calabash from where he had buried it and hides it under his garment. On his way to Opela, the calabash becomes hotter, larger, heavier, and the voice grows louder under his garment. Despite the weight and burden meted out on him by the mysterious calabash, he struggles to get to the palace, and although under excruciating pain, he has to wait for a suitable opportunity to return the calabash to its position. As Chief Koya secretly keeps the calabash in its sacred position and is about to leave, the King’s eldest son, Oyewole, who had decided to exert more energy in the search for the missing calabash, catches him and yells as the Chief struggles to run. Chief Okoya is caught and banished from the community.

Royalty, authority, royal objects with a dash of mysticism are the components of some myths told among the African people. These royal objects include the stool, the staff and the hat amongst others. Olajire Olanlokun’s The Missing Calabash, told as a children’s story, recounts the loss, search and recovery of a magical royal object, the calabash. Its absence limits the authority of the royal house and halts the development of the community of Opela. The idea of loss, search and restoration of sacred objects is peculiar to folktales and usually combines both reward and punishment. While Chief Koya is punished for stealing the royal calabash and exposing his community to danger, Oyewole, the king’s son is applauded for apprehending the thief and restoring stability in the land. This system of reward and punishment go a long way to establish both personal and community peace. 

Also, the missing items in most world mythologies usually have a supernatural undertone. The personified calabash is given a voice to sing which disturbs the sleep of the culprit, Chief Koya. This royal item also has the ability to communicate with other nocturnal creatures such as the owl and will not find rest until they are returned to their sacred habitat. 

In as much as the story is a moral fable on guilt, it also calls for the preservation of sacred royal object threatened by external forces, be it imposters or the greedy. These sacred royal symbols are imbued with mystical powers and essence enhancing the authority of the royal household. Their absence does not only limit the powers of the king by curtailing the ancestral connection but hinders progress in the land.

Nabofa, Michael Y., Symbolism in African Traditional Religion, Ibadan: Paperback Publishers, 1994. 

Okafor, R.C. and L. N. Emeka, Nigerian Peoples and Culture, Millennium Edition, Enugu: New Generation Books, 2002.

Cover and selected pages available at Google Books.

The entry is based on: Olanlokun, Olajire, The Missing Calabash, ill. by Mel Todd, Oxford: Heinemann, 1997, 59 pp.