31/12/2025
In the 16th-century Oyo Empire, politics was anything but gentle. When the Oyo Mesi—the kingmakers, seven powerful chiefs—presented a basket of parrot eggs to the Alaafin, it wasn’t a gift. It was a verdict.
That basket meant they had lost all confidence in his leadership. By custom, the Alaafin was expected to take his own life—an “honourable” exit not unlike the samurai code of seppuku. No debates. No appeals.
Alaafin Awole, however, refused to go quietly. He resisted the sentence, pushing back against a system determined to erase him. But tradition is a heavy hand. Eventually, under immense pressure, Awole drank a whisk of poison and ended his life.
Yet he did not leave in silence.
Before his death, Awole laid a devastating curse on the Oyo Mesi—and history suggests it stuck. From that moment on, the Oyo Empire was said to have known no lasting peace.
They did the King dirty… and the kingdom paid the price.
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