The Legend of Okpoko Nwe Enu: The Sacred Hornbill Bird
In the beginning of time, when the surface of Earth was nothing but a void and an endless spread of deep primordial waters. Nne-Chukwu sent one of their divine daughters in the vessel of a hornbill bird. They named her Ebenu, she was given the task of inspecting the space that would later become the new Earth, to see if it was good enough to hold new life. Nne-Chukwu gave Ebenu their divine wisdom to know what to do when she arrived in the void. They sent their spirit to go with her in two older vessels as separate hornbill birds, as Ebenu’s mother and father, to keep her company on this journey and to ensure the force of will Ebenu needed to fulfill the great assignment was present.
As mother, father and child, three godsent entities, they flew across worlds into the realm of time to arrive at the site of Nne-Chukwu’s new creation. They traveled far and wide as three, with the strength, the will and the force of the first Ikenga present to achieve their purpose of bringing order and balance into this new world. But with time, the mortality of Ebenus' parents who were already much older than her took a toll on their bodies and little by little as they traveled farther and found nowhere to perch, the mother was the first to grow weak in her mortal form and die off.
Ebenu wailed and through the divine wisdom given to her, she buried her mother in the left side of her head. As they traveled some more, her father also grew weak and gave up his mortal vessel that had become too old, he died and Ebenu using the divine wisdom given to her by Nne-Chukwu, also buried her father in the right side of her head. Ebenu buried both parents in her head. With each burial she had performed, the pain and suffering from the love Ebenu had for her parents grew heavy. So did the foresight to see the layers of this new world they were flying across, it became clearer.
After Ebenu had traveled alone for sometime using the new foresight to see the world more clearly, she found a sacred tree of life right at the center of this new world, a signal that the space was ready to be built upon. When Ebenu arrived at the tree to settle there, unable to bear the pain of the past and unable to understand what the future held, both things resting heavy in her head as Ebenu’s buried parents, Ebenu let out a scream that shook the tree of life and simultaneaously shook the whole world. In that moment of cosmic vibration cause by Ebenu’s scream, the tree of life let out an energy that caused Ebenu to lay an egg. The first egg of its kind, filled with creation Omumu energy from the tree of life.
While Ebenu felt relief after laying the egg, and she was still fascinated by this new wonder she had performed, the gigantic cosmic egg cracked open and the Sun emerged from it as a bright white blinding light rising up, high above Ebenu. The moon also emerged, reflecting the light of the sun, also rising up high above in the sky. Ebenu, through the wisdom of Nne-Chukwu and the foresight she had gained, understood that the sun was a resurrection of her father and the moon a resurrection of her mothers essence into this new world. The birth of the Sun and the moon gave birth to life on earth as we know it, including the physical form of the tree of life which became Udara Osisi Omumu.
As a reward for fulfilling the creation assignment given to her by Nne-Chukwu, Ebenu was crowned the empress of the sky to be forever remembered across all cosmologies in this new world. Till today the hornbill bird remains a symbol of resurrection in Igbo cosmology, and is still held sacred amongst various cultures. Its constant mourning and calling out to its parents during its travels, before the world as it is was formed, is believed to be one of the reasons why the hornbill bird remains one of the loudest and noisiest birds in the world till this day. In Igboland the Udara or Udala tree is still revered as a primordial symbol of the creation energy that brings things to life, this is partly why it is forbidden for pregnant women to eat its fruit and for anyone to pluck its fruit directly from its branches. It must first fall to the ground by its own strength before anyone is expected to take its fruits for consumption. In this way, the elements around us still carry the divine energy of (re)creating new worlds whenever Nne-Chukwu demands it of us or any of their creations.
The end.
If you enjoyed this story, share it with others. Do you have a creation story to share with us? Tell us in the comment section below. Yagazie!
