Olokun God of All Water

In Sumerian lore, the primeval sea existed first. It is the endless sea in which the universe floats. It is the immortal creator of heaven and earth. The ancestral water of life is a form of consciousness. It flows, nourishes, incubates and feeds. Olokun is the God of all Waters, and his name means Owner of Oceans. Energy caused by the patterns of the 256 Odu created him (the same patterns responsible for consciousness and expressions of life). The combination of earth and water created the womb of primeval water and Olokun was the first spirit. He preceded all other orisha and he is the manifestion of primeval water and birth. Water is one of the principals of the human spirit of consciousness and makes up 60 percent of the human body, 70 percent of the brain, 83 percent of the blood, and 90 percent of the lungs.

This old African tale is testimony to the power of the Owner of Oceans. One day, Ibu Agana, a favored child of Olofi and Olokun is introduced to Orisha Oko and finds love. She no longer has a desire to be an ocean princess and wants to live on land with this man. Now, her father is skeptical and thinks the courtship is much too quick but he is convinced by his wife and daughter’s happiness and agrees to the union. He warns his son-in-law to never disrespect his child. Time passes and the union is both happy and fruitful, then there comes a day when she comes before her father humiliated, beaten and crying. Her father is enraged by her story. He rises to the surface to punish the land for disrespecting his child. Olokun’s son-in-law realizes his mistake, feels guilty and immediately makes a sacrifice to Olofi for his transgressions. She quickly accepts his offering and petitions Obatala to receive the sacrifice and restore peace to both land and ocean.

Hitting the surface Olokun instantly throws his waters atop the land. Obatala sitting in the heavens, hears the cries of the people as they are covered by the waves, and immediately sends messages to Olokun to stop drowning the land. Still enraged he did not respond to the messages and continued to bombard the land with water. Plants, animals and humans are lost within the ocean’s depths. It is discovered after a consult with Orula, that a chain is needed to trap Olokun and stop the deluge. Obatala sends word to Ibu Okunte, the wife of Ogun to plead with her husband to forge the unbreakable chain.

After agreeing Ogun goes deep within the forest to forge a chain bigger and stronger than any he has ever created.  His wife takes the finished chain and rides the gigantic waves that Olokun is sending upon the lands and gives the chain to her sister Ibu Achaba. Obatala instructs this great swimmer to wrap the chain around Olokun from top to bottom. She swims to him and starts wrapping him with the chain. Olokun is so angry he does not feel or see her as she binds him. As a punishment for not listening to Obatala, he is pulled to the bottom of the ocean and chained there. The water subsides and returns to the ocean. The daughter sees her father tied to the bottom of the ocean and tells her husband, “From this day forward we will live apart but when I feel the need, I will come upon your lands. Not as strongly as my father but you will feel me touch your lands.”