Otu Ama – Udide the Great Spider, Weaver of Stories and Master of Cosmic Net, put together a pepper-eating competition in the animal kingdom. Udide who was also known and revered as Ududo Okwanka, the Cosmic Weaver of Realities, across different groups in the animal kingdom sent out an invitation to every animal group, challenging them to attend and participate in its Ose Ora pepper competition. Whoever won the competition which involved eating a bowl of ritually prepared pepper without stopping to shout, was promised the eternal gift of Atu, the ability to always say things that would come true, the power of foresight, and the power to create new worlds with the use of words. Every offspring in the winner’s lineage would be given the same reverence till the end of time. 

When news got around the animal kingdom, different animals of all forms and kinds took on the challenge and even those who could not participate for one reason or the other prepared in anticipation to attend. Time went by quickly, and the main day of the competition arrived. Udide’s cave front was filled with a crowd of animals from all over the animal kingdom, and out of all the applicants, only nine animals chosen by the Council of Aninamu Elders (COAE) were selected to participate in the competition with the approval of leaders from all over the animal kingdom. The selected animals included, Odum the Lion who at the time paraded as the king of the jungle, Agu the Leopard who had a reputation as a worthy opponent and distant kin of the lion, Ogwumagala the Chameleon who was popular for being able to blend in with any and everything, Agwo Oyo the Rattlesnake who had disobeyed the orders of Eke the great python after she admonished all snakes from attending such competitions, Enwe the smart monkey who only applied because he thought it would be a great opportunity to try out a new dish, Aguiyi the crocodile who was well respected as the custodian of waters, Mbekwu Nwa Aniga the Tortoise who was known as the fortunate descendant of Aniga the great Turtle, Eju the snail who was known for its magical ability to procreate within itself if it wanted to and Nkita Ekeuke the local dog who was known for his constant panting and for always roaming about. Everyone wondered how he was going to make it through such a competition with all that panting but the council of elders had an interesting sense of humor so no one was surprised to see that he had made the list. 

When all participants had arrived, especially Eju the snail who always took its time in moving, Udide the great spider beckoned on Enyi the giant Elephant and friend of all, who Udide had mounted, to sound the trumpet so that everyone could be silent and the competition could begin. But before sounding the trumpet, Udide stated out the rules of the competition in a clear authoritative voice, the great spider announced that the rules were simple, any of the competitors who stopped to shout or pant for air while eating the bowl of pepper presented before each of them would immediately and automatically be disqualified from the competition. Udide asked anyone who had comments or concerns to speak now or forever remain silent. Odum the great lion roared in disgust and expressed his concerns about the rules stating in his deep reverberating voice that they left it too open to trickery, while he said that, almost everyone looked at Mbekwu the tortoise who sat in his shell smiling, unperturbed by the opinions of others. Udide responded to Odum in a voice intentionally clouded with great surprise, reminding all animals present that trickery in itself was not a good or bad thing, it is how it is applied that makes it what it becomes. Udide also reminded all the animals present that trickery was an essential trait for all animals who belonged to the cult of Nne Agwu the greatest cosmic spirit who had been personally assigned by the creator of the universe to take charge of all things pertaining to divine intelligence, so to challenge the trait that came naturally to each member of the Agwu cult which Udide as well as Mbekwu were members of, would be to challenge the authority of Nne Agwu and who was willingly to do that? With that reminder Odum became silent and all the animals present nodded in agreement, some even teased Odum for bringing up such a flippant matter saying, “what kind of king of the jungle fears pepper like this?”, “see how he is delaying the start of the competition with his complaints, is that not a trick too?”. With the matter settled, Enyi the elephant blew the trumpet and the competition began. 

Nkita Ekeuke the dog, was the first animal to be disqualified, he could not control his panting barely ten seconds after rushing to lick the bowl of pepper in front of him. After him, Agwo oyo the rattlesnake was the next animal to be disqualified because of its impatience, in its great haste while moving around its bowl it spilled the contents out on its skin and screamed aloud “Chaiiii!!!” from the burning sensation of the pepper against its skin. The next animals to follow in disqualification were Odum the lion and Agu the leopard, they were so focused on watching each other’s bowls that they got into a fight which led them to shouting and got them disqualified. Ogwumagala the Chameleon, wanting to take on the color of the pepper contents in its bowl thinking that would help, jumped in to get a better view and was disqualified after screaming from the pain inflicted on it by the sensation from the pepper that entered its eyes. Aguiyi the crocodile, after looking through the contents of the bowl in front of it and finding nothing interesting enough for it to devour besides pepper simply walked away from the competition annoyed that it had been selected to take part in what it thought of as child’s play. Enwe the monkey, Eju the snail and Mbekwu the tortoise were the only ones left standing. While Eju took its time eating from its own bowl of pepper very slowly, Enwe tried to rush a big amount of pepper into its own mouth and choked, this made Enwe scream madly and in the process he accidently jump on Eju who in turn screamed from the pain of having its shell crushed by the hyperactive monkey. Enwe the monkey and Eju the snail were both disqualified from the competition and the only participant left standing was Mbekwu the tortoise who had cunningly began to tell the crowd a story about a great king lost in the desert who was very thirsty and angry. While Mbekwu told the story he ate from his bowl of pepper and everytime he described how the lost king would find water to drink he would himself take some water to drink while illustrating to his engaged listeners, everytime Mbekwu described how this lost king would scream in frustration he himself would scream in frustration to illustrate his story, this went on all the while as he ate through his bowl of pepper. Even Udide was engaged by Mbekwu’s story and impressed by his trickery. By the time the story was over, Mbekwu had screamed and drank his way through eating up all the pepper in the bowl and all the animals present that day were impressed. Even those that were angry respected the audacity of Mbekwu Nwa Aniga, and they gave him a great round of applause as he was declared the winner.

From that day on, the potency of Mbekwu’s words increased greatly as Ududo Okwanka had promised, and no one could resist the power and influence of Mbekwu’s words or his gift of storytelling no matter how hard they tried, even his false tales which he told from his cunningness became true after he had said it and for generations to come the tortoise became the most potent animal to consult across different kingdoms and worlds when anyone needed the gift of foresight. Even till today in the world of humans, great Dibias who call on Agwu the patron spirit of Afa divinations must involve the tortoise in one form or another for precision of foresight.