#parapo

Farotimi Okunade was a Yoruba prince of the Egbedi Quarters and a direct descendant of Owa Ofokutu ( 27th ruler of Ilesha)…. His drummers sang of his military feats and sang in his praise saying : a re omo ro L’ese oke.’… ( one who takes off his enemy’s head at the foot of the sacred hill)….the cognomen got him his name “Arimoro.’

He was a sworn enemy of Ibadan… reason being that during previous campaigns including Ijebu Ere and Ara expeditions, Ilesha always fought against Ibadan…. twice in the past, Ilesha was on the losing start and Ibadan wariors raided Ijesha in reprisal…. In these two raids, all his possessions and family were carted away to Ibadan as booty of war. With the painful loss, he swore to avenge the humiliation and resist Ibadan till his last breadth. To better prepare himself for future engagements, he formed a band of warriors and built a private militia.

His first opportunity came at the Igbajo war. Igbajo was a cosmopolitan city of many Yoruba factions ( hence the name Igbajo, meaning community of different people). Ijesha wanted to annex Igbajo in a campaign to absorb all lesser kingdoms in the region as well as reduce Ibadan’s influence in the region…. the Bale of Ibadan sent Balogun Akere to reinforce Igbajo. The Balogun showed the legendary battle skills of Ibadan and totally subjugated the Ijesha warriors. Many of the generals of Ijesha perished in the battle, including Lejoka, Risinkin and Lejofi. Arimoro managed to escape but he had to go underground for a while to rebuild his militia.

Three years later, Ibadan launched a full scale war on Ijesha. Once again, Arimoro played a great role in the war and for the first time, Ibadan warriors noticed him as a potential problem. After series of combats with which Ibadan closed in dangerously on Ijesha, Arimoro escaped to Akure to avoid being caught and executed. A siege was laid by Ibadan on Ijesha to cut it off from the outside world and push to people of Ijesha to near starvation. This forced Ijesha to surrender and submit to the sovereignty of Ibadan.

While in Akure, Arimoro received constant sad news of how Ibadan totally subjugated his ancestral home into a tributary vassal of Ibadan and the imposed Ajeles. For few years after, he waited for another opportunity to defend his ancestral home from exile. During his campaigns at Akure, he met Fabunmi of Oke Mesi and identified with the rising momentum to rebel against Ibadan in the region. when events finally led to a full scale revolt against Ibadan Ajeles, Arimoro took part in the riots. After the massacre of the Ajeles at Ekiti, he went back home with his militia and took the front row place in a similar full scale revolt against ajeles in the region leading with example by killing the Ajeles at Ilesha. In a short while, all the Ajeles of the region would be massacred as was the case at Ekiti.

He joined the Ekiti Parapo army and fought alongside folk heroes like Ogedengbe and Fabunmi. After the end of the war, he came back to Ilesha in 1887 as a war hero. In 1896, he was offered the throne of Ilesha but he refused, as he had all political interests and chieftancy offers prior, claiming that his motivation for his ancestral home was nothing but love. He stepped down for his brother Haastrup to take the throne.

We flew from Kota Kinabalu to Manila very early in the morning and since we didn’t want to stay in the capital we decided to go straight to Banaue. Apparently there are no busses that go there directly in the morning so we headed for Baguio instead in a bus that was meant to leave at 10am but that eventually left at 7am so we didn’t have to wait too long. We fell asleep before we even left the city, while looking out the windows at all those noisy and polluting jeepneys and at the policemen here and there, all armed with AK47 in their hands.

Once in Baguio we felt happy about the cooler weather of the Cordilleras. We got our accommodation solved and we relaxed for a couple of hours, which was very nice in the chilled weather of the mountains. The weather gor rougher though, and it literally rained so muc pouring! And we got to know that a typhoon was heading to where we were going the day after. We did some research and read that many people were being evacuated; the staff at our place told us that it could be dangerous, but the bus company guaranteed us that they wouldn’t be leaving if it wasn’t safe. It makes sense, but with some companies you just never know…  After another night bus, we finally arrived in Banaue safe and sound and were welcomed by some locals that worked for the tourism information office. They were deciding in which order they would be working that day, so that all of them had the same opportunities to earn some money… pretty interesting to see how considerate they were with each other. From Banaue we went on a guided trek to Batad’s rice terraces… The first part I was sitting on the top of a jeepney, with three other girls and one of the guides, who happened to be a shaman and fascinated our journey with amazing stories about what kind of stuff he is asked to do. Sometimes very scary shit if you ask me. Then the jeepney stopped and the sweating started. I’m happy nobody warned us about the difficulty of the trek because maybe otherwise I wouldn’t have dared to join and would’ve missed out completely. The Batad rice terraces are 2000 years old and were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines Cordilleras by ancestors of the indigenous people. They are referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. They are located approximately 1500 metres above sea level and are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above. It is said that if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe.

After saying bye to one of the girls I shared the jeepney rooftop with the day of the trek –and one of the sweetest people we’ve met so far by that matter- we headed to Batangas passing by Manila again. Curiously we met a very cool and great guy in London a couple of years ago and his parents are Pinoy. When he knew we were heading that way not only he insisted on staying at his parents summer house, which is incredibly kind, but also he arranged so that the neighbours there could show us around! So in south of Luzon we were picked up by this sweet couple, and literally were doing everything to show us around and give us advice! They took us to barrio fiestas, where so many houses in the neighborhood open their doors to the people and offer some traditional food and karaoke for everyone willing to spend some time chatting, drinking and mostly eating! Once you’re done in one house, you move to the next one and start all over. Hospitality is one of the main words when you think of this country! Nobody was accepting any of our money but they did take many pictures of us, some sneaky and some asking for it, while commenting with each other how we looked like, our face, our eyes, our clothes… It was very special and although it seemed a bit strange, I’ve never felt more welcomed in my life. I have to say that from that moment on, I knew I was going to love the Philippines.  

In Puerto Galera we spent just a couple of nights chilling as a first stop on our way to Boracay. Well the journey happened to take 30hours because of broken vans, drivers that run away, delayed ferries and uncomfortable seats. In Boracay we were a bit disappointed to see how crowded it is, how every spot on the sand of White Beach is a spot for hawkers, and how it is not what it was in the eighties. Not that we were there in the eighties ourselves, but we heard some cool stories from Niklas’ dad who visited Philippines during his adventure times. We spent little time in the main beach and explored other less known beaches in the island: such a difference! Also during the days in Boracay we found a very, very tiny kitten who was lost and ill and malnourished. We’ve seen uncountable stray cats and dogs the last months, some of them you know will have a sort of acceptable existence, but this kitten just broke my heart. At first we just tried to not getting involved, you know, it might have diseases, you don’t know if this or that… but I kept on stumbling upon him and I decided to do something. We contacted an animal shelter and tried to fed the kitten while waiting to meet with a contact person who would bring the kitten to a safer place. I named the little one Lemon because of his size and gave him a lot of love… Happy to give the kitten a safe home, we got to know that Lemon didn’t pull through. That got me down for many days and still today. I know some people barely have something to eat themselves and they could never take care of a pet… but this one thing got me crying for a while. I appreciate very much Niklas' patience and understanding in these situations I drag him into... But something special happened between me and that tiny furry friend. I want to think that at least he left us having known some love.

The amazing Malapascua island would bring some joy again to my heart. We found a cool place to stay with a convenient deal for diving and accommodation, so what was planned to be three days turned into more than a week. We met again the sweet girl I met in Batad! And our beautiful english friends happened to come there too! With them, another couple came along and we had many laughs together. Happy days. We also met the greatest dive instructor and did our best dives until today. Fine, we have only been diving for a couple of months now, but we’re very fortunate to say that we’ve seen some amazing sites. Well, seeing the beautiful and interesting thresher sharks and discovering all the unbelievable marine life in Gato island is just crazy. You guys do some research and still it doesn’t make it justice. I really have no words!

There is so much more to see and do in the Philippines, but the budget is there now and we have another stop before we hit Australia: the promising Indonesia is next. I've told myself though that I will be going back to the Philippines, to discover Palawan and its wrecks and so, so much more.