Moremi Ajasoro was an illustrious and brave woman who lived in Ile-Ife around the 12th century AD. Although she hailed from Offa, through marriage, she was related to the royal family and her husband, King Oramiyan was a direct descendant of the legendary founding father of the Yorubas, Oduduwa.
She was noted as extremely beautiful.
During the time she lived, the city of Ile Ife was in constant conflict with the forest people (Igbo according to Yoruba language, although they bear no resemblance to today’s Igbo people). Due to the constant nature of the conflict, the Igbo raiding parties were very successful in disrupting city life and they captured many townsfolk, enslaving and carrying them away to their settlements.
Conventional methods of retaliation by the people of Ile-Ife did not work and it was clear a radical rethink was needed to solve the conflict.
It was at this time that Moremi decided to consult with the spirits, asking them for guidance in the plight of her people. She consulted the spirit of the river Esimirin and in return for information on how to defeat her enemies, she promised the sacrifice of her son Oluorogbo, the dearest and greatest gift she possessed.
After consulting with the river spirit, she went to an area on the outskirts of Ile-Ife that she knew was frequently raided and waited to be captured.
When the forest raiders captured her as she’d planned, they gave her away as tribute to their king. Due to her extreme beauty, wisdom, wit and courage, the king became extremely enamoured of her. He fell deeply in love with her and so did the people of the forest kingdom. The king even married her and made her his consort, lavished her with gifts and comforts she could only dream of.
But Moremi never lost sight of her goals and over the many months she was in the forest kingdom, she familiarised herself with their customs, tactics, weapons, philosophies and plans. Everything that might be useful to the Yoruba army, she learnt. Through all these preparations and skilful questioning of the king, she managed to learn the biggest weakness of the Igbo forest raiders.
The king, through pillow talk revealed that the only true weakness of his warriors was fire.
It turned out that the warriors prepared for raids by covering themselves with grass and bamboo fibres, items that were very susceptible to fire. A warrior dressed in grass and bamboo would go up in flames like a bonfire if he encountered fire in any form.
With her work done, Moremi finally escaped the land of the forest people, made her way back to Ile Ife and demanded an audience with her first husband, King Oramiyan. After divulging all that she knew, including the crucial information about the grass and bamboo clothing, Oramiyan immediately pardoned her for marrying the forest king and immediately reinstated her back to the position of his Queen consort.
Moremi, being a woman of integrity did not forget the promise she made to the river spirit and after delivering her message to the King, she made her way to the shrine of the river spirit Esimirin with her son Oluorogbo in tow.
With the information she found out, the Yorubas were able to beat back ad eventually rout the forest raiders, pacifying the region and paving the way for future conquests and expansions of the Yoruba Kingdom.
As for Moremi, after fulfilling her promise to the river spirit she went back to the palace, her job done as the Queen of the Yorubas. Because of the great sacrifices she made and the heartbreak she endured through the loss of her son Oluorogbo, she singlehandedly saved her people from extinction at the hands of foreign invaders.
Today Moremi is still honoured in the Yoruba kingdom, with university halls of residences, teaching halls, roads etc named after the legendary princess. Her son Oluorogbo also lives on in a place name. Moremi’s statue in Ile-Ife is the fourth tallest in Africa and she is still held in high regard by the Yoruba people.
A true people’s princess
Yoruba Folk Tales 
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