The statues

This story is a true life history of a village in Yoruba. The village is located in Kwara State of Nigeria,about 48 kilometres South-East of Ilorin the capital state and about 128 kilometer north of Ife. The village is generally known as a home of 800 soapstone figures. The soapstone figures is bewildering. Till date, no one as been able to give actual insight of what happen or how it all started,it still remains a mystery. Indeed, nobody knows how these stone images exactly came about but a few explanations have been offered by people of the present day who dominate the town.

Information was gathered that the 800 stone images were rebellious settlers who were turned into stone images.The source claimed that these rebellious settlers were from another tribe of Yoruba-Land who sent words to Elesie (traditional chief of Esie land) that they were coming to settle down in his town but to their utter disappointment, they did not see anybody to receive them hence they settled outside the town of Esie.

It later became known that these settlers became a threat to the security of the town.They were undermining the administration of the chief and were about to rebel. As a result of this,the gods of the land, being on the side of Elesie of Esie, turned those settlers into stone statutes. Afterwards,the Esie people worship them annually. However, most of these soapstone figures have lost either heads or limbs. They appear to represent a variety of people. Some are men while some are women. There was a particular one who is seen with the tall cap neck and wrist beads was said to be their king. Some are pregnant woman giving birth and all.

In our today African history the soapstone figures of Esie are largest collections of stone carvings. They were found in groves outside the town of Esie. @Princessbusayo here is what I promise you on noise.cash .