Aso Ofi
Aroye ooo!!! Laaki won nile aro.
That’s how they greet at blacksmith workshop and they will reply
Ogun agbe e oo, irunmole atunwa’ese oo.
This is a centuries blacksmith workshop that has being in existence for more than 200years, locates at ldele, Ijebu ode Ogun state.
The Man in-charge/command made it known that he’s the fourth grandson born into the blacksmith job. He said the last deceased which is his father died at the age of 78years.
The current man in-charge narrating this story is also aged, with a son of morethan 30years.
In the blacksmith workshop, there are lot of blacksmith and they are all partition up to 7workshops and it include a shrine “Ogun (God of Iron)”. They made it know that a confirm blacksmith workshop must have a Ogun Shrine.
I don’t know why but that maybe a story for another day.
There are a lot of dos and don’t rules guiding the blacksmith for safety and progress of their work.
Ancient extensive rules that matter most for progress at the Youruba blacksmith workshop is as follows
*Must have a Ogun shrine
*Must not eat crickets(Ire 🦗)
*Must not eat snake(Ejo 🐍)
*Must not wore a footwear(Bata 👟)
*Sitting on a stone(Okuta) is prohibited
Eating of cricket and snake brakes local blacksmith tools ⚒️ , so they have been taking the precautions for centuries.
They don’t really use much tools than Long plyer (Emu), Strecher big and small (Owu nla ati Omo owu), straighteners big and small (Omiden), Fire thorougher (Iwona), Air blower(Ewiri), Palm cannel (Ekuro) but Ijebu people call it ‘irwen’ while the blacksmith call it ‘ekusen’.
The blacksmith produces several utility that we see also everyday like farm tools, traps, door in-gees, fan hanger, ancient bell, and more…
Within some minutes, the man produce a mini knife for us to see how their tools and they work. It was a great time talking to them and Ijebu ode people are really welcoming.
Per adventure you want to continue with this documentary as a project, help me greet them that I say AROYE OO!!! And my regards to them.