The tale of a two-faced and innocent ‘Dibia’, by Tosin Brown

Dibias, also known as ‘ogba afa’ in Igbo traditional culture, are traditional healers, spiritual guides, and masters of esoteric knowledge. They are often considered to possess special metaphysical insights and skills to help people navigate both the spiritual and physical worlds.

Once upon a time, in a community named BenKpo, there lived an innocent Dibia who was equally a two-faced personality.

This Dibia was powerful, gifted with healing abilities and profound metaphysical insights, but he used music as a medium for both healing and communication. Whenever he opened his mouth to praise and adore the gods of the land, he did so to the joy of not only the gods of the land, but also the gods of men and mere mortals, who danced joyously to his tunes.

His voice could melt the hearts of young virgins, and even the married women in the community found themselves stirred between their thighs. Such was the greatness of the powerful Dibia.

He was widely celebrated for his extraordinary gift and became famous both within the community and beyond the shores of his father’s land. He attained an enviable height in his career at a young age, and for a time, BenKpo was his to tweak, twist, and turn at will.

However, not many knew the true nature of the Dibia. While some chose to ignore his two-faced personality and bask in the euphoria of his greatness, others remained glaringly ignorant of who he really was.

For Dibia, his humility and innocence were two great features that consistently helped him mask his true self. Even his parents were unaware of his duality.

He appeared meek to many but possessed a steely resolve—when he set his mind to something, he rarely looked back. Though not the most handsome of men, his God-given gift transformed his lanky physique into that of a six-foot hunk in the eyes of his mostly female admirers.

From his youthful days, the Dibia had a reputation for sowing his wild oats. Even as he approached his golden years, he showed no signs of slowing down. For him, the females were his conquests. He sowed from the rising of the sun in the East to its setting in the West. The North and South were all part of his conquest—even cross-bordering was no new deal to him.

From beautiful and innocent maidens to divorced women, the Dibia of BenKpo conquered with reckless abandon.

Eventually, the Dibia began to lose his powers and his career faltered. His relationships also began to suffer, and his two-faced nature became more pronounced, leading to the loss of loyal team members.

As if that weren’t a warning sign, the first woman to bear him children—two of them—eventually grew tired of his antics. He was notorious for causing rivalries between two maidens, sometimes married women, who fought for his attention and his last name.

Sadly, one of these women, who began her journey with the Dibia as a maiden and fought many battles to keep his name, was eventually abandoned by him after years of marriage and two children. True to form, the Dibia left her for another woman—young, divorced, and the offspring of a wealthy businessman from the southern part of BenKpo.

At that point, his aged mother, who had watched his rise while he broke many hearts across BenKpo, decided to intervene. Witnesses claimed the mother warned that her spiritually fortified son might have met his match. She believed the young, divorced woman had spiritually bound the Dibia—not only to keep him to herself but also to secure his precious last name.

Those who witnessed the era of the innocent Dibia now agree that his greatest undoing was his two-faced personality.