A long time ago, the kingdom of Ile Ife was under frequent attack from the forest people. The forest people were very scary looking beings – with their scary, scowling faces and their scary, hairy bodies that looked like long wavy grass. The forest people would appear suddenly, out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly, taking some of the people of Ile Ife with them as salves. Because the forest people looked so scary and strange, the Ife people thought they were spirits and they lived in constant fear of the next attack.

The people were so afraid of these attacks that they begged their king, the Olofin, to do something about it. “Kabiyesi o!” They greeted him. “Please save us. Stop these forest spirits from stealing our people” they cried. The Olofin and his wife queen Moremi who were also concerned by the frequent attacks, commanded the king’s warriors to stand guard and protect the people. However, when the forest people struck, even the king’s warriors fled from the strange and scary creatures.

Seeing that the forest people had captured more of her people, queen Moremi came up with a plan that she thought would help stop the raids.

The next time the forest people raided Ile Ife, the queen allowed herself to get captured. She and the other Ife captives were taken to the forest people’s kingdom to serve as slaves. In the morning, queen Moremi was surprised to see that they were in the rival Ugbo kingdom and that there were no forest people in sight. “Who are these forest people and why have they brought us to the Ugbo kingdom as slaves?” She thought to herself “I must get to the bottom of this mystery”.

When it was time to assign tasks to the slaves from Ile Ife, the Ugbo people were struck by Moremi’s beauty and they took her to their King as his wife. They didn’t know that she was the queen of Ile Ife.

One day Moremi heard the king and his warriors preparing for a raid. “We need to get more slaves from Ile Ife tonight” they whispered. This was her chance to learn their secrets so she followed them and saw that the Ugbo warriors were the forest people! The Ugbo warriors disguised themselves with scary masks and costumes made of dried palm leaves to frighten the people they raided.

“Finally after many months, I know their secret and exactly how we can defeat the forest people” Moremi thought to herself. “Now all I have to do is get back to Ife and share this news with my husband, the Olofin”. As soon as the coast was clear, queen Moremi escaped and ran back to Ile Ife where she was received with great excitement as no one that had been captured by the forest people had ever returned.

“Kabiyesi o!” Moremi greeted the king. “I’ve discovered the secret of the forest people and I know how we can defeat them”. Moremi explained that the forest people were not spirits at all, but ordinary men wearing masks and costumes made with dried palm leaves. The Olofin was relieved to hear this news. “So how do we stop them from raiding us” he asked. “With fire!” Moremi answered. “I saw them avoiding the fire because the dried leaves in their costume would ignite very easily and burn them”

That night when the forest people arrived they were shocked to find Moremi standing with the Ife warriors and people, holding torches of fire ready for battle. For the first time, the forest people were the terrified ones. They turned around and fled back into the forest and never came back.

The people of Ife were so grateful to queen Moremi for her courage that they built a statute of her and held a festival in her honour. The festival is still held today celebrating the hero queen of Ile Ife, queen Moremi.