Oba

The registry had Shango's household three-quarters complete. Oba is the senior wife, and the story attached to her is the famous and uncomfortable one: told by a rival that Shango would love her more if she fed him her ear, she did it, and he would not eat, and she fled and became her river. The reference treatment offers the metaphorical reading too — that she gave him her ear in the sense of listening — and the record keeps both, because the tradition plainly does.

Domains

• rivers

Relations

• consort of: ShangoHis senior wife. The registry held Shango, Oya and Oshun — three of the four principals in that household — and not the fourth, which is the one the household's best-known story is about.Reference treatment of Ọba as the senior wife of Shango. (secondary)

Sources

• Oba is the Yoruba orisha of the river Oba and the senior wife of Shango, from whom the tradition of her giving her ear derives.: Reference treatment of Ọba, her marriage and the ear tradition. (secondary)