Tsali's possession of supernatural powers was confirmed in the incredible legend about the intestines of his father DETOE AKPLƆMADA. One day, in a fit of anger, Tsali was alleged to have challenged his father to a public display of supernatural powers (amlimatsitsi).
Detoe Akplɔmada removed his own intestines, washed them in a herbal preparation and dried them to give more years of life to himself. Tsali turned into a hawk and carried his father's intestines away into space. Tsali searched in vain for the tallest tree on which to settle and swallow the intestines of his father.
Akplɔmada commanded all the trees in the vicinity to be dwarfed and transformed himself into the tallest tree upon which Tsali came to settle. Before Tsali could swallow his father's intestines, Akplɔmada reached out his hands and Tsali dropped the intestines right into his father's unseen palms.
Akplɔmada ridiculed his son with these words: "YOU KNOW HOW TO TURN INTO A HAWK AS I HAD TAUGHT YOU, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO TURN INTO A SILK-COTTON TREE" this means that the father is more powerful (greater) than his son. "Ɖevie nenye, nyemefia nuwo katã wò vo o: nyemefia ʋuzuzu wò o."
At Kleveme, Tsali one day summoned the islanders and informed them that the secret armoury which helped him to perform wonders were all with him. He handed the items to them and advice them to jealously guard his mystic items. The items Tsali gave to the ETSƆAFƆWO from his mystery bag for eternal keep include the following:
HAƲUI:
Three small-sized drums, the possession of which has marked the ETSƆAFƆWO clan of Aŋlɔ - Tsiame as the AZÃGUNƆWO or mysterious drummers from Ŋɔtsĩe. HAƲUI is a community drum. Anyone who dances to its throbbings at its maiden outing once a year without previously confessing his or her sins is bound to swell up upon reaching home, never exceeding the space of 12 months, that is, before the next outing. The sins of the guilt which would defile such a person are adultery, theft, murder and all evil deeds in general. Haʋui nye AKANYIƲU, a drum to proof your innocence.
KODZIKLĨ:
One native hoe marked with red and white clay (de kple ɣe).
EFIA:
One pathfinder's wood-axe. (mɔɖefia).
TRɔ̃ BADZI:
An ancestral fetish.
AXATSƐ:
One rattle, covered with the sorcerer's or diviner's beads (adziŋku).
GAKOGUI:
One native gong-gong.
Tsali taught the islanders the songs and dance which go with the drums. Tsali conferred a clan-name "ETSƆAFƆWO". Members of this clan at Tsiame are the custodians of the great Tsali drums.
Togbi Tsali was next heard of to have visited BOMIGO where he gave the villagers a fetish TRɔ̃ BOMI from a crab variety known as "AGALÃLEDZI".
Tsali moved to HADOTA and at BLEAMEZÃDO he gave that villagers too a fetish "KONƆMANYEVIKU" literary means "a barren woman is very unfeeling".
Tsali travelled to VUI on the coast, crossing the Keta lagoon. Here, he left a fetish KPETSU (ahlihakpe), seven SOKU trees and TSALIƑE as "GBOŊI" (agɔti kple kpe). Tsali performed a miracle there causing SEVEN FAN-PALM trees to shoot up as another boundary pillar to his realm.
It is a UNSOLVED MYSTERY why all the three items left behind at VUI by Tsali lie in a straight line from west to east. Thereafter, Tsali is believed to have disappeared into the sea and to have remained unseen by any of his close associates for the space of sixteen years.
Oral tradition by a section of people of Ada Foah asserted the claims of Tsali's disappearance into the sea: Some fishermen from Ada Foah who were on fishing expedition were met with a terrible storm on the sea and lost control and navigation over their boat. The raging tidal waves landed them on unknown shore where they met an old man on that solitary island. The old man was delighted to see them.
Envelope with fears, one of the men gathered courage and narrated their ordeal on the sea to the old man. After offering the fishermen food and water, the old man commanded crocodile from the sea and sat on it's back. He led the fishermen back to the shore of Ada Foah. The old man introduced himself to them as Tsali and requested of them to visit Tsiame and offer any thanksgiving to him at Tsiame - Tsaliƒe. The people of Ada Foah till this day call on Tsaliƒe annually with their sacrifices.
When Tsali returned to earth, his first place of call was KLEVEME. The ETSƆAFOWO were nowhere to be found. The wars and slave raids of the time had moved the Etsɔafowo out to a new settlement in the Tsiame forest.
Tsali moved in the direction of AVE-ƉI-TSIVE since the water at Kleveme was saltish, he imagined freshwater to be available in that forest. On reaching that forest, Tsali consulted his oracle but the spot he intended settling upon was rejected. Tsali raised a mound to mark the spot. This mound is called AMUDRUME (ADRUME).
XƆVEENU - Proceeding further in the forest, Tsali discovered the Etsɔafowo and their enlarged families settled at Xɔveenu. The elders of the old brigade he knew had all died but Tsali met their offsprings who were great warriors and hunters. The men he met were: KƆƉƆ, ATSIKƆMETSI, GATA, KPɔ̃GÃ, KUETOAÐU, ASEMHIA and ƉƆ.
The second generation of the Etsoafɔwo were more hospitable to Tsali than their fathers of Kleveme. Tsali remained three days at Xɔveenu and left two boundary pillars from the original granite rocks with which he sank in the Lower Volta. Tsali informed them that he and their fathers or ancestors had been on very cordial terms and had travelled together from Ŋɔtsie in the first instance. "I had left some valuable treasures in their charge and wish to know if they had been handed down."
Tsali was shown all of them. He was very pleased and taught them more HAƲUI songs and secrets of living. Tsali bequeathed to the Etsɔafowo descendants, a lot of mystic wealth (amlimatsinu geɖewo).
Tsali had no wife and no child. He had an adopted son called BOGLO and principally to this boy he taught the use of herbs to effect spectacular cures. After days of his stay in the forest at XƆVEENU, Tsali announced that his days on earth were now ended and that his earthly assignment had now been accomplished.
Tsali opened his mouth wide, he removed his upper and lower jaw and ordered that they should be used as foundation stones to erect two separate fetish houses to his eternal memory.
From that moment Tsali became a fetish, a demigod, to be invoked and worshipped.
Tɔgbi KPɔ̃GA raised the first TRɔ̃XƆ to Tsali's undying memory in accordance with the specifications Tsali had directed.
Tsali rose slowly, as at the Lower Volta drowning story, commanded and sat confidently floating on the crocodile's back, he turned white with a halo around him as bright as the sun. He faded and disappeared by degrees into the mystic blue of earth. Tsali became a localized god invoked in shrines.
Tsali left behind the following footprints:
1. TSALIƑE (Tsalitrɔ̃ƒe) at Kpɔgãnu
2. HAƲUIXƆE (Ʋuxɔe)
3. AXATSƐ
4. ADEKPI (Red Scimitar)
5. ETSƆAFƆHLɔ̃
6. KODZIKLĨƑE
7. TSIAMEƲUTE
8. WOBƐƑE
9. AMETAƲI
10. ATSITOETSITE (Kodzoɖoƒe)
11. ATSYÃGÃTE
12. AMUDRU-AMUKAYA
13. AKAGANU (Aka-gã-ƒe-ʋɔnudrɔ̃ƒe)
14. XƆVEENU and XƆƉEKƐ
15. TESHIXƆ (Teshiƒe)
16. ƲLOKƆME
17. TSALIƲUSHIƑE at Kpɔgānu.
18. ETSƆAWO ƑE AƑEDOWO le Kleveme.
19. BADZIƑE (duglānu)
20. AFUƑE (intended to safeguard Tsali's children from the attacks of wild animals).
21. DZODZIHELĨƑE
22. AGƆGLIƑE (Agɔglivenu)
23 DƆƉEVEKOTUIME (Dɔɖeveme).
24. KLEVEME (where Tsali met a female fetish called KLEVE - TESHI).
25: NUNYAŊKUI.
Many, many years after Tsali's death, the pressures of war again forced the settlers at Xɔveenu to move out. Tɔgbi GENTELI emerged from the ruins of Tsali's fame and led his children to a new settlement at TSIAME AGƆNU.
"TSIAME" literally means "aʋa va tsi ame" in English "we are fed with wars".
...the end.
Credit : AnloTV
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