The fear of “ijelekpe” is the beginning of wisdom. English people call it the devil’s bean but Ubulu-Uku people in Aniocha South LGA of Delta State call it “ijelekpe”.
As a home-grown child who was trained in the village, I heard many stories about this bean but I had little or no regard for it until I encountered it one dull afternoon.
I had gone to the farm that very day to harvest cassava; I mean to dig up cassava tubers from the soil. Before I started digging, I saw this bean leaves spread in one of the cassava stems. I did not suspectanything. I quickly used my hands to untie the “ijelekpe” leaves before I cut down the cassava stems. I even admired some of the bean, touching them with my fingers and raising them very close to my eyes.
After about 2 minutes, I got the message. All my body started itching seriously and the more I scratch the more the itch continues. The itchiness was so much that I felt some sensations right inside my blood system. At a point, I started dancing like the legendary James Last of those days. I even passed urine uncontrollably like a baby.
For over 30 minutes, I was still scratching my body until a neighbor who joined me assisted me to remove all my cloths. After removing my cloths, he asked me to move away from the location of the devil’s bean which I did. I stayed there waiting for theitches to subside for over an hour before I started getting myself. I managed to carry my cassava tubers home and the following morning, I noticed some inflammations in some parts of my body including my private parts.
Since that very incident, I developed a very strong fear for “ijelekpe” and whenever I see the bean, I try as much as possible to give it enough distance. Truly,” ijelekpe” is a very bad bean that nobody can play with.
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