This question is based on selected poems from Wole Soyinka (ed.) Poems of Black Africa and D.I Nwoga (ed) West African Verse. The oilbean in Christopher Oki...

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In Christopher Okigbo's poem "The Passage," the oilbean refers to one of the totems of Idoto, a goddess in Igbo mythology. The poem describes a ritual in which young women, who are initiated into the cult of Idoto, must bathe in a river and eat the oilbean as a symbol of their purification and rebirth. Therefore, the oilbean is not just a physical object, but a symbolic representation of the spiritual and cultural beliefs of the Igbo people.