Computer Science Originated From Ifa ~ Late Professor Sophie Oluwole

“….Man Is So Lazy That They Want A Divine Being That Would Give Them Everything
Without Having To Work” Professor Sophie Abosede Oluwole.
The Business Dispatch: Prof, can you shed light on what informed the ease with which
imported religions, especially Christianity and Islam, were able to overcome African
Traditional Religion, particularly Ifa?
Professor: The funny thing is that in the history of Yoruba tradition, Western religions were
the first set of institutions to establish a universal primary school. Whereas in the case of
African Traditional Religion, especially Ifa, you can only start learning Ifa at the age of six
and you would only be taught the literature aspect. After you have learnt it for six years,
you cannot readily progress any further.
Unfortunately, there is very little you were taught about Ifa. They just taught you the
peripherals like proverbs, stories and so on, leaving out the major part of the subject. If you
want to be a professional practitioner of IFA, you have to spend another twelve years.
Against this background it is only the privileged few, in this case, the professional ifa’s
practitioners, that knew beyond the pieces of literature, proverbs and stories aspects. Unlike
Christianity that came preaching in the markets and open places. These Christians did their
homework very well as they were much aware that most people who were listening to them
did not even have in-depth knowledge of their own culture and religion. Unless you have
gone to learn to become a professional ifa, you couldn’t boast of ample knowledge about Ifa
but these people who did not understand their own culture and Ifa can tell you the story of
Jesus Christ, the story of Mary who had a baby and so on in the Bible. Nobody taught us all
that, ninety per cent of the people in town do not know the stories of Ifa. But these people
and I mean the Christians are propagandists. They say, God created Adam and Eve and He
asked them to be naked. So I am asking them, suppose Adam and Eve did not disobey God,
we will still be going naked? (She sighed).
You know, when they bring a new idea to you, you are not likely to be critical. Because of
its newness and man being a curious being would want to try it and at the end of the day,
you have no choice but to follow them. I read a story that when Christianity came to Ghana,
they preached that if you followed them, you would have everything you wanted. The
Ghanaians said they would give up their religions because in their religions, to drink palm
wine you have to climb a palm tree, to eat pounded-yam you have to peel and cook yam. So
they thought to themselves that this God that will give us everything without working was
worthy of our unalloyed allegiance. Because it was advertised that God will give you
everything and man is so lazy that they want a divine being that would give them
everything without having to work. Let me ask you, when you go to church, how much do
you get without working? But these people were invited; come, I will save you; come, I will
give you everything and people gullibly followed. Also, because these people were
preaching in any available open spaces and there was no way to preach Ifa in the open
space.
Christianity lives on propaganda and they are still doing propaganda till today. They will
tell you to shout Hallelujah and you will get something. So what I’m saying in essence is
that religion has to be popular for it to gain acceptability.
With my knowledge of Philosophy, making a choice means to know two and prefer one.
And in this particular case, they didn’t know one. In other words, Christianity was not a
choice, that was the only one they knew and they took it. Anybody who is to make a choice
today must know at least two religions and say I prefer this. Ninety-nine per cent of
Muslims today do not go outside the Quran. For me to choose, I have to know Islam and
Christianity and even Ifa and then I decide to choose one. But when I know only one, I
haven’t made a choice.
Unfortunately, Ifa is not even available as a book. It was these same Christians that were
describing ifa as idolatry and as this and that.
They never asked the Ifa people to say who are you? They blackmail them and accuse them
of killing chickens which is the same slaughtering they do in Rome today and even on
Christmas day. Most people did not know Ifa, so they took the one that was propagated to
them as a better option. The synopsis of it all was that these people never chose making a
choice means knowing one and preferring the other.
The Business Dispatch: How valid is Ifa divination in the current scientific world?
Professor: This is a question the scientists will not answer because Ifa is Computer Science,
Law of Probability and what is probability? Probability is binary, binary is 0.1. The
computer is a subject under Ifa. So it has been established that Yoruba people are the ones
that started Ifá as Computer Science whether it is scientific or not.
Not only that, Science before ifá used material things, today the Westerners know that there
is nothing like pure matter. Matter and non-matter are not separable. Meanwhile, Yorùbá
have said they you cannot separate them. When you say, matter and non-matter cannot be
separated what you get is Practical Physics, which is Ifá! And this made it superior to
Western study. For your information about computer science, if you read Professor Olu
Longe the Yoruba were operating Computer systems before Jesus was born. Western
computers were discovered less than 200 years ago. The idea of the Computer did not occur
in the west until this time and we can rightly argue that we were there before them.
You know most times when I talk I can tell you where I saw it, I quote, I won't speculate
and the facts are there for you to further research.
When you look at Ifa, òyìnbó have discovered that Ifa is a computer system (no argument).
I am not preaching that you should not be a Christian but what I am saying is that for you to
say that Christianity is better there must be two. Do not let anybody tell you what Ifa is, go
and read it.
The Business Dispatch: Ma, the world is tending towards one language and a critical look at
all available languages show that the English Language stands the best chance. What do you
think is the hope of the Yoruba language when this happens?
Professor (looks at us heartbreakingly and shook her head. She was visibly annoyed at this
question and did not hide this.): ‘Kinni won ko eyin omo won yi ni ile-iwe?’ meaning
‘What are they teaching students in our schools?’ There is an atlas of world languages, it
was not written by Yoruba and it states that when a language dies, the people die. A
language is where you store all knowledge you have and everybody seems to be fighting so
that their languages will not die! So I do not know the meaning of one language you are
insinuating. In the United Nations, the French people speak French, the German speaks
German. There was one day a person from Belgium started speaking English, the President
of France walked out. Speak your language so that it can be translated! There are some
words in Yoruba languages that cannot be translated into English and how do you explain
those words when English becomes the universal language? English is becoming popular
but nobody has ever preached that you kill all languages and have just one. Many languages
have died but what killed them was because their speakers were asleep.
Let me ask you a question, I said the Yoruba people created the computer but the word
‘computer’ is not in the Yoruba Language? I don’t want to mention the name of a Professor
who said the Yoruba Language is not good and should be destroyed and his reason was that
he said that the Yoruba language did not have a word for Mathematics. According to him,
the word ‘ isiro’ means ‘addition’. Well I remember very well when I was in primary school
that when I come to class, my teacher would write isiro and he would be teaching us
multiplication, division and addition!
But let us look at the word isiro. ‘ shi ko ro’, meaning ‘ think and add’ and that is what is
called calculus and that is higher than Mathematics. Another thing the same Professor said
in the same paper was that there was no word for ‘television’, that we use ‘telifision’? The
Professor further argued that ‘a m’ohun m’aworan’ does not suffice. What is the meaning of
‘a m’ohun m’aworan?’ something that captures voice and picture. Television is from Latin,
‘tele’ means sound while ‘ vision’ means sight from a distance. Where is the word ‘hear’?
Television means seeing from a distance, what of the voice?
The term a m’ohun m’aworan, means you see and you hear. So a m’ohun m’aworan is ten
times superior to the television and this man is a professor!
The Business Dispatch: How do you think Yoruba cultural values can proffer solutions to
our degenerated society?
Professor: Unless you know, you cannot use it to proffer solutions. You cannot give what
you don’t have. I will quote another Professor that I hold in high esteem. I presented a paper
that I claimed that Yoruba tradition agrees that children have rights, the man stood up and
said that if I were a student he would flog me for telling him lies. He told the people that he
wanted to help me that the Yoruba people don’t believe that children have rights and I
asked for an example or proof of that. He said “ẹnu àgbà ni obi ti gbo” meaning children
have no right to talk. So I asked him the meaning of agba (elders)? I told him, you are in the
Department of Physics, if I write a PhD is it not to the Professor who will supervise it? He
said, yes and I asked if he has heard a proverb agba dida, ko ko kan ojo ori”?
meaning ‘to be called an elder is not a function of age’. It refers to words from the mouth of
the wise, not age! So one may be younger in age but wiser in knowledge. So I told him I
needed him to explain a word so that I would accept that he was right, he asked me to go
ahead. I asked him that there is a saying in Yoruba that “agba dida, omode laa fi r’eje”. He
exclaimed very good! It means we cheat children under the guise of being an adult. What is
cheating? Cheating is depriving me of what I have. So if I have no right, what are you
cheating me of? After this, the man started worshipping me as a reasonable person. All this
is because we do not analyse as we are supposed to. The Yoruba people know that the
children have rights but because you can beat him and he cannot defend himself, you cheat
him of what is his rights. Our problem is that we do not analyse our words.
The Business Dispatch: What is your take on the attempt by the Governor of State of Osun
to introduce the study of Ifa into the school curricula?
Professor: I remember very well that Aregbesola put it there for a reason. I was sitting with
him and he brought out the Quran and said Mohammed said that religion is not compulsory.
It varies. So for him, to teach Christianity, Islam and Ifa is to give them options. He was not
forcing anybody to follow anyone. It’s a matter of choice and it’s not a must that everybody
must accept one.
I wanted to come in but he has already given that assignment of what to put in the
curriculum to a man I know. I know the man who wrote the curriculum knew next to
nothing of what is the academic aspect of Ifa. So I wrote to him, I still have the proposal in
my house although he did not approve it. I wanted to take out about 150 verses in Ifa which
talk about Mathematics, Geography, History, Computer Science etc. because I can not talk
about the religious aspect alone. Ifa is literature that contains more than religion. So they
can
put ifa there. They shouldn’t limit the choices by putting only Christianity and Islam. Ifa
and any other traditional religion can be put there and the children can later be allowed to
make their choice because you have to know something to argue against it. You cannot just
dismiss something you do not know anything about. If you ask me, I would say the word
‘IFA’ be taken out and replaced with ‘ Yoruba intellectual knowledge ’ because
Mathematics is there, Geography is there, History is there, Economics is there, Democracy
is there and
please is that religion?
What is a democracy, what are the basic laws of democracy? Let me read it out for you
from IFA, (she starts reciting it in the Yoruba language), is that religion? Let me interpret it,
they said, “ the idea that I am bigger and stronger is the idea of the greedy ones who rule,
they think that their words are so clumsy that nobody can figure out but we warn them not
to deal with humans as if they are animals, we warn them not to turn political parties into
stealing organisations, we told them not to divert public funds into private use, we warned
them but they did not heed so we drove them away”.
What are the laws of democracy? All the laws and principles of democracy are there in Ifa.
If all the politicians obey these laws, will you be fighting with them? These laws were
formulated long before Christianity came. But I read this to my Honourable Governor of
Osun state, I said Mr Governor there is something in Ifa corpus that I want to say but if I
say it, you may lock me up then he promised not to lock me up. In the verse, the people
there told the governor that they do not want him that he should go away. So but in our
contemporary world, this cannot be done without being put behind bars. We cannot send
our cheating politicians away, that means that our political institutions are beyond the
people now. The Governor was laughing but I only read what I saw in the papers, I wasn’t
the author.
When Aregbesola wanted to introduce Ifá, he was criticised from religious angles.
Christianity and Islam are out there, why are you bringing another one? The man never said
he wanted everyone to do Ifá, all he said was that let there be three kinds of literature. So
they
thought he was trying to force it on them. It is just like French, they teach French in schools
but are you forcing me to speak French? No.
It is just an opportunity to learn another language. When I offer you more than one thing, it
is an opportunity and the final decision is yours. For example, I know why I choose not to
follow Islam, some people may follow it but it is a choice. During the early years of the
University of Ibadan, there was the Department of Religious Studies but for many years
what was taught there was only Christianity because the populace were all Christians.
Islamic studies was later introduced, it didn’t destroy Christian studies. What we are saying
is that we should have them side by side. If you want to be a good liberal man, you must
know as many as possible so that you can be better. Those of us who have read Indian
religion did not mean we are worshipping Hindu? So when you know several options, you
are in a better position to make up your mind.
The Business Dispatch: What is your take on the proliferation of religion in the world?
Professor: If you say Buddha, what was he trying to do? To teach you about God. What
about Mohammed and Jesus? They were trying to teach you who God is, but that is at a
higher level, a spiritual level.
Jesus was going about teaching, what was he teaching? He was teaching about how to reach
God.
In all the parables that Jesus spoke, there is a parable that Jesus spoke and I want the
Bishops to explain it to me. There was a man who had a garden, when he was sending his
boys to go and collect his returns, they will kill them, so the owner of the garden thought to
himself that these people are killing my servants because they are not my children. If they
see my son they will respect me. When they saw his son, they killed him. Jesus asked, what
would the man do?
According to Jesus, that man did not send his son with the expectation that he would be
killed, since the son of the man has been killed what should the man do? Kill them all? But
what did Jesus tell God? He said father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.
My Christianity is along that line, it is different from you who say that God sent his son so
that he can come and die. I don’t say you are lying, but he said that God sent his son so that
he can be accepted not to come and die. It is failing to accept and recognize the son that
amazed the sender. The proverb did not say I send my son, if they kill him I will be happy
with them. That may be in your Bible but I do not know.
The Business Dispatch: As a former Dean of Students Affairs of the University of Lagos,
what can you make of the three years validity being considered by the Senate for UTME
scores?
Professor: If I take jamb this year and I pass, fine, I do not have to study again or my
parents do not have to waste money. If I score 240 this year and the cut-off mark is 235 this
year, next year if the cutoff mark is increased to 260 what is the benefit of my score? I am
not saying that this is not good, we have to be very careful. I may take it and get worse, how
are am I sure that my jamb score this year will put me in a better position next year? It may
be or may not, next year’s result may be better or worse. So it has its negatives and positive
sides but for me, if I have a child I will allow him to take it next year, the one of this year
may be good so that he can have two opportunities.
The Business Dispatch: Do you subscribe to some section of people who say our politicians
should swear to an oath of office using traditional gods like Sango as against the usual
practice of the Bible and Quran to check corruption?
Professor (laughed): What is swearing? To me, the corruption they are fighting today is not
corruption everywhere, it is corruption majorly in politics. In other words, you abuse your
political office by taking money that belongs to the public. Like a verse in ifa said that ‘you
should not convert public money to private money’. The swearing they are asked to swear is
laughable. They would hold a Bible and make a promise and concluding that ‘ so help me
God ’ is that swearing?
In Yoruba, when they swear, it means you would hold something and make a pledge that if
you break that promise you would pay with your life or something sinister would happen to
you. But these people just make a promise and say so help me God, suppose God does not
help you? It means you cannot blame them when they fail, because it is God who did not
help them. (Laughed and sighed intermittently)
The Business Dispatch: Lastly, what can you make of a recent campaign to buy made-in-
Naija goods?
Professor: Is there any country in the world where the people are buying only their things?
(She asked rhetorically). America is making good things but do they not buy things from
other countries?
You cannot make a restriction law unless you are going to go the way of Moscow in 1917.
What Moscow did was to shut the door, not to let anything come in. You do not just say
patronize, you put two things and I make a choice but what Moscow did is that they said
“don’t bring it”. When I was in Moscow, the things I brought were seized at the border. I
complained that their things were bad and they said that is what they have that I should go
out if I could not use theirs. I had to leave everything I brought but as long as you open your
borders you cannot force yourself to take one thing when there was a better one.
Is ogogoro different from imported gin? So the best thing is to leave ogogoro and imported
gin and allow us to make a choice. But traditionally, the oyinbo man has a way of
advertising and writing the recipes used in botanical names but the ogogoro man does not.
They say ogogoro is impure, yes but let us improve on it. When you stop it, how can I
improve on it? You bring two things and you say the oyinbo man own is better without any
evidence, who wouldn’t want the better one? Our goods are not hundred per cent. We
should improve on them, then stop importation. Otherwise, when I go to the market it is
what I like that I would buy. We can find Nigerian products that are better. I was going to
have an operation on my cataracts about seven years ago, when I went to the hospital, I was
told that my cataracts were not developed enough to be operated on and that I should wait
till it matured. When I got back home, a carpenter told me about a herb. I’ve been using that
herb for seven years and I don’t have cataracts anymore. Mr Journalists, would I have to go
to the hospital when I have something that will do it better? I rest my case.