Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

Ifa: The Yoruba god of Wisdom

A long tradition of hierarchical priesthood and a web of folklore
First published in The African Guardian March 13, 1986.

Kemi Atanda ILORI

In spite of the numerous articles and books devoted to it in recent years, Ifa remains an
intractable subject for many, a bewildering cellar of ancient wisdom. And this is not only
due to the complex web of fetish associated with it but also – and this is more important
– to the paraphernalia and elaborate divination procedures incidental to Ifa.

As much the name of the patron deity as of the divination system itself, Ifa is similar in
function and linked organically to other divination systems extant among the Igbo, the
Nupe, the Jukun and Gwari peoples of Nigeria.

But this similarity cannot be pressed too far. For unlike these other systems the Ifa
oracle has a long tradition of hierarchical priesthood, plus an inexhaustible fountain of
lores, myths, taboos, etcetera which when appropriately recalled and chanted by the
priest have celebrated redemptive powers.

Among the Yoruba, Ifa is revered not only for these redemptive powers but also for the
cultural link it provides between man and the other gods. Esu – the erratic god –
especially occupies place of prominence in Ifa divination rites. Through these rites the
Yoruba mind communes both with its environment in terms of such phenomena as rain,
drought, wind, fire, earth and such other elements; and, beyond them, with much more
abstracted and practically invisible forces of nature.

Abundantly evident in the rituals of Ifa is man’s wish to efface harsh reality, or merely to
temper it and make it subservient to a rational and human order. The blind
incomprehensible attributes of nature combine to form in man a sense of awe, of daring,
of defeat and conquest. Tied in this way to the basic fears and dreams of man, to his
means of survival and livelihood, it is not surprising that the origins of Ifa date back to
the earliest times, to the origin of mankind itself.

According to one popular belief, Ifa or Orunmila as he is also called, was one of those
gods who journeyed from heaven to earth to found the ancient Yoruba city, Ife-Ife. In Ife,
he fathered eight children, practiced successfully his profession as seer and solver of all
problems. He founded a cult of diviners, gathered a band of disciples and was wont to
wander from city to city in the course of his profession. But Ifa was prone as much to
humility as to pride and the impertinence of his youngest son, Olowe, caused him such
annoyance that the god of wisdom decided to part ways with earthlings and journeyed
back to heaven by the much climbed ‘palm tree’.

Now it is easily guessed what would happen with the god of Wisdom and – by
implication – of order absent from Earth. Chaos and upheaval swamped the land,
unheard of events, extraordinary and terrifying in every detail started to occur. Hurriedly,

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 Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

the children of Orunmila were dispatched as ambassadors to their fathers to persuade

the god to return to Earth. For undisclosed reasons however, Orunmila refused to
accede to his children’s wishes, sending each back, instead with sixteen palm nuts for
use as guidance and succor in the daily affairs of life. Henceforth, these palm nuts or
ikin in Yoruba, would become important totems of the god and his priests use them
regularly when consulting Ifa.

At other times, especially when divining for clients, the priests may use opele, a divining
string of nuts made from the opele tree (Schrebera golungensis). Divination begins with
the client whispering his prayer into opele, or into a coin which he throws on the divining
board. The priest casts his chain, observing meticulously the inner and outer surfaces of
the nuts and the combinations of patterns they produce are vital codes of divination
which only the priest can read.

If the picture is not clear enough the priest may seek further aid in the efficacious sacred
cowrie and the sacred piece of bone. These are used in the manner of a touchstone
mainly for casting lots. The priest is not limited to a single throw of the chain. In practice,
he casts his chain several times recording the formation of the nuts in the yellowish
powder, iyerosun, contained in the ornamented divining tray. To stimulate his memory
and create a conductive environment, the priest uses a short ivory staff, iroke, to tap the
tray rhythmically while he chants the relevant odu from the almost endless and untiring
corpus of Ifa poems.

There are 256 volumes to this corpus, sixteen of them, lengthy in proportion and
featuring the major subjects that may preoccupy the client, are commonly accepted as
the principal ones. The remaining 249 volumes are of shorter poems that read normally
as prefaces, addenda, or illustrations to the sixteen major categories. Each category or
odu has its own signature tune, a combination of strokes made in the iyerosun
accompanied by its own specific poem(s).

The 256 volumes are rich poetic stories grounded in the oral and folkloric culture of the
Yoruba. Fleshy myths, tales, folklore and partly historical precedents are what we have
in the volumes. Lyrical and sensitive, the treatments of these precedents is given in
various pitches – from serious to the comical, the satirical to the basically realistic, and
the exalted to the melodramatic. The only constant is Ifa’s well famed abilities to solve
all problems.

There are ceaseless declamations to these abilities, to the essentialness on the part of
the client to comply with the instructions of Ifa, no matter how unfathomable, absurd,
expensive or even trivial. And most of these instructions are, at least on the surface, of
this nature. Sacrifices requiring parts of fish or bird or animal, topped with kola nuts,
soaked in oil, wrapped in a piece of white cloth and left at the crossroads are common
enough with Ifa.

At other times the sacrifice may be in the form of such edibles as fruits, tubers, palm-
kernels, beans, bean cakes and groundnuts. In such instances the client may partake of

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 Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

these materials and even share with his household or with any group of persons
instructed by Ifa. Most of these sacrifices are to placate the other gods, the client’s
personal spirit Ori, or the witches. The Yoruba believe in the efficacy of these sacrifices
and Ifa’s prescriptions are taken quite seriously, perhaps because many of these
prescriptions are drawn directly from the Odu Ifa that concerns the client.

The Odu, however, in spite of its variety, its often expansive and almost limitless details,
is not something structurally indeterminable. In fact, it has now become clear that the
priest when chanting the Odu is not engaged in some unconscious process but in a
highly controlled and artistically structured activity. Wande Abimbola, a noted Ifa lorist
and researcher, has identified eight typical features of the basic Ifa poem. Though he
does not discuss their role, these features are not more functional than stop-gaps or
stanza margins intended to give the priest a moment to catch his breath or more, shuffle
the details of his chosen poem – especially when he has to recite, sing an declaim, in
turns, parts of these details. The competence of the priest is, among other ways,
reflected in how carefully and correctly he can pick his way through the meaning,
message and rites structurally integrated into each Odu.

The first feature of ese Ifa (Ifa poem) states the name(s) of the Ifa priest involved in a
past divination while the second gives the name(s) of his client. The third discusses the
reason(s) for the divination, the fourth giving the instructions of the priest. The fifth part
tells whether or not the client obeyed these instructions. The sixth shows the result of
the client’s compliance or non-compliance, the seventh tells his reactions to his good
fortune or misfortune. The eight is a conclusive moral drawn from the whole story.

After the seventh part the Ifa priest may repeat parts I – VII all over again, for emphasis
mainly. Let’s for instance, take one short poem from Odu Eji Ogbe, the first volume in
Ifa corpus, to illustrate these features. One will discover in this selection from Wande
Abimbola’s work, Ifa Divination Poetry, that as is typical with Ifa keekeke – short Ifa
poems – not only these features but even meaning itself is tightly compressed.

Mo sipa,
Mo yanngede,
A dia fun Orunmila,
Won ni baba o nii lee reruu re dale.
Won ni ki Orunmila o robu,
O si ru u.
Apa awon otaa re ko si lee ka a mo.
O ni mo sipa,
Mo yanngede;
A dia fun Orunmila,
Won ni baba o nii lee reruu re dale.
Emi nikan ni n o reruu mi dale,
Mo sipa,
Mo yanngede.

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 Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

I lift up my arms
In joyful satisfaction.
Ifa divination was performed for Orunmila,
The father was told that he would not carry his responsibilities to the end of his life.
Orunmila was told to perform sacrifice,
And he performed the sacrifice.
As a result he became impregnable.
He said, “I lift up my arms
In joyful satisfaction.
Ifa divination was performed for Orunmila
The father was told that he would not carry his responsibilities to the end of his life.
I will carry my own responsibilities to the end of my life.
I lift up my arms
In joyful satisfaction.”

At a glance we notice that lines 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are instances of features, II, III, IV,
V, VI, and VII respectively. Omitted are features I and VIII. In may Ifa poems, feature I is
usually a nickname or the abbreviation of a long compound name of the Ifa priest(s)
cited in the precedent. Of feature VIII, I find from the several poems of the corpus I read
that moral messages are couched often obscurely though artistically in allusions,
parodies, hyperboles, similes, metaphors and even onomatopoeia, such literary devices
so ubiquitous in Ifa divination poetry. Not very often do you find the example cited below,
also from one of Abimbola’s works that is a blatant and unabashed tendency towards
petty moralizations.

The lines below are pleas that the wicked should desist from wickedness.

Igbo biribiri;
Okunkun birimu birimu;
Eni o ba mose okunkun,
K’o mom o d’osupa loro,
Ohun seni a a rinru;
Okunkun ko ye omo eeyan;
A dia fun Ogbe-soore-gbika
Ti won o maa san ibi fun dipo oore.
Won ni ebo ni ki o se.
Won ni ki o lo be iti ogede,
Ki o se oro iku le e lori;
Ki o we e ni aso bi oku,
Ki o gbele ibi ti eeyan le sin oku si
Ni aala oko,
Ki o we da sori iti ogede naa
Ninu iho ti o ti gbe.
Ki o sin in bi eni sin oku.
O si se bee.
Igba ti inu ree dun tan

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 Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

Orin awo ni n ko.

O ni, ‘Ro rere o.
Ika, ro rere.
Ohun to ogede se f’agbe l’o po,
Ro rere,
Ika, ro rere’.

In short, what appears important in most of Ifa poetry is not simply a line or two of moral
platitudes but a total and effective description of those events that naturally bear them
out. The sheer literariness of this description, its multifacetedness, its possibilities,
contradictions and essential connection to the prevailing ethos of the society, especially,
those sanctioned by the political culture, are aspects which space would not permit us
to recall here.

But suffice to say that more than any other divination system along the West African
coast, Ifa teems with every subject under the sun and presents its contents in highly
graphic though not necessarily realistic details. The delivery is at once succinct and
elaborate, concise and effusive, reflective both of the literary vastness of the Ifa corpus
as much as of the training of its priests.

The pupil Ifa priest, is a youngster 10 to 15 years old who spend the next ten to twelve
years as a devoted hardworking apprentice under some renowned master of the art.
Even after these years, he has to practice under some supervision until he has been
successfully inducted into the mysteries of the cult.

Upon his graduation, and depending on his own prowess and inclinations, the fledgling
priest may choose or combine any of the five distinct cadres of Ifa priesthood: the
diviner-healers, the diviners, the healers, the amateurs who divine solely for themselves
and their households and, finally, the semi-qualified – those who are still on their post-
graduation attachment.

The qualified priest is a totally divine person versed in the taboos, rites, recitals, and
ceremonies of the cult. He guards jealously the paraphernalia of his profession,
venerates his own mission and entirely respects the secrets of his client. He is usually
full of assurance, of a settled disposition and dispassionate in his approach to men and
matters. Wealth is not the center of his life but the happiness, health and progress he
can bring to his community.

Politically, he is as much a tool in the hands of the rulers as in those of the commoners.
But when he chooses to practice his art with a free conscience, self-restraint and in line
with the dictates of his profession, he is the most respected, the most important person
in the community and, not rarely, a scourge to injustice, inhumanity and impiety. Though
today, his position and his cult are aspects of the fading traditional institutions of the
Yoruba, it is still refreshing to watch him take his place during traditional festivals and
such other ceremonies.

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 Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori

No doubt, modern systems of commerce and governance, new modes of living, the
sophisticated urban centers, competing religions, all have conspired to seriously check
the development and influence of the Ifa cult, one of the oldest and surviving souvenirs
of Africa in such distant lands as Cuba, Haiti, Brazil and parts of America.

Yet, beyond the tarred roads, the zinc roofs, modern technology, antipathetic ideologies,
opele occasionally finds its own place, and from the patterns indented in iyerosun, Ifa
speaks across the great divide guiding his own to their final and happy destinies.

Kemi Atanda Ilori

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