IFA DEFENDED AGAINST IGNORANCE BY THE EDUCATED YORUBA ELITE!-FROM THE OSUN DEFENDER NEWSPAPER,NIGERIA

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• / Friday, May 24, 2013

THE STUDY OF IFA IN OSUN SCHOOLS; A PATH TO REAL DEVELOPMENT

One feels compelled to write this piece on the recent announcement by the government of the State of Osun on the introduction of the study of Ifa religion in all its schools. While no time should be wasted in congratulating the government led by the visionary Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on this courageous and needful step, a conscious attempt must also be made to educate those who may be genuinely regarded as ignorant on the socio-legal imperative of permitting a pan Yoruba ethos play a pivotal role in the development of a society. All efforts made at raising the level of development must be anchored on this all-embracing substratum. As for the mischievous and the proselytising hypocrites, commercial religionists with vast business empires which thrive on the very objects of deceptive public excoriation, we must hasten to allay their fears that this novel but necessary introduction will not affect the enterprise of “miraculous healing” and the promise of prosperity in a land already devastated by political locusts.
A multi cultural milieu, such as Nigeria, must recognise and accept the reality of ethno-religious pluralism and the attendant divergence to promote equity, fairness and justice among the ethnic nationalities and groups, the necessary conditions for amity, peaceful co-existence and realistic aspirations towards growth. This is the irreducible minimum below which no group should be subjected. The omniscient posture adopted by the adherents of the so called prominent religions, Christianity and Islam, exposes abysmal ignorance on the essence of other indigenous religions and explains why intolerance adorns an official garb in various shades. This combative attitude is also symptomatic of a post-colonial society still reeling from the debilitating effects of foreign subjugation in all ramifications.
The dubious and ostentatious display of piety by these self-appointed men of God, on one hand, and their obscene materialistic disposition, is more than sufficient to cause a serious study into the misfortune of a society in decline. We leave this interesting topic for another time. For now it suffices to assert that this present move by the government is the most significant since independence. If development is about the people, then it should be taken as given that understanding the ways of life of all who live in the society is a sine qua non to planning. The challenges faced by various categories of people compel introspection and determination which will ultimately lead to progress. Professional politicians, deprived of patronage for two years now in the State of Osun, considered the source of the people of the south western part of the country, will also stop at nothing to confuse the people who have been dispossessed over the years.
If our children are made to study foreign religions and some even get higher degrees, including PhDs, knowing other peoples’ cultures, then it is rather salutary that a government is considering making the study of Ifa religion an option in the school curriculum in the State of Osun, albeit belatedly. Nigeria is a place where elites take pride on being proficient speaking and writing other people’s languages. We crave advancement depending solely on the cultural ethos of other lands. Our claims to decency are often predicated on the fact of our adherence to the precepts of either of these foreign religions. We are nurtured to imbibe the customs and traditions of those who treated our ancestors with utter contempt. We grew to hate what is truly ours. We receive awards aping the ways of life of other lands. What belongs to us is despised and treated with unimaginable derision. Our cultures are subjected to foreign prisms in determining their acceptability.
It is expected that deluded beings, who either believe genuinely in the myth of superiority of these imposed sub-sets, products of the perceptions of other peoples on natural phenomena observable within their societies, will join issues with this truly progressive leader of the people. What we must, however, eschew is silence which suggests connivance at the unwarranted attacks on the dynamic governor who has turned the fortunes of the state around positively with the little resources at his disposal. Nuhu Ribadu, a man not known to suffer fools gladly, just attested to the sterling qualities of this exceptional character. Several other people have been commenting on this ascetic being whose energy belies his physical stature.
Religion was central to the development of ancient Egyptian civilization. The challenges faced by the Egyptians compelled them to look for solutions in the spiritual realm. Disasters, prominent among which was the constant inundation of the Nile were considered as sanctions from the celestial beings. These ancient people used their belief in life after life and the existence of a supernatural being, Ra, whose decisions were unquestionable, to interact with their natural environment. The modern world is the direct beneficiary of the legacies of their fecund minds. Their children were nurtured on the nuggets of beliefs which propelled keen observation of natural phenomena. This attitude gave provenance to the unparalleled scientific discoveries for which the Egyptians are still widely acknowledged.
The originality of the thought process ensured that all nations in the ancient world looked up to it. Greece became the greatest beneficiary of this unique ancient civilization and, by necessary implication, the western world in the modern sense of the expression. What the average hypocritical and ignorant Nigerian will regard as superstitious and sinful formed the basis upon which his faith predicated on this imported religion is established. The judicial system of the ancient Egyptians was an aggregate of their socio-cultural values. These were contained in the curricula of the schools at various levels of learning.
The Chinese also developed their civilization independent of other existing ones relying heavily on their cultural values. China today is an exemplar in advancement because it has never allowed any undue influence on her socio-political system built on oriental values. This country stands out today as a bulwark of inspiration when most western nations are grappling with issues of survival occasioned by debilitating economic circumstances. A Chinese child will never look up to the west for socio-economic redemption. The child believes that his/her language is the best and only learns other foreign languages to derive advantage in a competitive world. He/She does not in any way feel inferior to the western child. The state has no official religion yet the Chinese child is not precluded from studying any subject of interest.
American students now come to Nigeria to study specific aspects of our much despised culture. They speak impeccable Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, among other Nigerian languages. That is not a challenge to them at all. They are keen researchers on the mysteries of our ancestral past. They come to study Egungun cult, the talking drum and its significance in information dissemination, cultural values as encapsulated in the Odu Ifa corpus, among others. They become initiates of the Ifa religion which ignorant and ill-educated Africans denigrate. The tragedy of the whole scenario is that they are now in a position to educate us on our past. While we struggle to ape the Europeans, Americans and Arabs, we have become alienated from our origin. Nothing from us is good except it is subjected to western approval. So deracinated and uprooted from our origin have they become that fanatical members of some families openly destroy artifacts and other valuable vestiges of the glorious epoch when crass mercantilism had no impact on the psyche of the people.
Traditional rulers are the most pitiable characters of these tragic-comic elements. Some of them employed all manner of under hand methods to subvert the process of selection to become deluded kings in a republic. Once they ascend the so called throne of their fore-fathers they soon discover that their past was sinful. In their hypocritical exhibition of vacuous devotion, they destroy shrines and shun religious rites which justify their anachronistic existence in the first place. They invite commercial pastors to come and preach to their so called subjects to do away with the traditional ways. These religious businessmen in turn flaunt these clowns as trophies won in the battle to civilise the natives. They denigrate the very essence of their sustenance as custodians of the people’s customs and tradition.
They cherish the flowing three-piece traditional attire and the complementary pony tail, veritable emblems of indulgence and vanity. And just as their forbears collaborated with slave traders, commercial precursors of the proselytising hypocrites to raid villages and hamlets for slaves, they too are willing participants in the pillaging of the resources of the state at the local government level. Very few of them deserve attention in the midst of decent people.
Granted that the retrogressive position held on indigenous religions is correct, does it not make sense that our children are trained to know why their ancestral past must be condemned? We have fed generations of Nigerians, nay Africans, on foreign diets before independence through post colonial period to the present time. The ultimate ambition of an average child is to be white in everything. Is it not ironic that at a time when the western world looks towards African for cultural renaissance our people strive unabashedly to cast aside everything which reminds them of their beginnings?
Adherents of African traditional religions have been discriminated against over the years. The Nigerian experience has been heart-corroding. Supposedly educated religionists jettison family names which remind them of “pagan” practices. They adopt scriptural names of other cultures alien to the continent without understanding their significance. Thus we see funny names such as “Olugbemi” in place of “Fagbemi”. Jesus, which is a very common name among the Jews, is affixed to praise names to depict piety. What ignorance!
The new policy on education in the State of Osun will afford our children the opportunity to know that the difference you find in all religions of the world is in the practice. Doctrinal issues have now subsumed the didactic and edifying aspects of religion. In Nigeria economic consideration far out-weighs the sincere quest for spiritual regeneration. The Osun example has exposed the lie peddled by people who exploit religion for selfish purposes. Our children must be allowed to know something about what they are called upon to hate. They should be able to decide if there is any remarkable difference between the promoted religions and the message in the Ifa corpus. Students whose parents are adherents of Ifa religion must also be allowed to study their faith in an ambience devoid of discrimination and intolerance. Virtues such as continence, loyalty, honesty, piety, civic responsibility, devotion to parents and elders, humility, among others, are embedded in Ifa. Any child who has the good fortune of being nurtured on this unadulterated teaching will be useful to himself and the community at large. The hypocritical posture of politicians on this policy must be condemned.
Our children must be allowed to understand, for instance, that Esu, the perfect trickster with a dual personality is not Satan or Lucifer, the arch angel in the Christian pantheon of the gods. When our children hear names such as Esubiyi, Esugbayi or Esuronmbi, the ready connotation in their minds is the devil of the Bible or the Quran. They cannot fathom why anyone who is not insane will bear such names in the society. Beyond names, certain virtues are considered the exclusive preserve of the established religions. Experience has, however, shown that there is a wide gulf between mere avowal and the actual deeds of those who profess piety.
The very first lesson to the Ifa devotees is on contentment as against complacency.
“Ohun enu ri ni enu nje,
adifa fun igbin ti o je erupe la”.”
The mouth is satisfied with whatever comes as food just as the snail relishes in the nutrients of the soil.” There are fables of the adventures of Orunmila or Obatala which are also didactic. The treacherous deeds of the bush rat, Okete and Osanyin, are replete in the Ifa corpus. The consequences of unfaithful deeds are taught with the fables of these mythical characters. Temperance is a virtue of the gods and any mortal lucky enough to be endowed with this special gift will experience peace which is beyond the understanding of man. A man’s character determines how successful he will be on earth. The story of “Iwa” teaches us that one of the greatest gifts bequeathed by the gods to man is the ability to do what is right.
I had the rare privilege of listening to Professor Olu longe who informed most of us who were ignorant of the invaluable contribution of the Ifa religion to the Yoruba accounting system. The basis of the computer is the Odu. The first 8 in 2 places making 16 multiplied by 16 making 256 to infinity is the principle upon which the operation of the computer is based. Whoever insists that our children do not deserve to know this fact is not only ignorant but wicked. I enthusiastically recommend the eminent professor’s lecture, “Irapada Onka Isembaye wa ni ile Yoruba”, to those who may not know that such as the ancient Egyptian religion, the Ifa corpus contains aspects of science, mathematics, accounting, medicine and ethics. It is most unlikely that any child properly nurtured on these pristine values can ever grow to become a burden to the society.
The government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is among the very few that can be regarded as focused. All good people must come together to encourage this exceptional leader who has displayed rare administrative acumen amidst the daunting challenges faced by him since he assumed office as the governor. Other ACN governors should follow the good example of this diminutive man who has taken giant strides in ensuring real development in a state once ravaged by locusts.
Doyin Odebowale, PhD, LLB (Hons), BL.
Lecturer, Department of Classics, University of Ibadan.

BLACKS IN THE DIASPORA ARE REALLY EMBRACING YORUBA RELIGION! -FROM TELL MAGAZINE,NIGERIA

from tellng.com

Searching for Lost Heritage

Vandermeer (in white) during his initiation, with Wande Abimbola (in green)

In search of direction and purpose in life, African Americans, Latinos, Jamaicans, Cubans and Brazilians in America become Ifa worshippers and consult priests

By ABDULRAFIU LAWAL / Boston, Massachusetts

The grey staircase banister leading to the five-bedroom house smells of fresh paint.  As he opens the kitchen door while reciting some Ifa poems in Yoruba language laced with American accent, the neatness of the kitchen and fragrance of rose air freshener become convivial.

The kitchen area reveals a dining table with four chairs, a refrigerator and gas cooker on the far left. Moving through the passage to the divination room, one needs to take off shoes before proceeding further.  On the right is a black wooden shelf containing books on Ifa authored by scholars from all over the world. Atop the shelf rests a black gong, pictures and Ifa divination chain, opele.

Unlike the room of an average Ifa priest in Nigeria, this room has no strange wall hangings. In the middle of the room there is a rug, two small chairs facing each other, a small table between and some Ifa paraphernalia. On this table, you have a divination tray carved from wood known as Opon Ifa containing Iyerosun (divination powder), carved ivory object used to invoke Ifa during divination (Iroke) and cowrie shells (Eerindinlogun). Welcome to the home of Tony Vandermeer, an African American Ifa priest, known as Babalawo, located in the Dorchester area of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, US.

Vandermeer, an enigmatic character in many ways, hails from Harlem, a part of New York, which is a predominantly black settlement. Harlem is famous in America for producing a generation of black intellectuals. He comes from a family of seven. Coincidentally, he also has seven children, five boys and two girls. This is unusual in America where most families do not have more than three children.  It is however not the only unusual thing about Vandermeer. Equally unusual is the fact that he does not celebrate Christmas, Easter or any of the Christian holidays in the US, which is predominantly Christian.

Rather, he observes the Ifa new year (odun Ifa)  and other celebrations recognised by his religion. As an Ifa worshipper, Vandermeer is known for his practice throughout New England and beyond by his students and clients. New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the US consisting of six states namely Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

So why would someone in America, the land of opportunities, need the services of an Ifa priest?

One of his clients, Yvette Modestin, a social worker and coordinator for Network for Afro Latin American and Afro Caribbean Women, says divination allows her to understand the sequence of events unfolding in her life. According to her, “I have been in the position where Ifa divination has spoken directly to a situation that I was in. I actually find it hard to explain because it is an internal thing that happens, that validates the next step you are about to make.”

Modestin, founder of Encuentro Diaspora Afro who through her association with Vandermeer also embraced Ifa religion, says it has cleared confusion and pains from her life. “Ifa has become my voice and whisper because I felt like my ancestors were speaking to me. I had tapped into something that was deeper than me. This is what has been calling me and what I need in my life,” she said.

For Askia Toure, a 73-year-old writer, poet and political activist who says he comes for divination when his mind is troubled, Ifa is a direction giver. “Ifa is a blessing for me because I get the right answers. I grew up in the African American church, my father was a deacon. Then, I had influence of Sunni Islam. My whole life has been a search for how best to communicate with my creator. After a very traumatic experience in my life, I met Wande Abimbola,” Toure said.

Similar to what obtains in Nigeria, African Americans, Latinos, Jamaicans, Cubans or Brazilians in America who are Ifa worshippers consult priests when searching for jobs, setting up a new business, contracting marriages and facing other challenges of life.

Bridgit Brown, an African American blogger and writer in Boston, says she had an Ifa divination when she was going to work in West Africa for the first time few years ago. She wanted to know how the journey would turn out and the divination revealed that it would be a major success. “And it was. It also told me to be mindful of the importance of ordinary things, and to not just see wealth in terms of money, but in terms of having those things which are of basic needs: food, shelter, love, and so on, which is very contrary to the American way that I grew up knowing,” she said.

The method of divination for Vandermeer’s clients is also similar to that of Nigerian Ifa priests. All a client needs is to give a small consultation fee, whisper his intentions on it and Vandemeer consults Ifa for answers. For him, Ifa divination is a vehicle to help the society rather than an avenue for material gains. “This is why I have no fixed price for divination. I have students who come with coins or a dollar from their pockets. I tell people who come to see me that if they are doing well, I am happy to be part of it.”

He says some of the qualities he has learnt from Ifa in dealing with clients are honesty and patience. “No divination can bless one unless one’s Ori (inner self) accepts it. It is a two-prong process involving divination and sacrifice (ebo). So, if you are not gonna go through the process, don’t even bother. This is because the idea of sacrifice concretises what is it you came for,” he said.

Vandermeer recalls his first contact with traditional African religion in 1978, when he was about graduating from the university. “Things were kind of rough, I was having problems with the mother of my daughter. I went to an Obatala priest for divination which enabled me to get through these problems but things got worse in 1983.” This Obatala priest was of Jamaican ancestry who got initiated through the Cuban system and was part of the African Americans who set up Oyotunji village in North Carolina.

In 1983, sensing that his life had not really changed for the better, this father of seven met some Cubans who introduced him to their own form of Ifa practice. He was given a cauldron, beads of various deities (awon orisa) like Esu and Osanyin. Still not fulfilled, Vandermeer left the Cuban house in 1994 when he met a Nigerian, Afolabi Epega, whose father had written a book on Ifa in the early 1900. However, his romance with Ifa took a turning point when he met Abimbola, who is spokesperson for Babalawos worldwide (Awise Awo Ni Agbaye).

Vandermeer ended up studying with Abimbola for 12 years. “If people come for divination, I would help on any kind of spiritual work like ebo (sacrifice). At this point, he (Abimbola) had set up the Ifa Institute in Atlanta where people were coming to see him.” The interaction culminated in Vandermeer’s initiation in Oyo State in 1999, adding that when he got involved, his mission was to use Ifa “to get the kind of spiritual balance and guide  that I need to navigate the challenges of life.”

But as fate would have it, his destiny decided otherwise. He soon became a full scale Ifa diviner, though with a difference. One unique difference between Ifa diviners in the US like Vandermeer and Nigeria is that they have paid jobs through which they fend for their families. In addition to being an Ifa priest, Vandermeer is a senior lecturer in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and he is currently working towards his doctorate degree.

Like adherents of Islam and Christianity who observe their morning prayers before leaving the house, Vandermeer begins his day chanting Ifa verses, odus and ancestral chants for Egungun and throwing kolanuts before Esu. The essence is for him to have an idea how the day would be and determine what his schedule should look like. “If  it is caution and I don’t have to go out, I will stay indoors. If I have to, I will be cautious,” Vandermeer said.

So why would an educated, widely travelled African American chose to become an Ifa priest? Vandermeer says before embracing Ifa religion, he had developed a sense of himself as a descendant of Africa. “So it made sense to me that my spiritual system should be one that related to Africa.”

Ifa divination system and religion associated with Yoruba history is common in most cultures in West Africa and later Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The divination system uses an extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formula interpreted by the diviner. The Ifa literary corpus, known as Odu, is made up of 256 parts subdivided into verses called Ese. In the US, Abimbola, a professor of Yoruba language and literature, has given it so much prominence through his works, especially in the last two decades. Its philosophy centres around belief in Olodumare, the Yoruba high God, humility and honesty. Statistics from the Council for Parliament of the World Religions estimate that Ifa religion has over 70 million followers in Africa and the Americas.

According to Yoruba myth, Ifa is one of the 401 divinities sent to the cradle of Yoruba civilisation in Ile Ife, Osun State, by Olodumare to carry out specific tasks on earth. Some of the other divinities are Ogun who is in charge of hunting, war and iron implements; Esu, the universal policeman and keeper of Ase; and Ifa who is in charge of divination because of its mental capacity. This role earned Ifa the nickname Akerefinusogbon (the young one whose mind is full of wisdom).

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