Re(-)Placing Theory in African Studies: Ifa Literary Corpus, Origins, Universality and the Integration of Epistemology

ByNelson Fashina, PhDDepartment of EnglishUniversity of Ibadan, IbadanNigeria

(PANEL 38)AEGIS CONFERENCE LEIZPIG, GERMANY, June 4-7 2009)

Ifa literary divination is a verbal corpus of Yoruba pristine wisdom, knowledge, philosophy

and metaphysics which has been with and has been used by the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Diaspora

from the earliest times dating around 10,000 and 8,000 BC1 to present times. Since the abolition of

official slave chattel in 1807 and the declaration of political independence of the colonized African

states2, Africana scholars have engaged the discipline in a radical discourse anchored on the

relativist and the assumptionist theory of ‘probability’ of an African system of thought. This

intellectual search for the nature of African knowledge would serve multiple ends and implications.

It would challenge the logic of Western justification for the colonization of Africa3 – a kind of

reasoning based on Western claim that Africans were cannibal animists4 and pagans who could not

apprehend the depth and expansive continuum of knowledge about God, nature and the universe, a

people who were incapable of reasoning and logical thought, a race of ‘savages’ whose bland minds

were but anti-luminous and void; a people without memorable lines or records of history, whose

customs and traditions were vainly gothic and wild, whose method of social relation were

amorphously indescribable by the “superior” ethics of Western sociology, philosophy and science.

Engaged in polemics of deconstructive philosophy against these Western paradigms, Claude Levi-

Strauss, the then American based French anthropologist had argued in radical defense of “primitive”

societies

If progress is measured by the amount of energy available per capita,Western society is miles ahead. But if the criterion were success inovercoming inhospitable geographic conditions, the Eskimos or Bedouins would rank first. And if progress were based on success in founding harmonious family and social groups, the Australian aborigines would be judges most advanced. Western society is thus not better than others, but simply more cumulative, because it has been less isolated (The Anthropologist as Hero, 1970:13).

Levi-Strauss’ long time devotion to the study of harmonious structures that underlie the social

behavior of the Indians in Brazil and North America encouraged his humanist refutal of the

traditional mistaken opinion of the West that preliterate societies are barbaric, savage and less

rational than Western societies. Rather he sees such so- called primitive cultures as ‘merely

different’, with the conclusion that ‘there are no superior societies’. Levi-Strauss’ philosophy is a

radical objective typology of human science which in later years culminated in his conflation of

ethnographic ideology with Emile Durkheim5, the French sociologist. He however raised a polemic

against the theoretical assumptions of Bronislaw Malinowski6 in Britain that the rites, rituals and

myths of primitive peoples should be interpreted as a social function and that their thoughts have

inner coherence.

These disparate philosophical ideas about the phenomenon of preliterate cultures may

probably be less polemical if the exotic cultures and customs were not mostly interpreted in language

and theoretical paradigm that was alien to the systematic thought of the people. Thus, what this paper

posits is that Ifa corpus of the Yoruba peoples in Africa and the Diaspora has an integrated

philosophy of social synthesis in its management of human behavior and the mastering of the

environment and the universe as a whole. That not withstanding, the “nature of philosophy is not to

accept any belief system without questioning it” (Ogungbemi, 2007: 13) and since the “fundamental

rationale behind any changes in a world outlook is principally a philosophical matter, it is plain that

the philosophical evaluation of traditional thought is of very considerable relevance to the process of

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modernization on our continent” (Kwasi Wiredu, 1980: 53). The type of “traditional thought” system

I attempt to examine in this paper is the Ifa literary and divinatory corpus as a composite example of

African wisdom and philosophical storehouse of knowledge. My approach is not necessarily one of

critical indoctrination but of an objective rational inquiry that seeks to evaluate the veracity or

otherwise of the discourses of relativity, probability and of exclusivity in relation to the “power of

African cultures” (Falola, 2003) and ritual metaphysics to produce a valid epistemology. For example

in his speculative philosophy, Peter Bodunrin (1985: xv) posits that “… the influence of our

speculation will one day spill over the walls of our academic citadels to influence the lives of society

at large”. Bodunrin’s predictive speculation is that future scholars would find epistemic rationality

and valid philosophy that would emerge from the “distinctive African philosophical tradition and

focus…” in future (underline mine). Bodunrin’s paradigm of opinion was speculative in the sense

that his choice of pre-modifying adjective ‘philosophical’ instead of the lexical alternative, a noun,

‘philosophy’ is a deliberate logic of semantic caution. Bodunrin’s politics of semantics was

understandable within the context of the academic age and culture of Africana scholarship of the

decades preceding the publication of his work, Philosophy in Africa, a title which again carries a load

of relativist temper in its careful choice of the title as against the logico-semantic risks of an

alternative title such as ‘African Philosophy’. This latter option would have been too affirmative and

dangerously audacious for a scholar of Philosophy of his repute to dare. If Bodunrin had titled his

book as ‘African Philosophy’, that would have implied an audacious claim that a valid African

specific theory of knowledge existed. He would have generated more polemics and criticism,

because, at that time, Africana scholars were still grappling with the politics of Western recognition

of the existence of ‘African literature’, rather than just ‘literature in Africa’. But, I have mentioned

elsewhere that Soyinka’s unique achievement as the first African in world history to win the Nobel

Prize in Literature in 1986 has rendered such arguments redundant (2009). African literature of the

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post - Nobel era has gradually gained undeniable global recognition as a valid site of literary and

cultural creativity and a worthy field of academic inquiry. Altogether, I want to conjecture that

perhaps the one essential distance between Western philosophies which these African scholars know

too well and its African possible alternative was that African thought system and culture was

although studded with logic and rational values and knowledge, yet scholars had not yet, at that time,

discovered its “basic principles” from which they ought to derive its theories.

The road to discovering the principles of African nature of knowledge was not only to

really understand the nitty gritty of the cultures, but also to understand their implications for arts and

verbal performance, social order, politics, healing, science, economy, life, death, birth, after-life,

marriage, reproduction and procreation, informal traditional learning method, memory, metaphysics,

magic, etc. Truth is that most Africana scholars who are privileged to analyze and publish their

research opinions for academic consumption did not have enough knowledge of the depth of African

traditions, especially the complexly sacred and esoteric Ifa literary and divination corpus.

Unfortunately, those who have groundings in this traditional knowledge do not have the intellectual

training and understanding of Western methods of knowledge with which they could compare the

African alternatives that they know with Western paradigms – They are mostly illiterate in Western

education. This paradox of knowledge is one of the reasons responsible for the delay in generating

the principles and poetics of African epistemology. Most African educated elite who are oral

researchers are always conditioned to cautious pursuit of their quest owing to the myth of risks of

encounters with malevolent spirits and demons of the African ritual groves at the domain of the Ifa

Priest (Babalawo)7. Thus, sometimes the Babalawo would request them to offer ritual sacrifices to

appease the “witches” or the sacred mothers (awon iya aye) and Esu ( the trickster deity of vengeance

and justice) in order to avert their anger and punishment before the commencement of the field

interview. In fact, in many university campuses, the Christian communities are often skeptical of the

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Christian status of scholars and students who are committed to more than armchair investigation of

African ritual traditions, culture and metaphysics especially Egungun8 , Ifa divination, witchcraft and

sorcery (Okpewho, 1992) While the average Western scholar researcher is committed to their

research in spite any accompanying risks, for which any ultimate death or incarceration may, of

course, be a road to martyrdom and immortalization, the average modern African scholar does not

find it an act of heroism to take risks in quest of knowledge. Yet, we enjoy stories about our

ancestors’ audacity of epic heroic missions to dangerous zones of their world. We enjoy reading the

history of the White man’s courage in daring the risk of crossing the Atlantic Ocean and the fiery Sea

to Africa to cart away our relations as slaves and to colonize our parentland9. We are amazed at the

‘miracles’ of Western space jets that shuttle the outer planets. But, the average post-colonial African

researcher would not engage in such risks of knowledge. Thus, in a seeming ironic mockery of

African research, some scholars rush to over to Europe and America in search of African

epistemology on the pages of Western cultural and philosophical journals and books. These are

factual studs in the way of meaningful research outputs that can make the intellectual world to

understand the real nature and meaning of the African cosmos for the purpose of systematizing its

epistemology. No wonder Kwesi Kwaa Prah (1998: 1) laments that “Africa appears to have accepted

neocolonialism and come to terms with material and socio-psychological humiliations of the

condition”. Although Prah’s observation appears resignatory and sensationalist in the face of other

combative struggles of liberation by a radical minority of Africana scholars including Chinua Achebe

(1988), Ulli Beier Abiola Irele (2001), Biodun Jeyifo(1987), Bernth Lindfors, Henry Louis Gates,

Jr.(1988), William Bascom (1991),(Isidore Okpewho,1992),Toyin Falola(2003), Kwasi

Wiredu(1980), Niyi Osundare(1993)and a host of others, it is however a justifiable worry.

For these reasons, I believe that, perhaps, the business of anyone in our African Studies

situation in the 21st century should primarily be to focus on how to evolve African specific research,

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reading and analytical methods. For, in the last century, African Studies had anchored its methods

on French and other European methods in the Social Sciences which were “designed” specifically

for the study of Asian, African and other oriental ‘colonies’ (Jean Copans, IFRA Lectures,

(1999)10.We should imagine that the problem area of African cultural scholarship is that we do not

have grasp of a mega Theory and Philosophy which is of comparative epistemological significance

1 This account is based on the archaeological excavation of one the oldest human remains, skeleton, at Iwo Eleru near Akure, present day capital of Ondo State, Nigeria. See Nigeria Magazine 1972; A.O. Olubunmi, The Rise and Fall of the Yoruba Race 10,000 BC – 1960 AD, Ile Ife: 199 publishers, 2007; F. Willet, Ife in the History of West African Art, London, 1967).

2 The Berlin conference of 1885, proposed by Bismarck granted official rights for European occupation of Africa as colonies within a ‘New Imperial’ order, until the 1950s and 60s when African States began to regain indepence.

3 History has accounted for layers of overt reasons used to mask the covert motives of European imperialism in Africa ( 1880 – 1914). See Peter Duignam and L.H. Gann eds. Colonialism in Africa, 1870 – 1960. London, Cambridge University Press, 1974.

4 See Claude Levi-Strauss’s defense of primitive cultures in The Anthropologist as Hero ed. E .Nelson Hayes and Tanya Hayes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, M.I.T Press, 1970. Relevant sources include Levi-Strauss’ famous book, The savage Mind. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962; See also Segun Ogungbemi, Philosophy and Development. Ibadan, Hope Publishers, 2007.

5 Emile Durkheim’s sociological theories provide landmarks in the theory of society. See Anthony Giddens ed. Emile Durkheim Selected Writings. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1872.

6 Bronislaw Malinowski did extensive work on the ethnography of family and social organization among the aborigines of Australia and the primitive cultures. See, Bronislaw Malinowski, The Sexual Life of Savages, Beacon Press, 1987.

7 The concept of Babalawo has been interpreted by scholar of different research interests, sometimes ridiculously to validate their claims. Some people say it means “father of secrets”. This meaning simply derives from the interpreters imagination of the so much orchestrated “secrecy” associated with the cult and operations of the babalawos. Others like T.F. Jemiriye says it derives from the suffix ‘awo’ meaning plate, in which case the researcher claims that the word Babalawo means ‘father’ who keeps the ‘plate’ in which opele - the stringed objects of divination is kept. However, perhaps the most natural and sensible meaning of the word is its derivation from the sentence ‘Baba to nsise awo’ – the elderly man who ‘cures’- that is a local physician or herbalist. No wonder the Yoruba say ‘Ori l n gbe ni ko alawo rere! – It is one’s inner ‘head’ – the avatar of predestination, that leads a one to a good one who cures – a physician.

8 Mask of ancestral spirit that performs seasonally. This underlies the Yoruba theory of reincarnation.

9 This is a non-sexist choice of word. It is common to find phrases like ‘fatherland’ and motherland’ in critical discourses. By using the co-gender word ‘parentland, we’re careful to avoid such gender language controversy.

10 Jean Copans paper, “African Studies on the Eve of the 21st century was delivered as part of the IFRA Lecture Series at the Drappers Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria on April 12, 1999. See Nelson Fashina, “Post-Colonial Reading Strategies and the Problem of Cultural Meaning”.In: The Journal of Pan African

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(or standard?) to the Western forms. And even though the Western forms have been used as

templates for our own African cultural readings and meanings/hermeneutics, Africana scholars have

in the last 50 years engaged in passive complaints about the unsuitability of Western episteme

for the processing of African history, culture, literature, data and collectanea. But, in the early

eighties, this otherwise passive approach transformed into an active research drive towards

interpretative research rather than the mere reportorial research of the sixties and seventies. And, in

the late eighties, clear attempts began to be made towards initializing the plea for the evolution of an

African specific theory and hermeneutics of reading and interpretation. Peter Bodunrin’s Philosophy

in Africa (1985) provided a much more philosophical speculation than the conjectures of earlier

Africana scholars like Bolaji Idowu (1962), Wande Abimbola (1975) and Omosade Awolalu (1979)

who maintained relativist positions on the possibility of Ifa corpus as a valid evidence of an African

epistemology. Although Henry Louis Gates, Jr in The Signifying Monkey (1988) provided a radical

and generic semiology of cultural signification that is ensconced in the ritual and artistic

imagination of the ‘Blacks’, his depth of analysis are yet to be appropriated as an alternative theory

to Western paradigms. Gates provides a great epistemic archetype of a ‘Black’ and ‘African’

‘Monkey’ that is ironically capable of generating a battery of cultural and philosophical meanings

that transcend the bounds of Western rational knowledge. There has probably not been a

consciousness to follow up to this pioneering work in the construction of a truly exclusive African

theory, without looking in the direction of Western theories. Rather, the plethora of theories

generated by the Western literary capital were invoked and foisted on the emergent discipline of

African studies, thereby ‘westing’ the creative endeavors of African writers in such a way that

dwarfs Africana scholarship in the politics of global knowledge. As a pioneering work of black

prototype theorizing, the genetic ‘code’ of African nature of knowledge that is resident in the

Studies, vol 2, no. 5,( July 2008), pp.60-77.. This paper addresses the roots of the African philosophical problem.

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signifying archetypes of Ifa, Ori, Esu, Egungun, Ogun, Sango Oya, and other African folkloric

archetypes like the tortoise, monkey, eagle, lion, elephant, owl, bats, etc, as human personifications

provide an intricate system of philosophical knowledge and understanding of not only the African

environment but of the universe(Bauman, 1984). Levi-Strauss in his structural study totemism11

among primitive societies posits that the use of animals and objects as totemistic symbol was not a

ridiculous superstition, but part of a larger system of classification, a highly sophisticated mythical

universe which he explores in the The Savage Mind (1962).

But, unfortunately till date, Africa is still searching for their own epistemology. While in

Gates (1988), the ‘Monkey’ is a generic code for the entire body of African theory, knowledge and

philosophy, in Falola and Adesanya’s recent volume of poetry, Etches on Fresh Waters (2008), the

‘Monkey’ archetype, as a ‘vehicle’ of polysemic communication, “becomes an ideological

procreation of scholars’ ironic attitude of seeking knowledge of African philosophy in the Western

alternative” (Fashina, 2009). Thus, Falola’s irony of African epistemology as logically symbolized

in the seeming Socratic dialogism over the ‘killing’ and ‘hiding’ of the ‘Monkey’ is an indictment of

African scholars quest for the existentialist ‘truth’ about African nature of knowledge twenty years

after the publication of Gates’ pioneer model of “signifying knowledge” via the ironic ‘Monkey’

archetype (Fashina, 2009). And even though, arguably, scholars like Bolaji Idowu (1962), Wande

Abimbola (1975), Omosade Awolalu (1979), Peter Bodunrin (1985), and Henry Louis Gates,Jr.

( 1988) have fore grounded the possibility and apparent latency of valid epistemology in the Ifa

corpus, there is yet no quality breakthrough in the search for fixed and systematic canons of

reading and theorizing in African Studies. What has been done so effectively however, is the

ambiguous ‘grafting’ of Western ideological, textual and artistic theories that emanate from their

11 Copious references were made to this book in Claude Levis-Strauss The Anthropologist as Hero eds. E. Nelson Hayes and Tanya Hayes, Cambridge M.I.T Press, 1970.

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exclusive nature of the universe, nature of knowledge and ‘being’ on the African body of arts and

literature. One question therefore arises - how do we reconcile the Western concepts such as 'hero',

villain', 'achiever', 'leader', 'facts', 'truth', 'honesty' , ‘fidelity’ 'virgin',' woman', 'man', ‘marriage’

‘husband’, ‘wife’, ‘son’, ‘daughter’, ‘prostitute’, ‘concubine’, ‘mistress’, ‘courtesan’, ‘lesbian’,

‘abortion’, ‘birth, ‘death’, ‘life’, 'wealthy', ‘rich’, ‘poor’, etc to African cultural worldview of the

same paradigm of concepts and ‘knowledges’ of our own culture, universe and cosmos? Even

though this paper does not pretend to have final answers or ‘the answers’ to these array of

perplexing philosophical problems in African studies, it however hopes to initialize certain

paradigms that may provide template for an African indigenous theorizing, using sample poetic

texts from Eji Ogbe literary episteme.

Of a fact, everyone agrees, perhaps, that there is a wide gulf of hermeneutic knowledge

between the West and Africa. There is however a collective error in that concert of opinion. And

where this error is deliberate, it emanates from racial politics of knowledge. If we agree that unlike

the breakthroughs in the natural sciences, the West and the rest of us still has a lot of ‘ignorance’ to

grapple with in terms of discoveries and accomplishments in the human sciences devoted to study of

comparative cultures and ethnographies of the ‘subaltern’ civilizations of Africa, Asia and some

other subaltern zones of the West. Though the problem is not possibly due to lack of epistemology

in Africa, there has been mere lip-service paid to its systematization. And even though we know that

within Africa, we may not safely lay claim to a uniform continental 'dish' of cultural homogeneity

like the rest of the world, most researchers agree, however, that there is an 'unbroken' thread-link of

relative cultural homogeneity within homeland Africa and their stocks in Diaspora across the globe (

Louis Gates, Jr. 1988). Thus, we can talk of an 'African Universe of Knowledge', and from this we

can distil a poetics of an African epistemology which could be engaged in the service of researches,

readings, analyses and interpretations of the African world – archaeology, history, literature, culture,

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sociology, philosophy, gender, etc. Perhaps, one of the greatest African universal cultural codes and

source of epistemology derives from the Ifa literary and divination corpus, which would sound

contradictory to assign as exclusive property of any mono-culture within Africa. Although there’s

both historical and contemporary evidence that Ifa originates from the great traditions of the Yoruba

of West Africa, the divination ritual process, method and application are found compositely in

varying measures across Africa and the Diaspora. And, within this relative (Africa) homogeneity of

cultural symbology and signification, we can locate a battery of theories, philosophy and

epistemology in ‘re(-)placement’ of Western alternatives. Yes, in “re(-)placement of Western

system of thought, we need to search for, locate and re-locate African brand of knowledge and

repackage them for African and global consumption that the world may be a better place, that Africa

may have a legacy of meaningful contribution to world development in humanities, science and

technology. My concept of re(-)placement differs slightly from ‘replacement’. While by

“re(-)placement” I mean to put back in a previous position, and to re-locate the ‘place’ of African

indigenous mode of reasoning and philosophical thought, ‘replacement’ by the Oxford English

Dictionary(2005:768) means “to provide a substitute for” and “to take the place of”. While my

working definition of African studies research should not get stuck at the bus stop of reportorial

research – a cultural produce level of tangential retailer role in the whole gigantic industry of

knowledge. Africana scholars should rather be involved in generating fundamental theories of

existence, meaning of life and nature all of which are embedded in our great literary and divinatory

systems. We should not be found feasting at the garbage heap of Western science, technology and

philosophy. Ifa Corpus offers enough system of knowledge from which we can distil a poetics of

universal truths. This is my attempted mission in this paper.

Describing “Ifa as an indigenous African philosophy and thought system, Wande Abimbola

(1975:32) confirms that

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A close examination of the themes of Ifa divination poems reveals that they represent the traditional Yoruba world-view. Ifa literary corpus is therefore the store-house of Yoruba culture inside which the comprehension of their historical experiences and understanding of their environment can always be found. Even until today Ifa is recognised by the Yoruba as a repository for their traditional body of knowledge embracing history, philosophy, medicine and folklore.

While Abimbola’s pioneering effort in expounding the hitherto much dreaded corpus that was seen

as exclusive ‘secrets’ only to be decoded by select initiates or ‘father of secrets’12 (babalawo or omo

awo) is commendable. And till date this scholar and celebrated Ifa Priest is one rare example of

those who know the lines of the divination poetry by heart and memory and can speak confidently

about any aspects of the 16 major Odus and the 240 minor Odus that add up to make the entire 256

Odus in Ifa literary and divinatory corpus. He was one of the first African scholars whose Doctoral

thesis (1968?) attempted a lucid outline and enumeration of the poetic and literary qualities of Ifa

divination corpus.

Although, the stylistic genius of Yoruba poetics of oral verbalization as well as

dialogical and rhetorical forms had always been there, the benefit of exposure to Western forms of

literature had undeniably provided a comparative method of processing the critical reading of the

literary forms in the corpus. However, the training in Western literary criticism played an

ambiguous role in the marginalization of African indigenous system of critical interpretation which

was logically integrated into the verbal arts and folklore stories, unlike the Western critical

strategies which are external to the primary text. And the chiefest of this ‘conquest’ of the latent

African critical devices came by way of collapse of African languages in the face of English and

French - the two dominant colonial languages which “… has exerted such pressure upon our

experience and our awareness that it is no exaggeration to say that all forms of modern African

12 See note 7 where I disagreed to this misleading meaning of the term, ‘Babalawo’.

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expression have been massively conditioned by it” (Irele, 1991:58). In The Sixteen Great Poems of

Ifa (1975), Wande Abimbola states that “Eji Ogbe is believed to be the first and most important Odu

in the whole system” in the “order of seniority among the first sixteen major or great Odu of the Ifa

literary corpus ((1975:29). Under each of the 16 major Odu of which Eji-Ogbe is number one, there

could be as much as 100 poems of long narrative segments. However, in this paper, the principal

concern is to demonstrate reading methods by which Eji Ogbe reveals some categories of logical

knowledge and mastery of the African environment and the universe in relation to nature, human

and social interactions, pristine healing, and the symbology of ritual ideology, aesthetics, arts and

cosmic transcendence – in short, an African epistemology.

Yoruba - the language of Ifa literary and esoteric communication

It is probably apposite to briefly shed some light on the cultural history and language spread of the

Yoruba whose genius of pre-colonial knowledge of the universe has produced the profound

philosophy of human existence that this paper is about. Yoruba ethnic dialects include Oyo, Ife,

Ijesha, Ijebu, Egba, Ondo, Owo, Akoko, Ekiti, Awori, Egun, Kabba. The language of Ifa corpus is

Yoruba, one of the largest ethno-linguistic and most influential tribal nationalities in West Africa.

The Yoruba are also probably the most cohesive and homogeneous cultural group in West Africa. In

terms of language spread, there is for now no accurate statistics or agreeable figure on the

population of Ede Yoruba speakers in Southwest Nigeria, Africa and the African Diaspora around

the world. Existing statistics have been based on assumptions and inaccurate surveys. While some

claim that about 40 to 50 million people speak Yoruba at home and the Diaspora, others claim that

about 25 million people speak it. And the Nigerian population census has not helped matters

because it is often influenced by ethnic, tribal and political biases. However, we like to suggest that

at least 28 million Yoruba people live and speak the language in Nigeria, while the spread of the

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language to other African countries – Benin, Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Dahomey, Brazil,

Cuba, may be one quarter of this figure. Yoruba dialects in Nigeria have been classified into major

dialect areas: (a.) North-West Yoruba (NWY) – Abeokuta, Ibadan, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos areas (b.)

Central Yoruba (CY) – Ife, Ekiti, Igbomina, Akure, Efon and Ijebu areas (c.) South-East Yoruba

(SEY) – Okitipupa, Ondo , Owo, Ikare, Sagamu, and parts of Ijebu. Although this classification is

based on linguistic criteria of tonal structure, it is nonetheless inadequate. Many other major and

peripheral Yoruba dialect communities to the Southwest, Southeast and Middle-belt zones are left

out in these categories. Lokoja, Kabba, Ilorin-Afonja, Offa, and parts of Akoko Edo are usually

mistakenly excluded in this model of classification. Standard Yoruba is also called literary or

written Yoruba. Standard Yoruba is the official Yoruba language used for school learning,

newspapers, radio, TV, video-films and religious testaments like the Bible and to some extent Orisa

worship and Ifa Oracular divination corpus. It is the general Yoruba language form which became

more formalized and official in the 1850,s “when Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a native Yoruba and first

African Bishop, published a Yoruba grammar and started his translation of the Bible into Yoruba as

“Bibeli Mimo” (Holy Bible).

There has been an opinion conflict over what variety of the dialects constitutes ‘genuine

Yoruba’ language. Some writers claim that the Oyo dialect variety is the most pure form while

others argue that there is no such thing as genuine Yoruba at all. Despite this controversies however,

the linguistic situation of Ede Yoruba is no more delicate than the problem of diversities associated

with growing civilization and social complexity. Asking what is the genuine Yoruba language is

much like asking what genuine English is. This is a rather perplexing question for which there can

be no absolutely accurate answer but relative preferences derived by individual or group culture

cleavages. For now, however, whether we like it or nor, the Oyo Yoruba has persistently achieved

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irretrievable status of being the most powerful and most consolidating standard Yoruba for

education, publishing media and foreign religion like Christianity, Islam and for the communication

of the 16 major Odu Ifa poetic chants. Unarguably, the Oyo Yoruba language variety is believed to

be the specific media for the communication of the esoteric poetic chants especially in the 16 major

Odu Ifa known as Ifa Nla (The Great Ifa). This central place in religion has been largely due to the

fact that it is probably the variety used by he ancestors before the dispersion from Ile-Ife, the

mythical cradle of Yoruba peoples in the world. Second reason is that it is the variety spoken by

Ajayi Crowther himself, as a native of Ogbomoso, and the one he invariably used for the pioneering

Yoruba grammar book and translation of the Bible into Yoruba in the 1850’s. But, ironically, in

modern times, the Oyo Yoruba is not the most widely spoken variety for daily conversation among

the Yoruba in Africa and the Diaspora. Rather, it appears that the Ede Yoruba variety for general

conversation in Nigeria and among Yoruba Diaspora is unconsciously the variety of Ede Yoruba

spoken in Lagos. This is due, perhaps, to the historical significance of Lagos as the British

protectorate annexed colony in 1861 which later became the capital of the British Protectorate of

Nigeria in 1914, when Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern British protectorates

and renamed it Nigeria with Lagos as capital from 1914 to 1976 when the capital was moved to

Abuja. The significance of Lagos as the largest capital market on the West African Coast, which till

today has maintained that status, may have accounted for the inextricable predominance of the

Lagos variety of Ede Yoruba in daily commercial and conversational activities. Despite the wide

range of dialect varieties in Yoruba, nearly all are mutually intelligible. This language harmony also

underscores the notable cultural and social harmony among the Yoruba in Africa and the Diaspora.

Talking about Yoruba writing system, a source claims that the Yoruba writing system

began in the 17th C with the Ajami, Arabic-based orthographies of African languages, the script used

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in writing several languages of Africa and Asia. The Arabic is the second most widely used alphabet

around the world. While there’s no strong basis to contest the influence of Arabic and Semitic

orthographies on writing in Ede Yoruba, we however have a point of caution because, even though

Ifa divination corpus which dates back to 10BC was essentially orate, there were obvious latent

forms of partial writing marks used to indicate numbers, weight measures, land mass, etc. I have

fully discussed this in Fashina(2008): “Yoruba Numerals System, Origins in Ifa Divination and the

Challenges of Science and Technology”. Studies have even proved that some chunk of computer

data language method was derived from the Yoruba Ifa divination corpus. This in not a forum for

discussing the details.

Yoruba language arithmetic: origin from Ifa corpus

If Ifa is apparently the oldest corpus of knowledge in Yoruba cosmogony, it stands to reason that

the Yoruba knowledge of counting and measurement may have derived from the ancient corpus

through the prescription of rituals and sacrifices in measures of cowries, life-stock, farm produce,

flora and other items in nature. Thus, in Fashina (2008), I have presented the following episteme of

Yoruba knowledge of numeric counting system as derived from Ifa corpus:

(i) formulaic alternation of additive and subtractive counting system, which invariably

underscores early Yoruba knowledge and existence of a proto-arithmetic and mathematical science.

(ii) sequential use of two types of numeric counting codes, namely the five digit count numeric

node and the ten digit count numeric node.

(iii) Yoruba distance and weight measurement system

(iv) Ifa numerical figures as integrated in modern Yoruba counting system; and this

manifests in two ways, namely the Yoruba cosmic symbols/ signs of the Odu Ifa, and the proto

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numeric bonded pairs as seen in Oyeku meji verse of Ifa divination verse. Fashina (2008) sets to

present the picture, nature, properties and characteristic features of Yoruba counting system and its

origin in Ifa literary and divination wisdom, and how these ‘numeric’ resources provide template of

structure for frameworks of science and technology.

Yoruba culture and religious philosophy

The Yoruba are one of the most homogeneous ethnic nationalities in West Africa with ancient

enduring legacies, culture, religion and traditions which compare favorably with those of the Greek,

Romans, and the Hebrews in world ancient civilization. They carried their culture and tradition to

wherever they went. Thus, apart from the notable survival of Yoruba customs and religion among

the early Yoruba diaspora of the slave era, we notice the accompanying practice of community and

culture coexistence among the Yoruba of the “New Diaspora” of which most of us in the United

States are one. Toyin Falola and Ann Genova (2005:1) comment that

The Yoruba have played a major role in shaping the history and culture of West Africa and the wider world. As prominent players in the precolonial trade and regional politics, the Yoruba established a lasting presence. Today, Yoruba culture represents a leading example of the African influence in the New World. Just like the Greek cosmogonic world, the Yoruba cultural world in intricately patterned and ordered based in belief system ‘between the power of the Orisas and sociopolitical structures’.

The typical Yoruba person is homo-religosus. Traditional Yoruba worship Olodumare, the (The

Most Supreme God), but employs the energies of deities as veritable media of spiritual

communication.

Yoruba culture has been described as patrilineal, but thee is a seeming ironic idolization of

matrilineal energy in the sense of superstitiously sacred respect for ‘motherhood’. For example, the

Yoruba proverb Iya ni wura ( mother is gold, similar to Nneka, meaning ‘mother is supreme in Igbo

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language of Nigeria ); Iya mi osoronga ( my dreaded mother, the fiery witch!); Iya ile (mother in

the homestead, usually for the eldest wife in a polygamous home); Iyalode ( mother in town – a

powerful chieftaincy title reserved for powerful and influential women in Yoruba land). Within the

context of Odi – Meji, which is the 4 th in rank among the sixteen major Odus, the earth is a living

‘being’ and a mother in Yoruba tradition. In terms of moral customs, there is the ethics of respect

for elders, one evidence of which is kneeling by women, and prostrating by men, to greet elders. Ifa

notion of ‘father’ and ‘mother’ is not strictly biological as in Western culture. All male elders of

one’s father and mother’s age grade are given honorary respect status as father and mother! But,

there are nouns for father (baba), mother (iya), grandfather (baba iya), grandmother (iya baba), half-

brother or half-sister (oba kan), brother or sister (iye kan eni). Marriage custom is ritualistic,

performative, artistic and superstitious. There are puberty rites, social laws of no sex before

marriage, because female virginity was the ultimate mark of female discipline and moral

compliance. No strict sense of monogamy, marriage ceremonies and processes are delicate and

comedic/ theatrical through symbolic codes of ritual prayers, such as ekun iyawo (bridal song) and

eru iyawo (bridal wealth). The materials for marriage are symbolic codes expressed in bridal wealth

like culturally valued clothes, shoes, yam, palm oil, assortments of drinks/ wine, etc. Nowadays,

Christianity and British tradition has influenced original Yoruba tradition of marriage. In terms of

naming, Yoruba names are very symbolic and culturally loaded, rooted in the type of Orisa or deity

that the child destined by ‘Ori’ to worship as revealed through Ifa divination. Such names include,

Ogunbiyi, Sangodele, Oyawale, Fagbamila, Fashina, Osundare, Esugbayi, - all of which are

conflated with deity names. Adebayo Faleti (1999:33) has classified Yoruba names into 4 categories

– (1.) Royalty: names borne by royalty and monarchy are prefixed or suffixed by Ade – Adebayo,

Adenle, Sijuwade, Gbadegesin, etc.(2.) Nobility: names borne by High Chiefs who are not kings or

monarchs like Bashorun of Oyo, Ojumu of Owo and others which are suffixed by Ola, Ike, -

17

Olakunle, Omobonike, Omonike, Kemisola. (3.) Vassalage: names borne by vassal chiefs who are

lesser in rank than the High Chiefs are prefixed or suffixed by “Oye” names – the Oloyede,

Oyedele, Oyeniyi, Oyemakinde, Omoloja, Abioye, (4.) Peasantry: names depend on family history

and type of vocation (drummers and musicians (Ayan prefixed or suffixed names like Ayanniyi,

Ayandele, Alayande, Ayansola, Ajibulu, etc) wood carvers ( Onayemi, Ajibona) farmers, hunters,

blacksmiths ( Ajibowu, Abinusawa, Durosaro), physicians (Ewebiyi Eweje, Eweniyi, Seweje), etc).

Adebayo Faleti claims that since Yoruba names are historical, symbolic, and metonymic of social

status, some parents hide their peasant pauper identities under such names as Ogun, Osun, Oya,

Sango, Esu prefixed or suffixed names. According to Faleti “The others who cannot use their names

to parade their calling in public as professionals or religious people do bear names which hide their

inadequacies under the umbrella of religion” (34).

The researcher lists such “pauper” names as Agbebiyi, Agbediran, (for farmers) and

Ofiwumi, Asihihunniyi (for weavers), Omolewuyi, Omole ( for (builders or masons) which he

claims people in that category vocational affiliation shy away from. Although Adebayo Faleti is a

legendary scholar, researcher and practitioner of Yoruba cultural civilization, it is yet necessary to

interrogate his assumption in a later discourse in order to fully know which stage of Yoruba

development produced such a social-psychology of ‘subaltern’ order in Yoruba artisans. Although I

am aware that the post-colonial procapitalist economy has generated so much of changing lifestyles

and redefinitions of concepts of social value, whereby the drummer/musicians are being inferiorized

as “alagbe” (beggars) in Yoruba urban capitals, this is a seeming recent reading of social value in

the history and sociology of Yoruba people. But, altogether, the Yoruba philosophy of ‘naming’ a

human being, flora, fauna, situation or any phenomenon is informed by the ritual ideology that

everything in nature and the universe has a history and a ‘soul’ which are codes of deferring

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meanings that are waiting to flicker out! The indigenous Yoruba, even elites, Christians, Muslims

and traditional worshippers do directly or indirectly, as the case may be, consult Ifa oracles for

telling the future, for protection, cure from diseases and progress in life. Those who have

fundamental discretion of religious apathy to traditional mode of worship still consult Ifa by proxy

or through their parents or friends at critical moments of life problems.

the type of divination forecast about the origin and life path of the child and of the

parents/ancestors. No wonder the Yoruba say this proverb about naming ceremony - Ile laa wo ka to

somo loruko (one names a child in the context of its lineage history). From antiquity, Ifa oracle is

consulted to know the Orisa bond and destiny of the child in order to name the child. Yoruba

sociology of the society is extensive. Unlike the Western form that is dyad, and nuclear family

system, Yoruba family social relation is on family, extended family, community/ village head, king!

Yoruba culture is orate, perfomative and creative, using language to express deep philosophical

ideas through name calling, oriki and panegyrics, proverbs in formal discourse and informal

conversation to reinforce philosophical ideas: Owe lesin oro, oro lesin owe, bi oro ba sonu, owe la

fii wa! (Proverb is the horses of discourse, if a word is lost, we use proverb to find it!).

Irubo/ Ebo Riru (Sacrifice) as Polysemy of Moral Categories and Philosophical Thought

Irubo (sacrifice) or ebu riru (the offering of sacrifice) among the Yoruba is a rational practice and a

social as well as ritual ideology. It’s depth of meanings are multivalent as a sociology of human

behavior in the continuum of interaction with the physical and the supersensible energies of the

universe from which man tries to wrest his livelihood and being. Ifa’s prescriptive rituals and

sacrifices, as observed, are governed by certain internal laws of reason and logic that shape

understanding of the science of human behavior and nature. Thus in Ifa we have a logical canon of

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reasoning which is immanent in the prescriptive, yet liberal management of human behavior and

fate. Ifa is in concert of opinion with the idea of purity as contained in the holy books - Bible and

Koran. And this interlace with the poetics of cultural pragmatics in other world religious philosphies

is an aspect of it universality and global relevance as an episteme of human knowledge. The corpus

has a holy doctrinal testament which outlaws the shedding of human blood. But, as in Old

Testament Bible about sin and peace offerings and sacrifices in Leviticus, and as it is in Islamic

sacrifice at Ramadan, so it is with Ifa as a philosophy of ‘being’ as contained in the logic of the

following Ifa verse from Eji-Ogbe:

Riru ebo nii gbeni Sacrifice averts much problem

A i ru ebo kii gbe'yan Lack of it invites problem

A difa fun Oke Okeniyi It divined for one praise-named Oke, that is Okeniyi

A ki fun Igbo Igboleti It warned one praise-named Igbo, that is Igboleti

Lojo ti won ni ko ree lo ru Ase On the day he was asked to sacrifice Ase

O gbo riru ebo, o ru He heard and was compliant to the sacrifice

Ogbo atu kanse, o tu He heard warning of appeasement and he complied

Won tun ni ko ru Okete Then he was asked to sacrifice Okete (passover animal)

Ki awon Ajogun buruku a baa le ree kete So evil affliction will passover him

Oke ru Okete tan Oke sacrificed Okete

Ko pe ko jina Not long afterwards

Oke n'segun iku lotun, Oke defeated death on the one hand

Oke gbon werepe arun danu losi Oke overcame chronic diseases on the other hand

Ni Iku ba n're kete arun n're kete, ofo n're kete Death and sickness passed over him!

Philosophically, the Yoruba episteme of compliance to ‘sacrifice’ compares to the knowledge of the

Greek, Hebrew and Romans in the sense that sacrifice is a ritual metaphor, an underlying lesson in

20

hardship and endurance which are necessary to survive in the turbulent sea of life. Sacrifice is a

token of obedience to Olodumare/Allah/Yahweh/Chukwu/Nyame - the all powerful and mighty

creator of heaven and earth. In this, Ifa recognizes the Mosaic/ Musaic Ten Commandments in both

Old Testament Bible and the Koran as true, and it acknowledges Christ, known as Ela in Odu Ifa

verse of Oyeku-Meji, as savior of the world who was to be born by Oyigi, a virgin woman of

inestimable virtue. And this Ifa divination source has influenced modern Christian Pentecostals who

sing to praise-name God as Oyigi yigi, Olorun kikida agbara (Oyigi, God all powerful!). This is

another evidence of the universality of Ifa literary corpus as a philosophy of being. In the context of

the Eji_Ogbe verse rendered above, there are layers of signifying systems both within the context of

creative aesthetics of linguistic sound and pleasure and the ethnographic canons of logical relations

of linear thought structure:

X – Category = Predicative quantum: [D+P+C+N+R]

D = identification of a problem – potential, latent, quasi-manifest, manifest

P = prescriptive proposition of ritual solution – rational, logical, totemistic, tokenistic, mandatory, optional, liberal, consequential, committal, neutral

C = Compliance - activation, participation, completeness, correctness

N = Non-compliance = zero(0)

R = Result : P+ C – D = R

Y – Category = Nominal quantum:[M+S+L]

M – Media - historical, ahistorical, narratological, evidential,

S – Style - communicative, linear, progressive, enumerative, anecdotal, didactic

L - Language – poetic, rhetorical, alliterative, symphonic, symbolic, codifying

Z – Category = Epistemic quantum: [ R/:P+C-D] i.e.“Rirru ebo nii gbeni/ Ai ru ebo kii gbe yan”

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The structures above provide three categories of logical thought – X, which is the Predicative

Quantum (PQ) is the main stem of logical thought in this Ifa verse. Y, is the Nominal Quantum

(NQ) which is not the main thought or message but a significant ‘vehicle’ that helps define the

aesthetic character of the mythic discourse. It is the capital headquarters of verbalization and

articulation, not necessarily of epistemic fulfillment, but of orate gymnastics via sound, dialogical

narratology and communicative tellability. Z, is the Epistemic Quantum (EQ) which is the nucleus

of social and ritual ideology of ‘being’ within the context of Eji-Ogbe as a category of African

philosophy of life. While the structure above is a Grammar of the logic of divinatory physics in Eji-

Ogbe, the structural framework is generic to any average verse in Ifa corpus. Most of the poems will

fit into this Grammar. However, the lessons of humanism and sociological evidence of rational

systems of family and group relations are not explained in this structural paradigm! We would

require the service of another model of theory to explain that.

Episteme of Collective Responsibility and Anti-Individualism

Unarguably, the kind of society that produced this divination and literary philosophy is evidently

very sophisticated in terms of the intricate design of social structures within which members ‘work

to the rule’ of social behavior in order to get favorable results. Such a society has not

metamorphosed from the ‘stage’ of collective responsibility to individuality. Such a society can

produce the type of Sophoclean tragedy of the ancient Greek cosmos, whereby any alteration of the

cycle of order through ‘individualism’ and liberal ideology will cause a cosmic rift as a precipitate

of Oedipal magnitude of tragedy. If sacrifice is an evidence of primal civilization and social

sophistication, then Ifa wisdom is a systematic evidence of human capacity for rational thought by

the Yoruba. This kind of rationalism derived from the principles of loss (sacrifice) and gain (get

22

cosmic or ancestral benefit).It is a ritual metaphor for self-denial, discipline, restraint and

responsibility. Sacrifice is a moral didactic lesson that the way up the ladder of progress and success

is down ward!

The Eji-Ogbe verse above reveals the creative imagination of the Yoruba wisdom corpus to

hypothesize and figure out the possibilities of social problem, between the human and his

environment, human and nature, flora and fauna as well as the recognition of the complex design of

social and economic ecology. Ritual sacrifices provide means of feeding for the Babalawo (Ifa

Priest) and his dependents. It also ensures the demystification of a person’s individuality and

independence, to show that man in society must aspire to obey certain social laws and ethics, all of

which psychologically humbles him and ensures that he aspires to high spiritual hierarchies or the

Deity of religion for favor and protection. Wande Abimbola (1975: 32) describes sacrifice as “…the

element of reparation for one’s inherent defects” (1975:32). I believe that these “defects” could be

biological, psychological, economic or social, for as along as one is in need of what he lacks, there

is always a price tag that measures what he/she must lose in order to get what is needed. Thus,

sacrifice becomes a price tag of inextricable social demand on the individual within a group and of

group within the customs and tradition of any society whether primitive or urban. Even in urban

settings where ritual sacrifices are extinct, it has been replaced by other economic and social forces

that straight-jacket the urban person into certain paradigms of behavior, either traffic rules or

sanitary laws – they are modern variants of ‘sacrifices’. The difference between the urban West and

pre-urban societies is that tokens and symbols of ‘sacrifice’ in the latter are re-invented in another

social language and form in the former. It is therefore unlikely that the West is more sophisticated

within the paradigm of epistemological property than the more natural societies. In this parlance,

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Irubo/Ebo riru (sacrifice) becomes a reading theory from the poetics of Ifa literary and divination

corpus.

Ifa Corpus and the Episteme of the Narrative Copula

In examining what I term the ‘episteme of narrative copula’ in the following Eji-Ogbe quasi-poetic

chant, I mean to unravel the systematic thought of Yoruba concept of ‘duality’ and ‘copula

binarism’ that underlies the universal laws of co-existentiality. One of the Ogbe Eyonu or Ogbe

isoriire verse goes thus, as abridged by this researcher:

Ogbe kan ni’in Providence favor here

Ogbe kan lo’un Providence favor there!

Eji gbede gbigbe ni o gbemi Copula twins of providence, come favor me

A difa fun ore mejeeji It divined for two mutual friends

Nijo to won n’ tisalu Orun The day they descend from the heaven

Bo wa si isalu aye They journeyed to the earth plane

Won ni baba mi lo mu mi mo iya mi They sang a song: My father made me know my mother

Iya mi lo mu mi mo ode aye My mother was my life-boat to the world.

Ase ti o ba s’igi s’ope If there had been no herbs and herbal solution

Awo i ba ti ku de sin Awo would have since been dead

Ebo ki l’awo ma n se…? What sacrifices prescribed?

Ebo aiku l’awo ma nse…! Sacrifices are for healing and well being!

Ebo ki l’awo ma n se…? Why do Ifa Priests prescribe sacrifice?

Ebo aiku l’awo ma nse…! Sacrifices are for longevity…

Awon eji-ore mejeji wa n’korin wipe: The copula twins burst out in lyrics:

Ba o ku l’odun ni, owo nbe If we live, we’re harbingers of wealth

Eehen, owo nbe… Yes, harbingers of wealth…

Ba o ku lodun ni o ayo nbe … If we survive, we’re harbingers of joy…

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Eehen, ayo nbe… Yes, harbingers of joy…

Ba o ku lodun ni o ile nbe… We live to build habitations

Eehen, ile nbe Yes, indeed, we’re habitations…

Ba o ku l’odun ni o, ire gbogbo nbe If we live, we bring abundant favor …

Eehen, ire gbogbo n bee… Yes … we’re favor abundant …(translation mine)

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The episteme of Eji- Ogbe is the first of the 16 major Odu Ifa. And thus by ranking, it is one of the

most significant Odu that underlies the Yoruba philosophy of the ‘copula or ‘duality’ of nature and

of the universe. This is a primal human science that reveals the binarism of human nature, and of

object relations in connection with the knowledge of certain unscripted laws that govern operations

of the universe. When a client consults an Ifa diviner and Eji-Ogbe appears on the Opon Ifa, the

13 According to Abimbola, in The Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa UNESCO 1975 “Ori is the most important element of each individual’s personality” and as such the “concept of Ori is … basic to Yoruba philosophy of life. The concept helps the Yoruba to explain such otherwise incomprehensible happenings as sudden death, human suffering and goodluck”.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abimbola, Wande. The Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa. UNESCO, Niamey,1975.

--------------------- . Ifa: An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus, Oxford University Press, Ibadan,

1977.

Afolabi, Niyi “The Poetry of Double Sense: Toyin Falola and Aderonke Adesanya’s Etches on

26

client’s inquisition and problem can be decoded in either of 8 or more prototype historical

archetypes of past narratives of life as programmed in Ifa folk lores. In each narrative there are

prescribed principles of symbolic and meta-referential “sacrifices” that foreground the

communication of choice between “providence” and lack of it, between life and death, between

wealth and poverty, between barrenness and fecund procreation of children, between gain and loss –

FreshWaters”. In: Etches on Fresh Waters, Carolina Academic Press, 2008, 6-27.

Awolalu, J. Omosade. Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites. Essex, UK, Longman, 1979.

Anozie, Sunday. Structural Models and African Poetics: Towards a Pragmatic Theory of

Literature, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.

Aristotle Poetics trans. George Whalley, ed. John Baxter and Patrick Atherton, London: Buffalo,

McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston (p.xv).

------------------- . Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self I Bloomington,

Indiana University Press, 2006.

Bakari, R. Sentwali, “Epistemology from an afrocentric Perspective: Enhancing Black Students’

Consciousness through an Afrocentric Way of Thinking”

“ http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/poccwi2/20

Bauman, Richard. Verbal Art As Performance Waveland Press, 1984.

Bascom, William. Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West Africa.

Midland Books, 1991.

Bloom, Harold. ed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1797, New York:

Chelsea Publishers,1986.

Bodunrin, Peter. Philosophy in Africa, Ile Ife, University of Ife Press, 1985.

Cornford, Francis MacDonald. Plato’s Theory of Knowledge: The Theatatus and the Sophist of

Plato. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1957.

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in a word, between success and failure. Within the context of the Eji-Ogbe poetic narrative provided

above, the client has a favorable “Ori”13 which has provisionally predestined him for success in life.

But, the Ajogun powers, under the suprasensible commando of Esu the trickster god of liminality

plane of existence must the appeased or propitiated in a ritual sacrifice to usher in the divine favor.

Thus, Eji-Ogbe teaches that this client and his wife have been barren for long, and that Orunmila

says the emissaries of Olodumare are promising them through the divination ‘readings’ that they

Culler, Jonathan ed. Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, linguistics and Literature Ithaca: Cornell

University Press,1975.

Falola, Toyin. Nationalism and African Intellectuals University of Rochester Press, 2001.

----------------- . A Mouth Sweeter than Salt Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2004.

----------------- . The Power of African Cultures, New York, University of Rochester Press, 2003.

----------- Toyin, and Aderonke A. Adesanya. Etches on Fresh Waters Durham, North Carolina,

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will deliver twins, if they comply to the prescribed rituals. And the twins will be harbingers of

tremendous blessings, wealth, fame, and long life for the family. One of the underlying philosophies

in this literary divination text is that human life is a paradox of binary energies of causative and

negative agents which tinker with human conditions on the dotted lines of existential history.

Nothing comes easy. Thus, the twins as copula are latent meta-poetic foregroundings of the

Idowu, Bolaji E. Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief. London, Longman,1962 reprinted , NewYork,A&B Books, 1994.

Irele, Abiola. “Introduction” in Paulin Hountonji, African Philosophy: Myth and Reality,

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976.

---------------- . The African Imagination: Literature in African and the Black Diaspora, New

York, Oxford UP, 2001.

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New Beacon Books, 1985.

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Ogungbemi, Segun. Philosphy and Development. Ibadan: Hope Publishers, 2007.

Okpewho, Isidore. African Oral Literature: Backgrounds, Character and Continuity.

Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1992.

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possibilities of choice between good luck and ill luck, success and failure, wealth and poverty,

longevity and premature death – all of which are also ensconced in the lyrics sang by the twins. The

twins represent the hope and possibilities which are concealed in cosmic zones of ‘in-betweeness’ –

fulfillment and disappointment! Every human condition is hanging in this zone of interlocking

balance like a pendulum in a state of restiveness, which may swing left or right depending on certain

predetermined conditions and vibrations of the mind. Another epistemic theory of this Odu Ifa is the

derived philosophy of reciprocity or reciprocal justice, which is symbolized in the prescribed

‘sacrifice’ the client is required to offer: An offering of all kinds of grains food to children and

infants on every Ojo Abameta (Saturday). Each day of the week is ritually symbolic. It has

implication for a person’s luck or otherwise, in any endeavor like business, love decision,

friendship, a particular kind of prayer, securing of employment, house warming, naming, political

or jackpot fortune, etc. Within this social and ideological belief framework, Saturday is the luckiest

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Written” In Journal of Comparative Literature nos. 3, 1983.

Prah, Kwesi Kwaa. “Beyond the Color Line: Pan-African Disputations”. In: Selected Sketches,

Paper and Reviews. Trenton, Africa World Press, 1998.

Shand, John. Philosophy and Philosophers: An Introduction to Western Philosophy. London:

University College London, 1993.

Sekoni, Folk Poetics : A Socio-semiotic Study of Yoruba Trickster Tales Westport, CT, Green

Press, 1994.

Udefi, Amaechi. “Rorty’s Neopragmatism and the Imperative of the Discourse of African

Epistemology”. In: Human Affairs. Issue 1(2009), pp. 78-86.

Wiredu, Kwasi. Philosophy and African Culture Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1980.

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day for ritual sacrifice for wealth and blessing of children. Saturday is regarded as Ojo Abameta :

aba owo, aba omo, aba alafia – day of three positive affirmations – affirmations of wealth, child-

bearing, and long life. These logicalities are evidences of advanced powers of philosophical

reasoning and of the sociology of narrative copula in relation to human condition. If the prescribed

offering of sacrifices of grains meal to children at Ojo Abameta was meant to usher in the divine

favor of child-bearing, then, there is ingrained psycho-symbolic rheme of meaning in the act – a

tokenistic foregrounding of the principles of ‘sowing and reaping’, a figurative distillation of the

client’s weakness of apathy to children’s welfare takes him to the zone of propitiation as a

‘purgatory’ whereby he attends a preparatory ‘school’ of wisdom, knowledge, experience and

vocational training in child-care in preparation for the long awaited child that will come as double-

barreled blessings. The idea that the twins to be born would bring wealth to the otherwise poverty-

stricken family is again another episteme which should be theorized! It is a meta-communicative

device of foregrounding the many favors that neighbors show to couples that deliver twin babies.

The Yoruba Oriki (praise-name ) for ibeji (twins) goes thus: “Ejire ara isokun/ o so alakisa di onigba

aso (Twins, mutual friends that turn their parents’ poverty into wealth). This episteme emanates

from the Yoruba sociology of family economy. Every one is aware that when a family gives birth to

twins, triplets or quadruplets as the case may be, they invoke the natural sympathy and favor of

neighbors, philanthropists, social groups and governments who usually bestow lavish gifts on the

family and offer child support care! Invariably, the status and fame of the family rise on the

economic graph. All these analyses show that in spite of the inferiorization of myth as a valid site

for locating modern pliable theories of existentialist human condition, this branch of knowledge, in

this case Ifa literary divination corpus, embeds comparable epistemology that is relevant to modern

societies. Science may have surpassed the humanities, it may have triumphed over myth and magic

because of the fixed nature of its data, but it sounds contradictory to reject their profound

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contributions to the knowledge of ‘man’ (and woman) and of this complex universe with its

constantly mutating possibilities. This validates my reconstruction of Ifa, elsewhere, as an academy

of history, memory, rhetorical philosophy of communication whereby all poetic verses as well as

prosaic and lyrical discourses are narrated in history formula, committed to memory, delivered with

oratorical power and constructed in powerful logic of intellectual rigor. In terms of informality,

depth of knowledge and philosophical vigor, it would be obtuse to claim any difference other than

time and space between Ifa as a school of philosophy and “Lyceum”, the school of philosophy that

Aristotle founded in 335BC to the E city walls of Athens and which rivaled the “Academy” of Plato

as a center of philosophical research in the ancient Greek world. No wonder Karin Barber (2006)

has ‘discovered’ new “hidden histories” and “everyday literacy” in the community lives of rural

societies in West Africa dating hundreds of years back.

Conclusion

Ifa literary corpus is comparable in the context primeval and contemporary science/technology as a

subject of globalization. The subject of Ifa corpus raises a lot of fundamental questions bordering on

available data on its history, myth and science. And if, I think, the entire gamut of Western theories

and epistemology derives from the interactive interpretations of these tripod stand of philosophical

knowledge (history, myth, science), then we of the humanities research in Africa need to know more

about the potential wisdom and relative science encapsulated in Ifa divination, and how this may be

appropriated to the postmodern life of Africa. Historically, Ifa was not a product of traditional

religious fundamentalism. Rather, it was a composite corpus of human existence whose inextricable

religious resorts are found in those prescribed ritual sacrifices which are not to be viewed or read as

literal scripts, but as symbolic codes. And as symbolic codes, they are quasi-scientific formulas

delineating by every atomic and molecular sense, the gravity, trigonometric and numeric range of

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Earth magnetic force energies and potential energies in measures and degrees of solution to human

problems. Thus, there is need to re(-)place the theory of Ifa corpus in the context of primeval and

contemporary contributions to human knowledge in science and technology rather than using Ifa

like the raw palm-oil we used to eat roasted yam in my father's farm in the early sixties! Here lies a

great task for contemporary researchers in African studies!

NOTES

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