WHAT IS IFA?
IFA is the religion of the Yoruba peoples of Africa.
Unfortunately, within the last 100 years traditonal forms of religion in Africa
have declined under the influence of colonialism, Western acculturation and proselytizing
by Islam and Christianity. In the African Diaspora (mainly in the Americas) African-derived
belief systems are in a state of impressive growth.
Today Yoruban religion has undergone a phenomenal surge in popularity
and interest. Santeria, the adaptation of Yoruba and
Ifa with Catholicism, came to the U.S. - first with Puerto Ricans in the forties
and fifties and then with the flood of Cuban refugees in the sixties. The pantheon
of major Yoruba deities has survived virtually intact, along with a complex of
rites, beliefs, music, dances and myths of Yoruba origin.
WHO ARE THE YORUBA?
 The
Yoruba, of whom there are more than twenty-five million, are defined by their
shared language and certain geographical boundaries. They occupy the southwestern
corner of Nigeria. To the east and north the Yoruba culture reaches its
approximate limits in the region of the Niger River. In the north-west, it extends
across Benin Republic (formerly the Republic of Dahomey) into central Togo. The
main neighbors of the Yoruba are the Edo, Igbo, Igbira and Igala to the east,
the Nupe and Bariba to the north, and the Fon, Mahi, Egun and other Ewe-speaking
groups to the west.
The name Yoruba was applied to all these linguistically
and culturally related peoples by their northern neighbors, the Hausas.
The old Yoruba cities typically were urban centers with surrounding farmlands
that extended outward as much as a dozen miles or more. A common Yoruba belief
system dominated the region from the Niger, where it flows in an easterly direction,
all the way to the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
YORUBA HISTORY
Traditionally, Yorubaland consisted of semi-independent
states governed by kings. Under those twenty or more kings, a greater number of
subordinate rulers, at least 1000, were responsible for single towns and villages.
Therefore there was never much political unity. The principal source of ethnic
identity was language, which distinguished the Yoruba from the neighbouring
traditions such as the Hausa speaking peoples.
However ancestral cultures directly related to the Yoruba once
flourished well north of the Niger. Portuguese explorers "discovered" the Yoruba
cities and kingdoms in the fifteenth century, but cities such as Ife
and Benin, among others, had been standing at their present sites
for at least five hundred years before the European arrival. Archeological evidence
indicates that a technologically and artistically advanced, proto-Yoruba (Nok),
were living somewhat north of the Niger in the first millennium B.C., and they
were then already working with iron. [Note: This is a measure of a civilizations'
"advancement" for scholars].
Ifa theology states that the creation of humankind arose in the
sacred city of Ile Ife where Oduduwa (the first king) created
dry land from water. As a result, a large but undetermined number of Africans
migrated from Mecca to Ile Ife. At this point the Eastern Africans and
Western Africans synergized. Ife was the first of all Yoruba cities. Later, the
cities of Oyo and Benin were created, and expanded as a consequence of their strategic
locations at a time when trading became prosperous.
Ife, unlike Benin and Oyo, never developed into
a true kingdom. Though it remained a city-state it had paramount importance to
Yoruba's as the original sacred city and the dispenser of basic religious
thought. Until relatively recent times the Yoruba's did not consider themselves
a single people, but rather as citizens of Oyo, Benin, Yagba and other cities,
regions or kingdoms. These cities regarded Lagos and Owo, for example, as foreign
neighboors, and the Yoruba kingdoms warred not only against the Dahomeans
but also against each other. Both Benin and Oyo are said to have been founded
by Ife rulers or descendants of Ife rulers. Benin derived its knowledge of brass
casting directly from Ife, and the religious system of divining called Ifa spread
from Ife not only throughout the Yoruba country but to other West African cultures
as well.
SPIRITUAL CONCEPTS OF THE YORUBA
The royal dynasties are said to descend from a single ancestor,
the first king of Ile Ife - Oduduwa. During Oduduwa's lifetime, or soon after
his death, his sons and grandsons are said to have left Ile Ife to found their
own kingdoms. In several oral traditions, the founders of the principal kingdoms
are presented as the children of Oduduwa specifically by his principal wife, Omonide
or Iyamode. In Cuba this King and Queen are known as Obatala and Yemaya. There
are many variations on the story of creation and how the Orisha were born from
the coupling of Oduduwa and Omonide (Obatala and Yemaya). An example is given
in this excerpt from Dr. Marta Maria Vega's Altar of My Soul:
The Orisha Olodumare, the Supreme God, originally lived in the
lower part of heaven, overlooking endless stretches of water. One day, Olodumare
decided to create Earth, and sent an emissary, the orisha Obatalá, to perform
this task. Olodumare gave Obatalá the materials he needed to create the world:
a small bag of loose earth, a gold chain, and a five-toed hen.
Obatalá was instructed to use the chain to descend from heaven. When he reached
the last link, he piled the loose earth on top of the water. Next, he placed the
hen on the pile of earth, and ordered her to scatter the earth with her toes across
the surface of the water.
When this was finished, Obatalá climbed the chain to heaven to report his success
to Olodumare. Olodumare then sent his trusted assistant, the chameleon, to verify
that the earth was dry. When his helper had assured him that the Earth was solid,
Olodumare named Earth "Ile Ife," the sacred house.
Before he retired to the uppermost level of heaven, Olodumare decided to distribute
his sacred powers "aché". He united Obatalá, the Orisha of creation,
and Yemayá, the orisha of the ocean, who gave birth to a pantheon of orishas,
each possessing a share of Olodumare’s sacred power. At last, the divine power
of Olodumare was dispersed. Then one day, Olodumare called them all from Earth
to heaven and gave Obatalá the sacred power to create human life. Obatalá returned
to Earth and created our ancestors, endowing them with his own divine power. We
are all descendants from the first people of the sacred city of Ile Ife; we are
all children of Olodumare, the sacred orisha who created the world.
For every Yoruba in the Diaspora, the ancient city of lle-lfe
is their ancestral home and root. It is incontestable that Oduduwa who all sources
of history proclaim as the progenitor of the Yoruba race, had his house (sacred
grove) in lle-lfe. Oduduwa is believed to have had several sons (16 in number)
who later became powerful traditional rulers of Yoruba land: Alafin of Oyo, Oni
of Ife, Oragun of Ila, Owa of Ilesha, Alake of Abeokuta and Osemawe of Ondo.
Yoruba believe in a supreme being, in primordial divinities, and
spirits that have been deified. God is known as Olodumare (the one who
has the fullness of everything) and Olorun (the owner of heaven, the Lord
whose abode is in the heaven above). Other names are also used that reflect the
Yoruba belief that God has all the possible attributes of a person. As the Supreme
Being created heaven and earth, he also brought into existence hundreds of divinities,
and the spirits (Orisa, or Imole, and Ebora). Other historical figures, such as
kings, culture heroes, founders of cities, etc. were deified, and are invoked
along with personifications of natural forces such as earth, wind, trees, river,
lagoon, sea, rock, hills and mountains. As in other African societies, Yoruba
also believe in the active existence of the deceased ancestors.
The Yoruban philisophy includes the beliefs that:
- There is One Supreme God
- Except for the day you were born and the day you are supposed to die there
is not a single event in ones life that cannot be forecast and if necessary, changed.
- Your spirit lives on after death and can reincarnate through blood relatives
- You are born with a specific path.
- Divination serves as a road map to your path.
- Our ancestors exist and must be honored, respected and consulted.
- The Orisa (forces of nature) live within us and deal with the affairs of men.
- You must never harm another human being or the universe, which you are apart
of.
- Spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional realms of our existence must all
work together and be balanced.
- Sacrifice is necessary to assure spiritual success.
OUTSIDE LINKS
To learn more about Nigerian Culture:
Nigerian
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