Moyo Okediji's Quest for an Ifa Copernican Revolution: From Dependence on Priests to Self Reliance: Reworking an Endogenous African Knowledge System in a Global Comparative Context
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
From Dependence on Priests to Self Reliance
Reworking an Endogenous African Knowledge System in a Global Comparative Context
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros
Moyo Okediji with his visual depiction of the 256 odu ifa, the mathematical organizational structures of Ifa.
Picture by Moyo Okediji
Introduction: The Copernican Metaphor
The Italian astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus ( 1473-1543) is known for establishing the fact of the sun as being at the centre of the solar system rather than the Earth, as was the belief in Europe in his time.That achievement is fundamental to modern scientific astronomy.
Since that time, the idea of a "Copernican Revolution" has meant a fundamental change, a pivotal restructuring in the approach to a phenomenon, a transformation in the foundations of how something is conceived.
That is the kind of transformation Moyo Okediji is developing for Ifa, an ancient knowledge system similar to others across West Africa but originating in Yorubaland, an ethnic region centred in Nigeria but with outposts in neighboring countries.
Ifa has also spread beyond Africa, most notably to the Americas, and is recognized by UNESCO as part of the humanity's Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Motivations for Change: Recentering on Individual Agency
Why would anyone want to pursue change, particularly fundamental change, in such a widely acclaimed and centuries old knowledge system, sustaining so many people across continents and about which so much literature is available?
A knowledge system which is the most significant cognitive achievement of the Yoruba, integrating literature, mathematics, herbalogy, sculpture, spirituality, philosophy and possibly other disciplines, configuring various Yoruba spiritualities into one structure?
Of all the world’s divination systems centred in the use of texts, such as the Chinese I Ching, the Ifa literary network is likely to be the most extensive, complemented by its also perhaps unmatched constellation of sculptural forms.
The Paradox at Ifa's Heart:Ori Supremacy Versus Priestly Authority
Along with its wealth across various disciplines, Ifa is largely a priest centred system.
It is this focus on priests as the irreplaceable arbiters of knowledge in Ifa that Okediji is developing an alternative to.
His motivation is a recentring of Ifa in the primacy of the individual self beyond all other authorities, all other powers, whether deities or priests.
The Philosophical Foundation: Ori
as Ultimate Authority
This is a primary conception of endogenous Yoruba philosophy, philosophy as originally developed among the Yoruba people.
Okediji is of the view that such refocusing is strategic for actualizing the potential of Ifa and stemming the negativities he identifies within it.
The following quotations dramatise the centrality of ori, the immortal essence of self, the embodiment of an individual's ultimate potential, in Ifa thought:
"Ori is essence, attribute, and quintessence...the uniqueness of persons, animals, and things, their inner eye and ear, their sharpest point and their most alert guide as they navigate through this world and the one beyond (Olabiyi Babalola Yai, review of John Drewal et al's Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, African Arts, Vol. 25. No. 1. 1992).
"Ori is the only deity that can follow its devotee on a distant journey, even the journey of death, without turning back"
( ‘’The Importance of Ori’’ in Wande Abimbola’s Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa and the African Oral Poetry site: [https://africanpoems.net/gods-ancestors/the-importance-of-ori/](https://africanpoems.net/gods-ancestors/the-importance-of-ori/).
"It is believed that no deity can do anything for one without the consent of one's ori" ( Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief).
"The one and only Origun [ the ultimate creator] in orun [ the world of origins] from which every other ori branches"
( "Ayadjo Asuwada" in Akinsola Akiwowo’s ''Contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge from an African Oral Poetry'', International Sociology, Vol 1. No. 4. 1986).
Akiwowo’s essay iisa presentation and discussion of the richly poetic Ifa text ''Ayajo Asuwada'' which unifies the derivation of all ori in the universe from a supreme, superordinate Ori at the source of existence, with the principle of ''asuwa'', unity between forms of being as enabling the integrity of earth, humanity and cosmos
The Institutional Reality: Priest-Centered Practice
The most significant challenge Okediji faces is that the Ifa system is based on a paradoxical focus on the ultimate authority of the individual self, ori, as well as the necessity of highly trained specialists, babalawo, adept in Ifa's esoteric knowledge, as interpreters of the will of ori.
As in a good number of spiritual systems, the self, in this case, the human self, is understood as both material and spiritual, with various techniques developed for relating with that spiritual dimension.
The oscillation, at times tension, between the individual as the primary point of contact with the world of spirit and the priesthood as such a primary point, is central to the history of many spiritual systems.
The spiritual world is often seen as fantastical, as Falola's Yoruba Metaphysics puts it, removed from the mundane world, even potentially dangerous, requiring unique skill and knowledge to navigate, capacities best developed in a life devoted to that purpose, the life of a priest, whether ordained or self generated through exemplary devotion, a life different from the daily struggle with the necessities and vagaries of general human life that occupies most of humanity.
Thus, the training of a babalawo, an adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifa, an Ifa priest, may take more than ten years of intensive work, some starting before puberty in intimate apprenticeship, some learning from their own parents.
Historical and Comparative Contexts: Individual Versus Institutional Authority in World Spiritualities
The Universal Oscillation Between Self and Priesthood
Training spans of equal or shorter length may be observed for priests across various spiritualities, from shamanic systems to the better known world religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.
A number of these systems, however, can be described as striking a balance between individual creativity and the institutional authority represented by the priesthood.
The Protestant Reformation: A
Parallel Revolution
A particularly dramatic achievement in this regard is the European Protestant Revolution, defined by Martin Luther's rallying cry, " The Just Shall Live by Faith" as opposed to the doctrines of the Catholic priesthood.
The Protestant vision may be seen as moving towards the radical individuality, the uncompromising focus on individual relationship with God, represented by Jesus Christ, the founder of what came to be known as Christianity.
But the accounts about Jesus in the Bible, the primary Christian sacred text, make him both representative of individual possibilities yet exceptional, thereby fuelling the image of the exceptional individual, the priest, as mediators between humans and God.
Islam: Prophethood and Priestly
Classes
A similar process occurs in Islam, which, without explicitly deifying Muhammad, the religion's founder, depicts him as unique among Muslims, thereby again canonizing the idea of the exceptional, priestly person, henceforth developed into a class of people among the faithful, who even though not elevated to the same status as the founder, stand as a bridge between the Ultimate and the laity.
Buddhism: From Individual
Awakening to Institutional
Religion
A similar orientation occurs in Buddhism, in which the heroic labours of an otherwise unexceptional man, Sidharta Gautama, are transformed in some Buddhist schools through the inspirational force of his insights into a figure of unusual creative power.
In certain schools, he becomes a deity, the primary expression of a complex of deities, known as Buddhas.
Hinduism and Yoga: The Model of
Direct Access
Hinduism focuses less on individual founders at its roots but has a rich historical network of exceptional figures.
Hinduism, however, is particularly powerful in emphasizing the primacy of the individual self even within its density of institutional and cultural networks which may privilege tradition above individual creativity.
Central to this recognition of individual power within the complexity of possibilities of knowledge and action is Yoga, a discipline centred in the control of the mind and body.
The second sentence of the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, the most famous of foundational Yoga texts, defines Yoga as the control of thought.
The text claims that controlling one's thoughts is the doorway to the foundations of the universe because the human mind and the mind of the creator of the universe are identical, the human mind being an expression of cosmic mind.
This simple but expansive premise has made Yoga central to the entire tradition of Indian origin spirituality and philosophy, making it the foundation of such figures as Gautama’s quest to discover the ultimate logic of existence, not though books, rituals or priestly authority, though he may have passed through all those,but principally through what he could discover through control of his own mind.
This freedom from reliance on any authority apart from what one may learn by oneself by exploring the possibilities of the mind is strategic to the global explosion of Indian origin mental and spiritual disciplines, cognitive cultures adapted in various ways.
Within Christianity, Islam and a good number of other spiritualities, vigorous approaches have also been developed to guide individual spiritual quest.
Mysticism: The Peak of
Individual Spiritual Authority
At the summit of these approaches are various forms of mysticism, the theory and practice of perception of or unity with ultimate reality, known as God, Allah and a host of other names.
Unifying a good number of these systems is a similar premise as that from Indian philosophy, " Allah is closer to the human being than his jugular vein", the Koran states, although I expect the idea of human and divine identification is particularly sensitive in Islam on account of what I understand as the religion's focus on divine transcendence.
"Let us [ God] make the human being in our image and likeness", the Bible narrates.
"The unity of the individual Self and the universal Self takes one into heaven" as declared in the Indian Katha Upanishad.
Ifa also has its own version of a similar ideas as already demonstrated- " the one and only Origun [ the ultimate creator] in orun [ the world of origins] from which every other ori branches", states the Ifa "Ayadjo Asuwada".
Ifa Tuntun: Okediji's Vision for New Ifa
The Core Proposition: Self-Reliance
Through Ori Connection
In spite of such declarations, beyond basic ori devotion, Ifa has no highly developed culture of individual relationship with ori, the essence of self. It also seems to have no mystical traditions.
The rule in Ifa seems to be that the priest is best positioned to understand the will of ori within the complex of forces that shape human life and communicate this understanding to the seeker.
Okediji is arguing that this priest centred orientation in Ifa needs to change. People need to be encouraged to be self reliant, he urges. If your ori is your essential self then you are in the best position to relate with it, not anyone else, I understand him as arguing.
How far can this vision go?
Very far.
How far has it gone?
It is creating ripples, gathering momentum through backlash from traditionalists, through identification with his vision by like minds, through Okediji's own efforts, largely on Facebook, in resistance to brutal verbal opposition.
The Controversial Position on
Animal Sacrifice
Okediji has tied his ori centred Ifa to critique of the ecological implications of animal sacrifice in Ifa, arguing that the cruelty to animals it represents indicates it should be abolished.
But animal sacrifice is strategic in Ifa scripture and pracice as a means of mediating between humans and spirit, even one's ori.
Okediji seems to be suggesting that those scriptures, the ese ifa, being composed by humans, can be modified by humans, heretical thinking to the traditionalists, for whom animal sacrifice represents sacred traditions, spiritual sharing of resources with spirit, and likely, a source of income for priests.
The "Heresy" of Scriptural Revision. and Composition
The idea of modifying ese ifa, Ifa scripture, is also another idea understood as ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst, with Okediji's expansion of such "heresy" into composing his own ese ifa, his own Ifa scriptures, an act to be unequivocally condemned, the traditionalists urge.
Building Ifa Tuntun: Practical and Philosophical Requirements
Developing a Coherent Philosophical
Framework and Creating New
Scripture and Ritual Forms
What way forward for Ifa Tuntun, New Ifa, Okediji's formulation, reworking a centuries old spiritual culture?
A framework of ideas would need to be developed. Helpful existing Ifa scripture would need to be highlighted and their significance to Ifa Tuntun pointed out.
New scriptures would need to be composed, highlighting the open ended nature of ese ifa composition, a tradition revived after long obsolescence, the obsole treating ese ifa composition as having come to a close after centuries of development.
Practical ritual techniques would need to be worked out. How may people relate to their ori and other deities without the centuries established mode of animal sacrifice?
Cultivating Autobiographical Practice Literature
Ideally, an autobiographical culture must also be cultivated. Accounts of personal exploration and experience relevant to the new approach would need to be composed and widely shared.
Democratizing Access: Free and
Low-Cost Information
Dissemination
Ease of access to information must be emphasized. Spiritual cultures do not build their foundations by emphasizing elitist and financially driven styles of information dissemination and inclusion.
Free, and, in other cases, cheap access to information is crucial.Use of the Internet, in general, and social media, in particular, and cheap books ensures this.
Developing Self-Initiation and
Transparent Group Practices
Methods of belonging need to be free, and when money has to be spent, it needs to be cheap.
The older approach of having to spend money, at times in significant amounts, needs to be replaced with free access and when spending money is unavoidable, cheap alternatives need to be primary.
If Ifa Tuntun wishes to emphasize direct relationship with one's own essence, one's ori, should that cost more than the time and effort spent listening to oneself, as in Yoga?
If the other orisa, the deities of Ifa, are spirits, invisible but conscious entities, what need do they have for material things or for the flesh and blood of animals, material forms requiring money to purchase?
Would their interest not be more in quality of attention by the devotee?
Alternative, transparent and free or cheap techniques of initiation into Ifa and into relationships with various deities need to be developed.
These need to be forms of self initiation as well as flexible approaches to group work in which the techniques used and their rationale are clearly spelt out so they may be readily adapted by anyone.
Okediji's writings, complemented by those of like minded people, are already developing these indices mentioned as vital for the growth of the movement.
Opposition, Momentum, and the Path Forward
The Traditionalist Backlash
Okediji's vision faces vigorous opposition from Ifa traditionalists who view his reforms as:
Undermining sacred priestly authority.
Disrespecting centuries of preserved knowledge.
Threatening the economic structures supporting priests.
Representing cultural imperialism or Western individualism imposed on African tradition.
The intensity of opposition indicates both the threat traditionalists perceive and the significance of the issues at stake.
Growing Support and Momentum
Despite resistance, Ifa Tuntun is creating ripples and gathering momentum through:
Resonance with practitioners frustrated by priest-dependency, financial barriers and abuses experienced in Ifa.
Alignment with broader contemporary values of individual empowerment and ethical treatment of animals.
Okediji and his collaborators' persistent advocacy and intellectual articulation via social media.
The inherent appeal of returning to Ifa's own ori-centered philosophical foundations.
Critical Questions for the Future
How far can this vision extend? Very far—if it successfully addresses several critical challenges:
Philosophical Coherence: Can Ifa Tuntun maintain recognizable continuity with Ifa tradition while fundamentally restructuring its practice?
Practical Viability: Can effective techniques for ori and orisa relationship be developed and transmitted without traditional priestly mediation and sacrifice?
Community Building: Can a sustainable community form around these principles without replicating the hierarchical structures being challenged?
Cultural Authenticity: Can this reform be understood as authentic development of African philosophy rather than Western-influenced corruption?
Conclusion: Revolution as Return to Origins
Okediji's Ifa Copernican Revolution represents not abandonment but fulfillment of Ifa's deepest philosophical commitments.
By centering practice on direct ori relationship—the very principle Ifa scripture itself declares supreme—this reform paradoxically represents both radical innovation and authentic return to origins.
Like Copernicus revealing that Earth was never actually the center despite centuries of assumption, Okediji reveals that the priest was never meant to be the irreplaceable center of Ifa practice—the individual's own ori always was.
The question is not whether ori has supreme authority—Ifa already declares this.
The question is whether Ifa practice will finally align with its own foundational philosophy, empowering individuals to embody the spiritual sovereignty their tradition has always philosophically affirmed.
The path forward requires intellectual rigor, practical experimentation, transparent community building, and courage to challenge entrenched interests—the same qualities required of any genuine revolution.
Whether Ifa Tuntun achieves widespread transformation or remains a minority reform movement, it poses essential questions about authority, autonomy, and authenticity that resonate far beyond Yoruba spirituality, speaking to fundamental tensions in how humans organize spiritual knowledge and power across all traditions.
Between Tradition and Transition
Ten Distinctive Features of Ifa Tuntun
by Moyo Okediji
These are ten distinctive features of Ifa Tuntun, drawing from Ifa Ogbó [ traditional Ifa], while emphasizing how this new paradigm transforms spiritual practice, cosmology, and human–divine relations into a modern, ethical, and self-generative framework:
1. Restoration of Power and Energy to the Self
In Ifa Tuntun, the individual reclaims spiritual authority previously centralized in the hands of priests, diviners, or institutionalized religious structures. This decentralization of spiritual power means that the seeker no longer depends entirely on intermediaries to access divine guidance.
Ifa Ogbo, rooted in communal and hierarchical practices, placed decision-making in the hands of ritual specialists.
Ifa Tuntun reimagines this structure, recognizing that every person carries within their Orí (inner head, consciousness, destiny) the same capacity for divine insight and spiritual agency as any high priest.
This feature resonates with global movements toward self-knowledge, personal empowerment, and postcolonial reclamation of spirituality from systems of control.
2. Orí as the Center of Power (Àsẹ)
The Orí emerges as the cosmic nucleus of Ifa Tuntun. It is no longer a passive recipient of destiny but the primary engine of Ase—the vital energy animating existence.
Ori is thus not just a vessel for divine will but its co-creator.
Rituals, prayers, and meditations in Ifa Tuntun orient toward Ori rather than distant deities or hierarchical priesthoods.
This reflects a shift toward auto-hegemony—spiritual sovereignty rooted in selfhood rather than external validation.
3. Rejection of Blood Sacrifice
Because Yoruba history bears the scars of slavery, colonial violence, and the Atlantic dispersal, Ifa Tuntun refuses to perpetuate cycles of bloodletting.
Traditional Ifa often required blood sacrifice as ebo (offering) to appease deities or avert misfortune.
Ifa Tuntun argues that too much blood has been spilled already—ritually, historically, and cosmically.
The refusal of blood sacrifice marks a moral and ecological evolution, aligning spirituality with peace, sustainability, and the ethics of life-preservation.
Animals are fellow travelers on this cosmic journey, and they are not fungibles
4. Substitution for Ritual Materials
Ifa Tuntun introduces ritual flexibility: when prescribed materials are unavailable, substitutes may be used.
This contrasts with older systems where strict adherence to prescribed offerings determined ritual efficacy.
Such substitutions embody Ifa Tuntun’s adaptive spirit, ensuring rituals remain accessible across diaspora landscapes where traditional ingredients may be absent.
It transforms ritual from a rigid formula into a creative, evolving practice responsive to time, place, and circumstance.
5. Gender Relations and Spiritual Equity
Traditional Ifa often reflected strictly gender-selective, rigid patriarchal hierarchies; Ifa Tuntun consciously interrogates these gendered exclusions.
Women and marginalized genders gain equal access to Ase and priestly authority.
Gender is re-imagined not as a binary but as a spectrum of spiritual energies, each valid in the cultivation of divine wisdom.
This makes Ifa Tuntun profoundly contemporary, aligning with humanist discourses on gender justice and spiritual inclusivity.
6. Creation of Personal Orisa Around Ori
Each individual may create an Orisa around their Ori, giving it a name and attributes for invocation.
This feature decentralizes Orisa worship from fixed pantheons, inviting personalized theologies.
The individual thus co-creates their own divine presence—a spiritual companion reflecting their inner destiny, values, and aspirations.
It extends worship to include and transcend ancestral inheritance and incorporate personal authorship and celebrations.
7. Self-Initiation and Decennial Renewal
Whereas traditional initiation required public rituals overseen by priests, Ifa Tuntun encourages private self-initiation, renewed at least once every ten years.
The initiate may or may not invite witnesses or communities.
This ensures spirituality remains a living, evolving process rather than a one-time event.
Self-initiation affirms the individual’s direct access to sacred power without needing clerical permission or external validation.
It blends ritual solemnity with personal autonomy.
8. Inter-Unit Liaison and Networked Spirituality
Each Ifa Tuntun unit—whether an individual, family, or local circle—is encouraged to liaise with other units.
This creates a networked spiritual common, fostering dialogue, support, and shared ritual innovations.
Unlike hierarchical priesthoods, these networks form horizontal alliances across regions and communities, benefiting from digital or diasporic linkages in the modern world.
9. Ecological and Non-Anthropocentric Vision
Ifa Tuntun insists that humans, animals, land, water, fire, and air share the same Ase.
This dismantles human-centered cosmologies that exploit nature for spiritual or material gain.
By refusing anthropocentrism, Ifa Tuntun aligns with ecological ethics, seeing all life forms as co-participants in sacred existence rather than resources for human use.
Here, spirituality becomes planetary rather than merely human-centered, anticipating climate-conscious theologies of the future.
10. Post-Blood, Post-Colonial, Post-Hierarchical Spirituality
Taken together, these features define Ifa Tuntun as:
Post-blood: rejecting sacrifice-as-violence;
Post-colonial: reclaiming Yoruba spirituality from missionary distortions and modern exploitations;
Post-hierarchical: decentralizing power to Ori and community networks.
It inaugurates a metamodern Ifa: ethically attuned, ecologically sensitive, spiritually self-directed, and open to global, diasporic realities.
(Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17V1fMQrGF/
Accessed October 17, 2025)