The Do- It-Yourself-Ifa of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju: Reworking an Ancient African System of Knowledge

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The Do- It-Yourself-Ifa of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju: Reworking an Ancient African System of Knowledge 

          Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

                    Compcros

                     Abstract 

A description of my "Do-it-Yourself Ifa",  an individualistic and recreative approach to the ancient African Ifa system of knowledge and divination.

What is Ifa?

Ifa is an ancient African knowledge system centred in a method of exploring relationships between fate and free will at the intersection of the self and the spiritual cosmos.

It is a system of knowledge that achieved a particularly robust level of multi-expressive development among the Yoruba of what is now known as Nigeria, although it is also practised under the same name among other peoples, such as the Edo of Benin,  and has structural and methodological parallels with other African divinatory and knowledge systems such as the Benin/Edo Oguega, the Igbo Afa, the Urhobo Epha and the  Dahomean Fa. It also has similarities with the Chinese I Ching.

Ifa, particularly as developed in Yorubaland and spreading beyond there, is remarkable for its multi-expressive scope within and beyond the decision making system known as divination, integrating mathematics, literature, herbalogy, sculpture, graphic arts, spirituality and philosophy.

Reworking Ifa from Tradition to Innovation

     Seeking Balance between 

     Tradition and Innovation 

The approach I am developing to this system is inspired by its traditional identity but seeks a balance between tradition and innovation.

       Individuality Drawing from 

       Community 

Ifa is significantly communal but my approach builds upon the insights of the communal culture while being fundamentally individualistic.

      From Orality to Writing

Yoruba Ifa literature is grounded in the sonic power of the Yoruba language, making appreciation of its sound patterns in relation to its imagery and narrative structure as demonstrated by an expert chanter a wonderful experience.

I am more interested in contemplation of texts as different from their performance. My knowledge of Yoruba does not operate at the level of what is often the sophistication of Yoruba in Ifa. Ifa texts also exist that are driven more by  narrative than the poetic intensity that often defines Yoruba Ifa.

My emphasis is therefore on approaching Ifa literature through translations, through written texts, rather than through oral  performance.

      Beyond Dogma into Exploration

Ifa literature is often treated as dogmatic scripture, as divine insight, but I see it as the creation of people of diverse motivations and different levels of insight into the human condition, pursuing agendas which a person may identify with, reject  or reshape to their own ends.

     Beyond Fixity into Creative Expansion 

Ifa literature is understood as fixed, as beyond any additions, as being a closed canon.

I see ese ifa, as Ifa literature is called, as a literary genre, a style of verbal composition, which anyone may adapt to various uses, sacred or secular, and as  enriched by expansion.

      Beyond Focus on Use of Material       

      Instruments to Mental Action 

Ifa divination is traditionally done through the use of the opele, Ifa divination strings, or ikin, Ifa divination nuts, but my approach emphasizes decision making through  inward knowing at the intersection of intellect and intuition, observation and reflection, individuality and interpersonal relations.

Ifa divination may employ the opon ifa divination tray and cosmological symbol as well as the iroke ifa, the divination tapper.

I use these instruments as sources for contemplation, as platforms for visualization and reflection, rather than as instruments to be used in physical action.

   Beyond Material Sacrifices into Mental 

   Work and Total Lifestyle 

Ifa traditionally uses sacrifices of material things, from objects to animals, in relating with the spiritual world,  but my approach pursues similar goals through  meditation, visualization, prayer and the total complex of how one lives.

   Beyond Priestcraft into Individual 

  Journeying

Ifa is often mediated through priests. My approach is focused on individualistic exploration.

   Beyond Belief into Exploration 

Ifa is often treated as a belief culture. I approach it as an exploration system, an approach to relating with and investigating the universe, an exploratory system in which the ultimate authority is what I am able to know for myself.

    Beyond Tradition and Concealment 

    into Individual Experimentation

    and Openness

Ifa is associated with a traditional  initation system the general outlines of which  may be publicly presented but the details of which are kept secret.

My own approach to Ifa initiation is individualistic and self created rather than traditional and communal, eclectic, drawing from various sources rather than restricted to the Orisha spirituality within which Ifa is embedded. My approach is also fully open to sharing with the world.

        From Ifa to the Yoruba and the        

        Global  Knowledge Cosmos 

My engagement with Ifa, though, involves the broad cosmos of Yoruba and Yoruba inspired spirituality, philosophy and arts, from such strategic concepts as "ase", "ori" and "oro", to such an institution as Ogboni to such orisa or deities as Osanyin, Odu, Orisanla and Eshu, in dialogue with masters and masterworks in Yoruba thought, arts and sciences, from Wande Abimbola to Susanne Wenger,  Wole Soyinka to Abiola Irele , Toyin Falola to Akinwumi Ogundiran,  Rowland Abiodun to Babatunde Lawal, Bolaji Idowu to  Awo Falokun Fatumnbi, Aimee Dafon Segla to Shloma Rosenberg, and more, among those who  decisively shape my appreciation of this culture, in an expanding radiation converging with other African, Asian and Western bodies of knowledge, across the visual and verbal arts, philosophy, spirituality and science.

      From Scholarship to Lived Practice

      Integrating Various Cognitive 

      Powers 

My approach to Ifa is both scholarly and practical, intellectual, imaginative and intuitive, integrating various cognitive powers into a synthesis serving various ends, from intellectual productions to artistic creativity to a way of life.

     From the Details of Living to its       

     Cosmic Context 

Ifa practice activates a rich cosmology, at the intersection of the self and the spiritual cosmos,  deeply sensitive to the daily walk of human life and the orientations shaping the entire course of a person's terrestrial journey and even  their entire existence beyond birth and  the material world at the end of a terrestrial life cycle.

This sensitivity to the details of human experience on Earth, however, has at times meant that Ifa practice does not rise beyond that level, being restricted to  life's more limited challenges of day to day living and decisions about action in relation to the personal details and social contexts of human life.

That approach de-emphasizes a personal  relationship with the cosmic framework of existence beyond using it in terms of the short term contexts of the daily round of living.

My approach, however, seeks to emphasize the relationship between the cosmic and the everyday, between time and eternity, between space and infinity, between the human being and the larger natural, material and spiritual cosmos.

I approach these expansive contexts as ultimately centred in the self as the mediator with the universe in a journey that is terrestrial, conducted in the details of daily life on Earth and going beyond Earth at the conclusion of the territorial phase of life's journey.

This journey is also mystical, seeking intimate rapport with the ultimate source of existence, employing Ifa concepts and symbols in pursuing these goals.

Summation

In sum, my approach to Ifa seeks a balance between tradition and innovation; is individualistic rather than communal; exploratory rather than dogmatic; expansive rather than restrictive; recreative rather than fixed; emphasizes linguistic plurality; is more mentalistic than materially enabled; focuses on the workings of the mind rather than the use of material instruments; draws inspiration from orality but emphasizes  written texts; is scholarly and yet practical; intellectual, imaginative, intuitive, philosophical and spiritual;  is both existential, focused on the details of human life and biospheric, relating to nature in general, as well as cosmic,  seeking understanding of the total material and spiritual contexts of existence, and mystical, seeking intimacy with the ultimate source of all.

Hence I call it Do It Yourself Ifa, emphasizing its approach to Ifa as a tool to be employed, adapted to one's use , rather than a doctrine to be obeyed or a dogma to be followed, moving from claims to divine insight to exploring questions of the logic and validity of various kinds of knowledge and of how to know for oneself.

I have been developing this system for some time and will later share the specifics of the creativities I have constructed along the lines described above.

The kind of Ifa I am constructing derives from my own temperament as a person who prefers individualistic approaches to learning, is introvertive and a lover of solitude yet values interaction, while conventional Ifa is built on a communal and tradition based approach to knowledge.

My own approach might prove insightful to others who could learn from aspects of its insights, or identify with its total orientation and perhaps adopt or adapt it, intersecting with the traditional approach or  another approach which they construct.

Such possibilities would dramatize the creative flexibility of Ifa, its capacity for relevance across personality, cultural, geographical and temporal variations while igniting questions as to the essence of the knowledge system within and beyond its traditional frame, questions vital to driving increased exploration and understanding of this cultural form.

I thank the sources of the inspiration that made the summation above possible.