Masters of the Orisa Tradition : Aina Olomo by Awo Falokun

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

                                                                                                                                                              
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                                                                                                                                                         Masters of the Orisa Tradition

                                                                                                                                                                   Aina Olomo

                                                                                                                                                                           by
                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                    Awo Falokun

                                                                                                                                                              Compcros Publishing

                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                           A Division of Compcros

                                                                                                                                      Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

                                                                                                                         "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"




                                                                                                               
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Agbo ato, Oloriya Aina Olomo Iba’ye ire lona iponri atiwo Orun made the transition to return home to her ancestors.

She will be missed.

Iya was initiated in New York by Renard Simons Ibaye who was part of the first lucumi house to initiate African Americans. Iya helped open this door in the sixties which was a time of great spiritual awakening throughout the country and the challenges associated with bringing Orisa to African American communities was a calling that required courage, commitment and a deep connection with ancestral wisdom. Iya embraced all three of these requirements and showed us how to place Ifa Orisa in the mainstream of American culture.

I first meet Iya thirty years ago when she was a Orisa priestess setting up a community cultural center in Miami. Her efforts were a model of what elders of our faith could and should do as part of our responsibility at social outreach. She originally contacted me because of her interest in oriki. I sent her a then unpublished collection of oriki and I was impressed by how she studied and made use of the material. Saying oriki effectively is an art that requires time and attention so oriki can be used to pass ase. She gave the process time and attention and became extremely effective at the art of passing ase to others. By passing ase I mean generating the spiritual power needed to put yourself and others into the altered states needed to communicate with Spirit.

Iya moved from Florida to Trindad to study Orisa with Mother Rodney Ibaye who was the elder mother of the Sango Baptist. While in Trinidad Iya founded Egbe Egungun and started an annual festival of masquerade dancing which has evolved into an elaborate and truly inspiring event. Following the installation of Egun in Trinidad Ifa was seated well and there are currently a number of Ifa Egbe flourishing on the Island. Iya considered herself a royalist and believed that our faith is rooted in its connection to the protocols associated with the Divine rule of Yoruba kings and Queens. As a result of Iya’s vision the Oni of Ile Ife traveled to Trinidad and made Mother Rodney a traditional Queen Mother and designated her as the elder mother of Trinidad.

Iya returned to the United States and settled on a large piece of land in the forest outside of Austin Texas. While in Texas she became the first woman I initiated into Iyaami Osoranga and together we built a shrine to the mothers in her back yard. Iya’s constant attention to the icons in the Iyaami Shrine attracted over 50,000 birds that were not native to the region. The presence of those birds in Texas was so unusual the site was featured in a National Geographic documentary. The phenomenon was a physical demonstration of the ability of humans to use birds as an intermediary in the process of communication with Spirit. The presence of those birds was also a testimony to the power of Iya’s ofo ase when she was speaking oriki.

                                                                                 

While in Texas Iya was asked to serve on the board of directors of a nonprofit organization that donated money to indigenous cultures around the world for the purpose of preserving culture. It was a noble effort that has helped preserve traditions in Mexico and Latin America.

Along her journey Iya initiated into Ifa through the lineage of Ile Ife where she received a chieftaincy title and where she became a vocal advocate for women’s rights within our faith. That advocacy led her to sponsor a training seminar for women in Ifa in 2012. The seminar became a model for how we can come together across family lines and share information and contribute to the training process of those who are committed to community service.

Iya received a title as part of the royal family of Benin, she received a title as part of the royal family in Eboland, and she received a title as part of the royal family of the Oyatunji village. She was living testimony to her belief in the cultural and spiritual importance of monarchy in the preservation of our faith.

In my opinion Iya’s greatest contribution to our faith was as what I call a literary theologian. For those of us who were exposed to Ifa Orisa in the sixties the only books available to us were written by anthropologists. The role of an anthropologist is to describe the content of a culture without comment on the viability of the beliefs of that culture. A theologian embraces a cultural and or a religious perspective and writes specifically on the issue of how those ideas can improve our lives. An anthropologist by definition writes as an outsider and a theologian by definition writes as an insider.

Our faith is blessed to have three African American women who pioneered the development of theology in our faith in the Diaspora and who were able to submit those pioneering concepts to the printed page. Luisah Teish in her book Jambalaya showed how Ifa Orisa was preserved during slavery in the United States at a time when the general belief was that this never happened. She also made clear statements about how the inspiration of Ifa Orisa had a profoundly transformative influence on Africa American culture and a profoundly transformative influence on the call to courage needed for survival. Iyanla Vanzant has written a series of books on the transformative power of spirit on personal development. She has shown us how to take our message and deliver it to a wider audience. In her book Core of Fire Aina Olomo wrote about the ability of Orisa to inspire us to move past the short sighted view of self and world that blocks our connection to spirit. It was and is a brilliant description of the value of our faith to inspire personal growth and to use that growth to create a better world.

When I did divination this morning to ask Ifa what I should say about this remarkable woman the Odu was Eji Ogbe. Simply put that means Iya made the journey from Orun to Aye with a mission and a destiny. While on earth she embraced that destiny and accomplished the assignment given to her by the ancestors in Orun. It also means as the ancestors greet her in Orun there will be a feast with singing and dancing. The Ifa definition of immortality is to be remembered well for seven generations. There is no doubt in my mind that Iya embraced her mortality.

She and I disagreed a lot about a lot of things and we managed to remain friends. That is a blessing that well be missed. May the blessings of Orun keep Iya blessed and in peace until her spirit blesses the earth by making a timely return.

Ire Baba

Source: Awo Falokun’s Facebook post of 11th February 2016

Images from Jo Anna Hunter