Ifa also says...

Over the past weekend I interviewed 3 more Babalawos this time in Osogbo and a smaller town called Ilobu, just a few minutes north of Osogbo. Before I left with Dr. Ajibade he introduced me to two students who are going to transcribe my interviews (for a price of course), which is going to be a HUGE help to me since I can't understand most of the Yoruba, and when I get it translated afterward I'll have an audio and visual record of them! He also introduced me to Dele Babalola, who will be my field assistant while Dr. Ajibade is at a conference in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. Fortunately for me, Dele is the son of the first Babalawo I interviewed this weekend and knows most of the Babalawos in the area, not to mention a whole lot about Ifa as well. I learned only later while talking to him, that he is not just an initiate into the society like I had thought, but that he is a full-fledged Babalawo himself as well!

So I first went with Dr. Ajibade to Ilobu where Dele's father, the Otun Awo of Ilobu, lives. This interview was a bit of a big deal, because most Ifa priests and scholars consider him to be one of the, if not the ultimate authority on Ifa because he is so old, and has travelled all over Yorubaland in his work with Ifa. His title, Otun Awo, also signifies that he is the 2nd highest priests in the society, I couldn't help but feel kinda puny and unimportant around him, and honored that he agreed to sit down and talk to me.

Besides being a big deal, Mr. Babalola was very friendly and sent one of the people in his house to go get drinks for Dr. Ajibade and I when we came in, and answered most of my questions (we didn't have time to do deal with all of them) in a very slow deliberate, and very dignified manner. I almost wanted to stop asking him questions and just listen to what he said, which caught me off guard when he was finished answering questions. There was way too much in uor interview for me to remember all of it off-hand or even to tell you but the most interesting parts were that most of the clients he has who come to him to do divination for them are Muslims, then quite a few Christians, but very few followers of traditional religion (called Olorishas). He also told me that lots of pastors who have just founded churches in other towns will come to him to ask what they should do, and how they can attract people to their churches! Apparently people from even pretty far away come to him because they don't want anyone to know they are consulting Ifa. I thought that was pretty crazy.

He also told me that the Bible, Qur'an, and Ifa corpus came from heaven (just like the Awise said) and that whenever they are in conflict or have flase teachings, that is the introduction of human creation into religion that causes all kinds of problems. According to him, this is part of the reason why in Nigeria people would understand why Muslims and Christians would be initiated into Ifa, since the consultation and divination doesn't have to be practiced as a religion, but if one wanted to become a priest or Babalawo, you would have to leave another faith for Ifa. This presented the biggest difference with the last interview, and he promised to tell me all about some Ifa mythology that would clear up a lot of my questions the next time I came to visit him.

At the end of my interviews I always give the Babalawos some money (usually about $15) and Dele and Dr. Ajibade siad they like wine and alcohol, so I gave Mr. Babalola the nicest one I could find since I really appreciated him taking the time to talk to me, and he loved it. When I produced it he said that one "Ah-ah!" that all of you who either know Nigerians or my Nigerian impersonation would recognize. He was so grateful he said abrief prayer asking Ifa to grant me success in my research and asked me if I had been initiated into Ifa or would want to. I told him that I had not, and weaseled my way out of explaining myself to him. I can't lie though, all of the Ifa people, initiates and Babalawos, have been very gracious and wise men, I just don't want to go through initiation into the society even though I have a keen interest in the tradition...

The next day I went with Dele to Osogbo to interview 2 of his fathers protégés, but in rue Nigerian fashion, Dele was about a half hour late, even after insisting that he would be 15 minutes early. It probably wasn't his fault because you never know how the roads are going to be, and what kind of bus driver you will get...

Osogbo is about a 45 minutes drive from Ife and I asked Dele all kinds of questions about his involvement in Ifa, and found out that he himself actually was initiated "under" the Odu Otua Meji (one of the 16 major divinatory signs of Ifa) when he was initiated. This was interesting because that is the Odu that is associated with Islam, and Dele told me that if he had wanted to he could now start dressing and largely acting like a Muslim if he wanted tosince that's what the sign means. He is extraodrinarily adamant that I get "the truth" about Ifa and through Ifa on my project, and I think he is enjoying being able to teach me about all of these things, and is glad that I am interested in him and Ifa instead of being dealthy afraid of it and disrespecting him and his family's occupation.

I know most Muslims and Christians at least oficially think and say these kinds of things, and I couldn't help but think about what it must be like for Dele and his family to have even the people who financially support you disapprove of the tradtion that you have dedicated your life to practicing and preserving since it is largely dying out. Even though I'm not and Ifa man, or have any plans to become one, I can't imagine that his would be a very pleasant position especially when he and his Dad tell me that they are really involved in Ifa since they believe it is a gift from God that is meant to help people and ease their suffering. Seems strange, and alos familiar that someone who wants to do that has to end up suffering for it...

At any rate, the next Babalawo on the list was the Ojugbona of Osogbo, and his job traditionally was to communicate between the Kabiyesi (chief or king of the area) and the Ifa community. So he would divine for the Kabiyesi and tell him what Ifa has to say, or what the Ifa community neds/advises, and then take orders from the Kabiyesi to Ifa as well. He was extremely friendly, giving me a warm smile when I greeted him, and even slapped me on the knee while laughing after I told Dele "Mo gbo ede Yoruba-o!" (I understand Yoruba!) when he tried translating something for me.

The Ojugbona told me a lot of the same things that Mr. Babalola did, which makes sense since the former studied under the latter. Mr Latona (the Ojugbona's name) told me that he too divines mostly for Muslims and some Christians, has initiated many, and even "keeps" Ifa for many of them. Traditionally, when a person "receives" and orisha, the orisha is said to inhabit a small shrine, pot, or calabash, after several secret rites have been performed to and over it, and so it is usually called by the name of the orisha since (s)he actually lives inside it. So when the Ojugbona initiated some Muslims and Christians, he said they didn't want to take Ifa back with them since it would cause all kinds of trouble within their religious communities, so they leave Ifa with him and he performs all of the nesecary sacrifices, like "feeding" Ifa kola nuts and water when necessary. He also agreed that Babalawos should not be Muslims even though initates should be, even though there is a strange very strong relatinoship between Muhammad and Orunmila. He said to know more than that I would have to go back and ask Mr. Babalola since he didn't know. At the end of the whole interview, he agreed to take a picture with me in his full regalia, putting his hand on my shoulder and thanking me for coming by. After we left, I felt kinda bad that I had been so apprehensive about meeting Babalawos since he was one of the nicest and most welcoming people I have met here.

Dele and I were already late to meet the next Babalawo, Mr. Onifade the Amokinrun of Osogbo, the immediate subordinate of the Ojugbona, who would usually be the life of any Ifa celebration or gathering, leading or beginning chants of Odu Ifa, and invoking Ifa/Orunmila to come down to them.We ended up being even later since Dele couldn't remember exactly where he lived, and said, "and what should I say?" when I asked if we could just call him for direction. He was really embarrassed that he didn't remember how to get there. So we called Dele's little brother and eventaully found it. Mr. Onifade reminded me a bit of my Uncle Wole in that he is a very big, powerful man, with an equally powerful and distinc voice whose size is only matched by his congeniality; he (and my Uncle Wole too) are the kind of guy everyone wants to have as an Uncle. I gave him the traditional greeting like always, and he yanked me up and gave me a hug and showed us into his house. As a pleasant surprise he spoke English as well if not better than Dele so we didn't have to bother translating wich saved a lot of time and effort, not to mention making everything clerer and more straight-forward.

This interview was maybe the most informative I have had, and I couldn't possibly tell you everything, but one of the most interesting things he told me was that although he's never asked or studied it, Arabs must have been worshipping the orishas before the prophet Muhammad came, which in a way is actually true, and that everyone needs to stop hating and trying to destroy the trditional religion that God gave them (All of the Babalawos I have talked to say God, Allah, and Olodumare the Yoruba word for God, are all the same and they even say things like, "Praise God" and "God willing"). According to Yoruba cosmology, Olodumare is so great and far from human beings in their impoerfection, that people must worship and access him through the intermediaries of orishas, many of whom were actual people. He said that if Jesus and Muhammad had come to Yorubaland instead they would have been called and worshipped as orishas as well since they served that same role. That's why he doesn't try to persecute Muslims or Christians or even deride Jesus or Muhammad. He got a bit riled up as well, when he said people just don't take the time to understand what's really going on, and think traditinoalist are worshipping rocks and dirt, when they actually know God in a very serious way. While not completely unexpected, this fascinated me, because I'd never heard anyone say that, much less in such frank language.

At the end I took a picture with him and Dele as well, and even a few of the pots he had in his sitting room that contained Ifa and belonged to Muslims from all over... Then as an added bonus, they told me one of their friends was having a celebration because he had just moved up the ranks in Ifa society, and they brought me along. at first it looked like most other Nigerian celebrations I've been too, big tents in the road, everyone sitting down, drinking, and eating, women in big colorful geles (head dresses), talking-drum players, people running around trying to sell all kinds of stuff, etc. BUT soon after we got there, after saying hi to about 20 people since everyone knew Dele and Mr Onifade (who undersandibly is well known and liked) Dele grabbed my hand and told me to go see the Masquerade, which is literally a costume with an elaborate mask that covers the face of the person wearing it, but is actually meant to be the embodiment of a spirit or orisha. Dele told me to take a picture with my camera quickly (notice the un-split infinitive Dad!) because people were shoving and beating each other out of the way with sticks to get to it. I got a pretty good picture with some Ifa men saying prayers and putting Ifa powder on it to ward of any evil and misfortune that might otherwise occur. It was at this point that I remembered why some people were so afraid and antagonistic to traditional religion, because I can't lie I was pretty afraid of the Masquerade and did not argue when Dele said we should get out of the way.

After a little while longer Mr. Onifade took me to another "bus" to Ife, which is really just a rickety van that squishes between 10-20 people in it. On the way he told me that he had just been called by one lady from the US who had been to all kinds of doctors to try to treat all of these seemingly unrelated helth issues she had been having before coming to him, and after he consulted Ifa and prescribed a treatment and prayer for her, she's all better. I have no idea how it worked, but Mr. Onifade said that happens to him a few times every day, especially with people from the US now because so many people are loosing jobs or are afraid of them, which had never occured to me but made sense. I just wonder how your average American hears about or decides to get in touch with an Ifa priest in Yorubaland. I guess that's the modern global village for you.

At any rate this post has been almost as long as my day in Osogbo, so I'm going to go review my interviews again, so bye for now, but remember to e-mail me and questions or thoughts because I'm sure I haven't fully explained all kinds of things
~Deji