What is Ifa?

Ifá is a West African literary divinatory and philosophical system. It originated from Ile-Ife in Nigeria from where it traveled to so many West African cultures. It can be found in the forest and savannah regions of West Africa from Ghana to Togo Benin Republic Nigeria and the Cameroons. Some of the cultures where Ifá is found in West Africa include: the Ga Ewe Fon Gun Yoruba Edo Igbo and the Bete on the borderline area between Nigeria and the Cameroons. However today Ifa is also found in the Saudi Arabian peninsula and some Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean islands. Ifá was taken to the Americas during the long years of the slave trade where it can now be found in Cuba Brazil Trinidad and Tobago Mexico Puerto Rico Jamaica and the United States of America to mention only a few.

Ifá is based on two binary orders as in the binomial theory of mathematics: the binary order of opposition and the binary order of complimentarity very much the same kind of binary order from which the computer is originated.

There are two hundred and fifty-six Odu or books of Ifá. Each Odu or book is supposed to contain eight hundred stories yielding a total of 256 multiplied by 800 which equals 204 800 stories. Each of these stories contains the experiences of the peoples of West Africa throughout the whole range of their history and mythology. In other words even though most of the peoples of West Africa were not literate they developed the ability to preserve the salient aspects of their culture and history. What is even more they developed a rigorous system for the study codification transmission and dissemination of this vast body of literature and knowledge.

It would take a child of four or five years old up to twenty to twenty-five years to graduate as a full-fledged priest of Ifá known as Babalawo (male) or Iyanifa or female priest of Ifá. The problem with Ifá is that since the introduction of Islam Christianity and western education to West Africa fewer and fewer students are turning up to study it. The core area of Ifá in West Africa is Yorubaland in Nigeria Benin Republic Togo and parts of Ghana. But alas in some of these areas there are whole towns where you can no longer find a single Babalawo or Iyanifa. This therefore is the need for us to establish a School of Ifá where this fantastic body of knowledge can be transmitted in a more orderly and systematic fashion.

Ifá is indeed the cornerstone of Yoruba culture. The Yoruba people in their millions still consult Ifá at every stage of their lives: when a child is born when a person is going to marry or when an individual or group has any problems in life. Ifá will pronounce on those problems and recommend a remedy. That remedy may involve preparation of herbal medicine or talismans. Almost invariably an ebo or offering is involved.

In the final analysis a priest or priestess of Ifá is a historian storyteller counselor and medicine man.