Table Of Content

IFA DIVINATION This page intentionally left blank IFA DIVINATION Communication Between Gods and Men In West Africa WILLIAM BASCOM INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis First Midland Book Edition 1991 Copyright© 1969 ·by Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. Library of Congress catalog card number: 69-10349 Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-253-32890-8 ISBN 978-0-253-20638-l (pbk.) 10 11 12 13 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 CONTENTS Preface ix PART ONE: IFA DIVINATION Chapter I. Introduction 3 Chapter II. Previous Studies 13 Chapter III. The Apparatus of Ifa Divination and the Preliminary Invocations 26 Chapter IV. The Figures of Ifa 40 Chapter V. Specific Alternatives: Ibo and Adimu 51 Chapter VI. The Sacrifices and Medicines 60 Chapter VII. The Predictions 68 Chapter VIII. Professional Ethics 76 Chapter IX. The Diviners 81 Chapter X. The King's Diviners 91 Chapter XI. The System of Belief 103 Chapter XII. The Divination Verses 120 PART TWO: THE VERSES OF IFA Ogbe Meji (1-12), 140-162 Qy~ku- (Q)w~mrin (1), 266-268 Ogbe - (Q)y~ku (1-3), 164-170 Iwori Ogbe (1-6), 268-284 Ogbe - (I)wori (1-4), 170-180 Iwori- (Q)y~ku (1-2), 284-286 Ogbe- (E)di (1-4), 180-184 Iwori Meji (1-7), 288-308 Ogbe- (Q)bara (1-4), 184-190 Iwori Ofun (1), 310 Ogbe- (Q)kanran (1-6), 190-202 Edi Meji (1-5), 310-318 Ogbe- (I)rosun (1-5), 202-212 Edi - (Q)kanran (1-8), 318-336 Ogbe- (O)gunda (1-3), 214-220 Edi- (I)rosun (1-2), 338-340 Ogbe - (I)ka (1-3), 220-228 Qkanran Meji (1-3), 340-344 Qy~ku Ogbe (1-4), 230-232 Irosun Qbara (1), 346-350 Qy~ku Meji (1-12), 232-258 Irosun Meji (1-2), 350-354 Qy~ku- (I)wori (1-3), 258-262 Irosun Qfi~ (1-2), 354-358 Qy~ku- (E)di (1-3), 262-264 Qw~mrin Meji (1-2), 360-362 v vi Contents Qw9nrin- (I)r~t~ (1), 362-368 Q§~ - (O)tura (1), 466 Ogunda- (I)wori (1), 368-370 Q§~ Meji (1-2), 468-470 Ogunda Meji (1-2), 37Z-374 Ofun Ogbe (1-4), 470-476 Qsa- (O)gunda (1), 374-384 Ofun (I)wori (1-4), 476-482 Qsa Meji (1), 384-386 Ofun- (E)di (1-2), 482-486 Ir~t~ Qkanran (1), 386-392 Ofun - (Q)bara (1-4), 488-494 Ir~t~ - (I)rosun (1), 392-398 Ofun- (Q)kanran (1-4), 496-502 Ir~t~ - (Q)w9nrin (1), 398-404 Ofun- (I)rosun (1-5), 502-514 Irete- Qsa (1-3), 404-416 Ofun- (Q)w9nrin (1-4), 516-522 Ir~t~ - (Q)§~ (1-2), 416-428 Ofun- (O)gunda (1-6), 522-534 Otura- (Q)bara (1-4), 428-440 Ofun- (Q)sa (1-3), 534-540 Otura Irosun (1-4), 440-446 Ofun- (Q)§~ )1-4), 540-548 Oturup9n- (O)tura (1), 446-450 Ofun Meji (1-6), 548-558 Ika Meji (1-3), 450-454. Parodies (1-4), 560-562 Q§~ Ogbe (1-4), 456-466 References Cited 565 LIST OF FIGURES 1. Qp~l~, Noko, Agbigba, and Eba 9 2. Marking the Ifa Figure 41 3, Piece of Calabash Shell Marked with Qkanran Ofun 116 LIST OF TABLES 1. The Sixteen Basic Figures of Ifa 4 2. The Ifa Figures and the Deities 44 3. The Order of the Basic Ifa Figures 48 4. The Rank Order of the First Sixty-One Figures 50 5, The Choice Between Two Specific Alternatives 52 6. The Choice Between Five Specific Alternatives ;·13 7. The Five Kinds of Good and Bad Fortune 57 8. Probabilities for Two Alternatives Presented in Sequence 58 9. The Choice of Adimu 58 LIST OF PLATES (See section following page xi i) lA. Two carved heads (~la or irin) of ivory and elephant bone. lB. Two 9Prrlrr pods. 2A. A divining chain (gprrlrr) from Qyg. 2B. A divining chain from Ilara. 3. A divining bag (apo Ifa). 4A-B. Two beaded divining bags from Igana and Qyg. 5. A divining cup (agere Ifa, ajele Ifa) from Deyin. 6. A lidless divining cup. 7. A brass divining cup. B. A divining cup from ~fgn Alaye. 9. A wooden divining bowl (gpgn igrrdrr) from Ifrr. 10. A divining bowl at Igana. 11. A circular divining tray (gpgn Ifa) from Igana. 12. A rectangular divining tray from Mrrkg. 13A-B. Three divining bells (irg Ifa) from Mrrkg and Ifrr. 14. Beating the set of sixteen palm nuts between the hands. 15. Marking a figure (odu) in wood dust (iyrrrosun). 16. The divining chain (gprrlli) dangled over a penny. 17. Choosing between specific alternatives. 18. The divining chain cast on the divining bag. 19. Samuel Elufi§oye, divining for his two "wives of Ifa." 20A-B. Conclusion of the divination. 21A. Two odu containers carried in the street. 21B. An origi in front of an Ifrr compound. This page intentionally left blank PREFACE Ifa is the most respected, in many ways the most interesting, system of divination of five to ten million Yoruba in Nigeria1 and millions more of their African neighbors and their descendants in the New World. Unquestionably, the most important of the previous studies of Ifa is that of Maupoil {1943), for Dahomey. Maupoil describes initiations and oth er rituals, and ritual paraphernalia, in a detail that is not attempted here, where the primary emphasis is on the Yoruba, and not on the worship of Ifa as a deity, but on the method of divination, the manner in which it "works," and the Ifa verses that are of such fundamental importance to the entire sys tem of divination. Neither study should be regarded as definitive, if only be cause of the thousands of Ifa verses that remain to be recorded before they are forgotten. Fortunately, this work is currently being pursued at the Uni versity of Ibadan. The established Yoruba orthography is followed, with ~for C, 9 for :>, p for kp, ;; for sh, and with n representing nasalization except where it ap pears initially or betwe~n two vowels; a, e, i, o, u have continental values. In translating the verses in Part Two, I have usually taken the liberty of us ing sh instead of ;;. In transcribing the Yoruba texts I have departed from convention, for example giving "n(i)-igba-ti" as "at-time-that" in the inter linear translation rather than "nigbati" as "when." Parentheses enclose elided sounds; and hyphens join parts of Yoruba compound words and their English equivalents. When two or more English words are required to translate one Yoruba word, they are joined by colons, as in ''be:able" for "le." To avoid confusion it is important to note at the outset that If~ or lle If~ is a city and Ifa is both a method of and a deity of divination. Qni is the title of the King (Qba) of If~, and Qrunmila is another name for Ifa, the deity. The Ifa diviners are known in Yoruba as babalawo. 1. The last official Nigerian census in 1952 gave 5,079, 746 Yoruba (including 32,947 Its~kiri, a ¥oruba subgroup) out of a total population of 31,156,027. Otily gross figures have been released for the controversial 1962 census, which gave a total population of 53,200,000 for Nigeria, but with no indication of ethnic affiliation. If one can put any faith in recent statistics, the Yoruba may number 11,000,000. This estimate is reached by multiplying the percentage of Yoruba in the Regions and Provinces of Nigeria in 1952 by the population figures given in Tables 10 and 11 of the Western Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, VI (1-2), 1964: 11-12. If recent fig ures are exaggerated, as may be the case, those of the 1952 census were probably underestimated and do not allow for interim growth. One recent statement gives 10,250,000 Yoruba (West Africa, December 26, 1964: 1452).