Ọ̀rúnmìlà

The Witness Behind Ifá

First attested
the 1650sthe ọpọ́n Ifá in the Weickmann collection at Museum Ulm — in a German cabinet of curiosities by the 1650s, dated to about 1650 by Ezio Bassani, and the oldest known to survive: evidence of the practice Ọ̀rúnmìlà stands behind rather than of the name itself. Ifá's own verses, as recorded by Bascom (1969) and Abimbola (1976), place him among the primordial irúnmọlẹ̀ at Ilé-Ifẹ̀ before human beings were made — a claim to priority over history rather than a date within it, which is why no claimed year is set against it.

Ifá is the divination system and its 256 odù, and in Yoruba usage also a praise name for Ọ̀rúnmìlà himself — so English writing that treats 'Ifa' as simply the god's name, UNESCO's 2005 proclamation included, collapses a corpus of verse into a personality.

Witness to the destiny each person chose; his verses weigh conduct and press ìwà pẹ̀lẹ́, good character.

Ọ̀rúnmìlà is an òrìṣà, not the supreme being: Olódùmarè stands above him, and the praise name ìbìkejì Olódùmarè marks a rank next below him, not an equivalence, on E. Bọlaji Idowu's 1962 reading. Elérìí Ìpín, witness to destiny, names his office: he was present in òrun when each person chose an orí, and it is that choice a babaláwo is consulted to recover. The oldest surviving ọpọ́n Ifá was in Christoph Weickmann's Ulm cabinet of curiosities by the 1650s; the Ìjẹ̀ṣà-born babaláwo Remigio Herrera, sold into slavery and shipped to Cuba in the 1830s, dead there in 1905, founded one of the lineages that know Ọ̀rúnmìlà as Orula. UNESCO proclaimed Ifá a Masterpiece in November 2005. Ifá is that system and its 256 odù; Ọ̀rúnmìlà is the òrìṣà the verses quote, and Èṣù, not he, carries the ẹbọ they prescribe.

Light

His corpus is ethical literature, not fortune-telling: the verses weigh conduct, and the value they press is ìwà pẹ̀lẹ́, good character. The babaláwo claims no oracular power of his own — Bascom's point, and UNESCO's — only the odù the cast falls on and the verses he recites.

Shadow

A destiny witnessed before birth can be read as consent to whatever follows; Yoruba philosophers including Segun Gbadegesin argue that orí leaves room for agency. Initiation travels: Kamari Maxine Clarke's 2004 fieldwork followed titles, fees and pilgrims between Nigeria and African American practitioners.

Sources and verification11 sources · 2 links

Primary source

  • UNESCO, Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, 2005, Ifa Divination System, Nigeria; proclaimed 25 November 2005, inscribed on the Representative List in 2008The international designation of the system, and the conflation itself: the citation describes its subject as the figure 'Ifa or Orunmila', running the two names together in an official text.

    The word Ifa refers to the mystical figure Ifa or Orunmila, regarded by the Yoruba as the deity of wisdom and intellectual development.

Scholarship

  • E. Bọlaji Idowu, Olódùmarè: God in Yoruba Belief, 1962, LongmansIdowu's account of Olódùmarè as the supreme being, distinct from and above the òrìṣà, with Ọ̀rúnmìlà placed among the divinities — the reading on which ìbìkejì Olódùmarè names a rank next below Olódùmarè rather than equivalence to him. Idowu's systematisation has itself been contested since the 1970s as Christian monotheism read backwards.
  • William Bascom, Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West Africa, 1969, Indiana University PressThe mechanics of the practice: sixteen ikin or the ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀ chain, the sixteen principal odù combining into 256 figures, and the babaláwo as a reciter of memorised verse rather than a seer with powers of his own.
  • Wande Abimbola, Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus, 1976, Oxford University Press, IbadanIfá is a literary corpus of 256 odù, each holding many ẹsẹ transmitted orally; the corpus is what a babaláwo consults, and Ọ̀rúnmìlà is the òrìṣà whose word it carries.
  • Segun Gbadegesin, African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy and Contemporary African Realities, 1991, Peter LangThe philosophical problem inside orí and àyànmọ́ — whether a destiny chosen and witnessed before birth leaves room for agency — debated within Yoruba thought rather than imposed on it.
  • Ezio Bassani, The Ulm Opon Ifa (ca. 1650): A Model for Later Iconography, 1994, in Rowland Abiodun, Henry J. Drewal and John Pemberton III (eds.), The Yoruba Artist, Smithsonian Institution PressThe divination tray in the seventeenth-century Ulm collection of the German merchant Christoph Weickmann is dated to about 1650 and is the earliest documented ọpọ́n Ifá.
  • David H. Brown, Santería Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion, 2003, University of Chicago PressThe nineteenth-century founding lineages of Cuban Ifá and Ocha, including the Ìjẹ̀ṣà-born babaláwo Remigio Herrera, known as Adéṣínà, sold into slavery and shipped to Cuba in the 1830s, freed by mid-century and dead in 1905.
  • Kamari Maxine Clarke, Mapping Yorùbá Networks: Power and Agency in the Making of Transnational Communities, 2004, Duke University PressThe transnational circuits along which Ifá initiation, titles, fees and travelling practitioners move between Nigeria and African American communities in the United States, and the contest over who may confer authority along them.
  • Marloes Janson, Crossing Religious Boundaries: Islam, Christianity, and 'Yoruba Religion' in Lagos, Nigeria, 2021, Cambridge University Press, International African Library; chapter 5, 'Reviving Yoruba Religion'Ìjọ Ọ̀rúnmìlà Ato, a congregational Ọ̀rúnmìlà body founded in Lagos in 1920 by a Yoruba Anglican after a vision, worships with hymns, prayers and sermons modelled on mission-church and later Pentecostal forms.

The tradition itself

  • The odù of Ifá, oral corpusỌ̀rúnmìlà is Elérìí Ìpín, witness to destiny, present in òrun when each person chose an orí; the verses are recited as his testimony to that choice.

Further reading

  • Jacob K. Olupona and Rowland O. Abiodun (eds.), Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance, 2016, Indiana University Press, African Expressive CulturesA current scholarly collection on Ifá epistemology, performance and diaspora, and the best single point of entry beyond Bascom and Abimbola.

Linked entries

  • Often confused withIfá DivinationAttested

    English writing routinely uses 'Ifa' as the god's name: UNESCO's 2005 proclamation calls its subject 'the mystical figure Ifa or Orunmila'. Yoruba usage does hail Ọ̀rúnmìlà as Ifá, but Ifá also names the system and the corpus, which is what a babaláwo consults.

  • Credited withIfá DivinationTraditional

    Ifá is Ọ̀rúnmìlà's: he is Ẹlẹ́rìí ìpín, the witness present when each person chose their destiny, and the babaláwo speaks in his voice rather than his own.

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