A recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba 0670590657

Table of contents :
Cover
Half title
Copyright
Contents
A note on the sound of Yoruba words
Preliminaries
Background and Acknowledgments
How Does Ifa Work?
I Major Odu: The First Four
1. Eji Ogbe
2. Oyeku Meji
3. Iwori Meji
4. Odi Meji
II Major Odu: The Next Twelve
5. Irosun Meji
6. Oworin Meji
7. Obara Meji
8. Okanran Meji
9. Ogunda Meji
10. Osa Meji
11. Ika Meji
12. Oturupon Meji
13. Otura Meji
14. Irete Meji
15. Oshe Meji
16. Ofun Meji
III Castings
17. i-xvi
18. xvii—xxv
IV Ifa Chants
Ifa Chants —English Version
Ifa Chants —Yoruba Version
Bibliography

Citation preview

2

A Recitation of Ifa, : Oracle of the Yoruba

Ifa, teacher of gods and men, is the oracle

of the Yoruba, an important West African people. Like I Ching, Ifa is a system of divination based on the casting of sacred objects to produce a set of signs—"hexagrams in I Ching, “odus” in Ifa. But un-

like the codified Chinese system, Ifa is an oral tradition transmitted and revealed only by its priests in recitations, each of which is unique.

This book contains one such recitation. It was given to Judith Gleason by Awotunde Aworinde, an Ifa priest in Nigeria, taped, and transcribed and translated by Mrs. Gleason in collaboration with John Olaniyi Orundipe, a Yoruba language teacher in New York. All 16 of the “major

odus’ are here, along with 25 castings (out of a possible 256) thrown on her behalf by

Aworinde. These, together with a selection of Ifa chants and Mrs. Gleason's informative and lucid introduction, notes, and

commentaries on each casting, make up

A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba.

No single recitation of this oral system of geomancy (earth-prophecy) can be definitive; yet each reveals something of the

cosmology upon which all Yoruba cults are

based. Thus A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of

the Yoruba provides an insight into the workings of one of the world’s least-known great religions, and by extension the lives and beliefs of those who subscribe to it. An evocative, learned, and major book, A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba

should command the fascination of all readers and the particular attention of folklorists and students of African history and religion, mysticism, and the occult.

A Recitation of Ifa, Oraele of the Yoruba,

te 2004 Judith Gleason with AWOTUNDE AWORINDE and JOHN OLANIYI OGUNDIPE

“eo9, GROSSMAN PUBLISHERS New York

1973

Copyright (O 19773 by Judith Gleason All rights reserved

First published in 1973 by Grossman Publishers 625 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022

Published simultaneously in Canada by

Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd.

SBN 670-59065-7

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: Printed in U.S.A. The photographs on pages 21, from the Occasional Papers of Cultural History, No. II, 1971, Yoruba Art at UCLA, by Robert

72-90356

83, 193, 329 are reprinted the UCLA Museum of Black Gods and Kings: Farris Thompson.

T'o the task

inherent in striking iron gongs;

May taut words,

loosenings, leaf-shy

cast in their essential secrecy be recalled before all living sound subsides or drowns in common hubbub; and within such intervals of concentrated

once having begun, may we continue to hear one another.

sound,

& Contents

PRELIMINARIES

Background and Acknowledgments How Does Ifa Work?

9

I Major Odu: The First Four 1. Eji Ogbe

23

2. Oyeku Meji

45

3. Iwori Meji

6:

4. Odi Meji

73

JI Major Odu: The Next Twelve 5. Irosun Meji

85

6. Oworin Meji

93

7. Obara Meji 8. Okanran Meji 9. Ogunda Meji

101 III 123

10. Osa Meji 11. Ika Meji

12. Oturupon Meji 13. Otura Meji 14. Irete Meji 15. Oshe Meji 16. Ofun Meji

131 139

145 I51 161 175 183

Contents

JII Castings 17. i-XVi 18. xvii—xxv

197 275

IV Ifa Chants Ifa Chants —English Version Ifa Chants —Yoruba Version BIBLIOGRAPHY

333 335 337

A note on the sound of Yoruba words

Yoruba is a tonal language. The marks ’ and ‘ indicate rises and falls, respectively. Although meanings are dependent upon such inflections, we are disinclined to put the reader off and have used them sparingly—in the Yoruba text of the praise songs at the end of the book and now and again in the notes where a distinction is being made between words with contrasting tonal values. As for vowel sounds: a, i, and u have “pure” or Italian values (the equivalents of ah, ee, and oo in English).

In their long forms

e and o are equivalent to ey and oh in English. Their short forms, conventionally indicated by a dot (diacritic mark) beneath the letter, are equivalent to eh (as in get, which would be spelled get in Yoruba) Yoruba).

and

aw

(as in fog,

S is pronounced

which

would

sh; it is a separate

be

spelled

fog in

letter in the Yoruba

alphabet, as is gb, which sounds deep like a fog horn. Imagine the

nonexistent word log-bow. This, in Yoruba, would be lo-gbo.

When a Yoruba word occurs for the first time it is italicized and given its correct spelling. Subsequently, this same word is anglicized. For example, the river divinity Osun is conventionally anglicized as Oshun, and so she is within the pages of this book. Obatala is usually seen without his diacritic dot, as is Yemoja without hers.

Background and Acknowledgments Ifa, teacher of gods and men, is the oracle of the Yoruba people. An

emissary of Ifa is Awotunde Aworinde of Oshogbo, Nigeria, whose

artistry has earned him the privilege of reciting the sixteen major aspects of this teaching in the King’s palace during the oracle’s an-

nual festival. Awotunde was born (less than forty years ago) through the

spiritual agency of Ifa, with an aptitude for divining inherited from both his father and grandfather. (Awo means “visibility,” “insight,” “secret.” Tunde means “comes again”; rinde, “arrives on foot.” Names like this may be bestowed as praises or titles after initiation into Ifa’s cult, but Awotunde has answered to his from the begin-

ning.) He began to study and to become ritually involved in the cult when

he was

only seven;

seventeen

years later he was

per-

mitted to enter the sacred grove. Over the years he has “stood Ifa” with distinguished

diviners in Ede,

Oyo,

Ijebu,

and

Lagos,

where

Id

arrived,

and

re-

cently he in turn has contributed his talents to the documentation program of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan. Probably his experience at the university gave him the idea of getting in touch with me. In February of 1970 I was staying in

Suzanne

nounced,

Wenger’s

house

in Oshogbo

on a quixotic pilgrimage

to the holy places

unan-

of Yoruba-

land. As she put me up then, and has continued by correspondence to put up with me,

so it is to Suzanne

Wenger,

artist, priestess

of

Obatala, woman of immense authority who has dedicated her life to the understanding,

expression, and preservation of Yoruba phi-

losophy, that I am indebted for the possibility enacted on these

pages—for which she must in no way be considered responsible. Late one night, when Suzanne had retreated to her sanctuary

in the forest, there came a knocking at the outer door. It was Awotunde, wanting, he said rather frantically, to teach me Ifa. I had

[1]

2 |

A Recitation of Ifa

never seen him before. I was astonished. “Impossible,” I said. “It would take years—I know that much—and I have to leave in a few days.” Downcast, we stood there. “Perhaps,” I ventured, “you could bring me a divining chain to take back to America. I could get to know the combinations, and then, perhaps, someday. . . . An odd sense of loss pervaded me. We greeted each other upon the lateness of the hour, and he left.

Early the next morning he was back with the chain. He had

stayed up all night cutting little pieces of calabash into counters and stringing them together with nylon cord—a toy opele. I in turn presented him with what was then no more than an idea entertained. Perhaps I could interest a publisher in a book on Ifa. Suppose John Ogundipe, a Yoruba teacher in New York, would be willing to work on this book with me. We would need advance money for a tape recorder, round-trip tickets, and a stipend for the

diviner. Subsequent earnings from the book we three would divide,

but I could not promise anything on that score. Awotunde, with the

look of a man refocusing his aspirations, said he would wait to hear from me. So we began the project. It’s a tough world for all hawkers

of the spirit.

There is a hopeful enterprise in the heart of Harlem, New York, called the Olatunji Center for African Culture where John Ogundipe had, since 1968, been lecturing on the life and language of the Yoruba. In March 1970, I stayed after class to ask him a straightforward question: “If I succeed in obtaining a grant to go back to Nigeria to collect material on Ifa, would you like to collaborate with me?” John’s answer was yes.

Four months later Awotunde and I, having asked and received

permission from the oracle itself, began taping Ifa in Oshogbo. Our sessions usually began about three in the afternoon and con-

tinued until dusk—day

after day for two and a half weeks. We

concentrated in a room with the shutters closed on the third floor

of Suzanne’s wonderful house, sitting around

a table flanked by

our two regular auditors, Laisi and Atanda. The first is a gifted little boy, son of the senior Osun priest. With his elders’ approval Laisi came because he could not resist hearing Ifa. The second, a close friend of Awotunde’s, came to keep the diviner company and to act as self-appointed interpreter. At times Atanda’s happy-go-

BACKGROUND

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

[

3

lucky, roguish nature was invaluable. He cleared the air—jollying

up, cooling down—as tempers fluctuated. From time to time he suggested I send him out for snacks of parched corn or awusi nuts.

Also present were the voices outside on the dusty street. It was the season

of

the

annual

Festival

for

the

Dead,

and

sometimes

the

street noises rose to a frenzy as an Egungun masquerader, accompanied by musicians, performed outside or even came in to visit Obatala’s sanctuary on the ground floor. We would stop recording then and peer down the stairwell. When Awotunde had completed his recitation of the sixteen

major signs of Ifa and began, as agreed, a series of random castings, the activated spirits of the dead began undeniably to influence what was being transmitted along the invisible Ifa wires.

This was the first stage. The second was up to John Ogundipe.

Pll never forget recording clear? would a genuine stretched across

the night we played back the first tape. Was the And, since Ifa has a special way of saying things, communication unroll itself upon the flat thread an ocean of incomprehensibilities? To our great

relief, the answers again were yes. But it was hard work to get it

right, and had it not been for the Oral Data Committee of the African Studies Association, John would not have had one penny for the hours and hours put in on the transcription. According to the terms of that grant-in-aid, we have deposited our tapes in the

archives of the University of Indiana.

Here is how John recalls the third phase:

When Judy suggested we should actually work side by side on the translation, I did not realize how important a method that was—enabling us to untangle knotted passages that would not have made any sense to me alone, with the literalness of the words as normally employed. We tried late evening, afternoon, mid-morning, and early morning sessions, but those proving most productive were the last-mentioned. And just as everything in life has its bright and dull moments, so there were times when our meetings were rewarded with understanding; there were also times when nothing seemed to make any sense, and we parted without saying much—as if to suggest, “Why did we get into this at all?” And of course there were moments when we were filled

41

A Recitation of Ifa with horror. Everything in the text became almost real, and it occurred to me that we were becoming involved. At such times I was able to reflect back to my late father who, though a professed, devout Christian, was considered a peculiar man in his

time. The stories I then related (as told to me by him) tended to confirm rather than allay our fears, yet convinced us of the authenticity of our materials. The experience

of working

on the Yoruba

text together

can

never be thanked away. May fate, the quality of character John shares with the patient divinity that rules his head, requite him

his love for Ifa and reward him for the modesty and consistence of his dedication to a task whose results, ironically, were programmed to disappear in the final version. History, meshing us by chance, has formed Awotunde and myself into extreme cases. Each, with

our own peculiar temperaments, are up to our ears in, yet poised

on the edge of, our respective traditions. These same influences have produced in John Olaniyi Ogundipe a mean proportional, a sensitive pivot upon whom rests the burden of what has gone before and the hope for a profound syncretic culture that could save

us all from stagnation, destruction, and an end to the earth's spir-

itual energies. Translation

finally

it is,

and,

one

might

say,

translation

is

also

what it’s all about. Every sentence in this book represents a series of transfers from one plane of perception, from one symbolic system, to another. How this particular recitation came to be so transferred into English from the Yoruba is consonant with the

contingencies of its subject matter. Offered amid all the current

confusion of the search for spiritual alternatives, our sample of Ifa’s wisdom and style is the result of chance encounters. However special they may have seemed to us in the intensity of our intercultural involvement,

these encounters

are of course

but moments

in a vast historical process that, as it destroys by secularization,

ironically makes available across the continents artistic and intellectual accomplishments of civilizations hitherto geographically

and linguistically isolated. Such prior seclusion should not be overexaggerated, however,

just because the technology of communications now renders cultural

BACKGROUND

privacy

as obsolete

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

as the racist xenophobia

[

that for so long

5

as-

sumed that until the Cross and the can opener no contact with the “outside world” existed. There have always been travelers, sales-

men, buyers, and cultural shock-absorbers. Ifa itself, as a form of geomancy (earth-prophecy), would never have developed had not contacts been maintained for centuries between the Near East and

sub-Saharan Africa.

Ifa-talk is difficult, in places inscrutable, even to someone born to the language, even when two minds are puzzling it out together. With such passages we did the best we could, then left them for later when I was to go through the entire (by now bilingual) text alone. During this final stage I hoped to be able to pull diverse

strands together—by intuition, augmented by years of nearsighted

literary analysis—to grasp what I could of Ifa’s intention, and to present the artistic unity I felt was there. Whose unity? Ifa’s? Awotunde’s? Or, perish the nagging thought, merely the translator’s, the interpreter’s? While I was at work on this preface, Suzanne Wenger wrote

from Oshogbo:

You [must] make it clear that you felt so strongly attracted by Ifa emotionally that you could not resist to recreate your experience, but that you cannot claim authenticity for the “actual” content, and that you are aware of the dangers of intellectualization of incantations or otherwise symbolical indorsements of a people’s metaphysical involvements. . . . I am certain that it has deep and true qualities, but it cannot but be only stimulated by Ifa, it cannot “be” Ifa. You are not an initiated Ifa priest and never could be because one cannot be that “part-time.” Ifa, along with

many

other

divinities

of the Yoruba,

came

to

the New World in the fetid holds of slave ships. Although this difficult art of divination tended, for obvious reasons, to fall into disuse, it was preserved in Cuba (also in Brazil) and so, thanks to the

revolution, it is actually possible to consult an exiled babalawo in

New York City. If it is extremely rare, not to say exceptional, for a woman to become an Ifa priest in the old country, it is out of the question in the Americas. When oracular evidence shows a woman to have Ifa on her mind,

the best the New-World

diviner can

do is

61

A Recitation of Ifa

to give her a small chain of green and yellow beads to wear on her

wrist

as a sign

oracular

of Ifa aptitude

divinity.

Half-chick,

and

protection

part-time,

of Ọrunmila,

the consolation

the

of philoso-

phy in everyday life. Thus armed, before attempting the final draft, I stood Ifa in

the only way available to me: vicariously, scrutinizing the work of three predecessors who, although eventually initiated into the cult,

as Westerners

perforce continue

to approach

Ifa materials with

Western minds. First I studied Bernard Maupoil’s work. His collection of odu from Dahomey was published in 1943. Then William

Bascom, whose collection from Ile Ife came out twenty-six years

later. Lastly Pierre Verger, the body of whose research on Ifa has not yet been published, but whose material on witches and medicinal leaves has been

invaluable

to me.

It is with

Maupoil,

however,

that I feel the most affinity. He was my introduction to Ifa, years ago, and although I never spoke with him when he was alive, I consider him my teacher. In addition, a pile of monographs on various aspects of Yorubiana (especially the work of R. F. Thompson) has boosted me here on top of the wall that separates eagerness from understanding. For the authenticity of the “virtual” content I take full responsibility. I have tried to put down what Awotunde communicated as honestly as I could, in my own vocabulary rather than in pseudoYoruba style. The result is another recitation superimposed upon the original. I can only hope that at the reader’s touch some of the opacity of my interpretation will give way to vision, as I in writing have tried to glimpse the true Ifa. Structurally I felt Awotunde and I could meet on common ground, and I have tried to bear out this artistic intuition, sharpening the contours I sensed as I groped, moving with him from one mode of discourse to another. Whenever his speech

became

dramatic,

I emphasized

this, counterpoint-

ing conversations. Because of the difference between ear and eye, in recapitulatory passages, since these occasionally summarize, I

took the hint, and then the liberty, of condensing still further. I cut

out repetitions referring the said. . . .” At what, not only

that look tedious written down, with a few allusions reader back to the beginning: “So the diviner these points I often varied the phraseology somebecause it is musical instinct to do so, but also to

BACKGROUND

AND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

[

7

suggest that there can, of course, be more than one way of committing Yoruba to English. Similarly, when tracking down the correct verbal equivalent became especially rough (notably when the voice on the tape withdrew into private Ifa utterance), I used the scatter-shot technique Orunmila himself sometimes uses—a series of phrases to hit one meaning (although in the case of the translation, all may well fall short). Whenever I have been thus forced to extemporize,

I have

said so in the notes.

Throughout

I have

tried,

however flat my language in comparison to the Yoruba, to keep the verbal impetus going (that wonderful energy of the spoken recitation) and, with John’s help, to do some justice to that incomparable Ifa sense of humor. Then there are the notes that follow the recitations. Those that clarify details are self-explanatory—meant to orient readers

to whom

the Yoruba scene is completely foreign. Other remarks

will inevitably be of interest only to those for whom, conversationally, they were intended—fellow students of Black culture. Upon some of the later odu I mercifully do not comment at all, letting them be, as Ifa seemed to wish it. Other times, quite the opposite. Risking the awful aridity of reduction, hoping I suppose to “convert” people with other mythological preoccupations to the idea of

Ifa, l’ve taken a syncretic approach. I’ve assumed the identity of an ideal common reader and tried to plug a few Ifa symbols into that think-box we all, at least to some extent, share. All these notes,

I admit, are untidy reflections. I intend them to be disposable. If they serve to bring Ifa closer to some,

as through

this experience

I felt I was moving closer to Ifa, then all to the good. If they alienate, don’t read them. Begging the nagging question of my own relation to the ma-

terial,

at one

point

the experience.

I asked

What

John

to write

As a child seeking education

school.

down

follows is his version

how

he

felt about

of the paradis perdu.

. . . there is the road to

As a young boy learning to be useful at home in the fam-

ily tradition, there is the road to the farm, on weekends, where

the way to knowledge means sitting around with elders whose

utterances, although repetitious, even boring, lead to a clearer

understanding of the unwritten depths of knowledge.

8 ]

A Recitation of Ifa As a young mind seeking divergence from routine. .. thousands have thus sought to divert themselves. Several other thousands have walked the roads as force of circumstance demanded that they should. Yet it was as though they never did—so little regard had they for the alertness required to justify the exercise. In the city a map has been made that guides tourists or motorists. Map in hand they must inquire of passersby, “I am trying to make my way to. . . . Am I in the right direction?” Your guess is as good as mine. Who knows less than I . .. who have always found the road to knowledge endless, just as the old saying, “No one man can completely understand the intricacies of the Yoruba language,” is becoming more and more obvious. I have learned that much. Sometimes you are not only close to something, you virtually have it, own it; but how can you care when you can't even recognize? It takes an objective visitor to wake you up. Little did I know that my first insight into a wealth of

knowledge,

mine

for the mere

was

Christianity.

asking,

presented

in various

guises and always received in my youth with divided attention, would suddenly be directly offered to me by a student of my mother tongue. Call it an irony if you like; but I say its an eye-opener, six thousand miles away from where it belongs. Don’t blame me! I was born and brought up in the Christian faith—so you know the rest! Yet, as a boy, I happened to know of something more than the Christian religion offers. It before

It is still very much

alive, working

alongside Christian doctrine, and will last as long as life does. My

sincere appreciation to that student, friend, and col-

laborator who traveled those six thousand miles to my homeland to make this edition possible. The road to knowledge is forever rough, thorny, and demanding of sacrifice and conscientiousness. Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? May you find out for yourself!

How Does Ifa Work? How,

then, does Ifa work?

Of what

truths is it made?

And in what

manner are these presented? As a writer I see Ifa as a sort of teleological memory in which all impressions that enter are given

a sense of direction, an immense imagination that has collected, reprocessed, and—always preserving the deepest resources of the

Yoruba language—invented afresh, incorporating these diverse strains of talk into a variegated verbal continuum. This heuristic literature, encoded into the numbers of a borrowed divination sys-

tem

of comparable

antiquity,

has

diffused

beyond

its Nigerian

land of origin—always picking up new ways of phrasing its wisdom—-into neighboring Dahomey, along the coast to Ghana. Taken aboard the slave ships, it somehow managed, as we have seen, to survive in Brazil, in Cuba.

Mere survival, though, means eventual reduction, degeneration to a self-important, empty numbers game. Roads and travel are alphabetical in Ifa language for salutory, pedagogical, as well as for metaphysical reasons. Unlike the I Ching, whose fixed text is available to the intelligent home-practitioner, Ifa can only be revealed through its initiates, who themselves have acquired the secret teaching bit by bit, who alone may manipulate the sacred counters. How could such a priesthood possibly thrive in isolation? Years of study imply visiting apprenticeships with experienced babalawo wherever these “elders who have insight into hidden meanings” may be found. Learning must be as continual as Ifa’s wisdom is collective; only give and take can ensure its perpetuity.

Each babalawo knows some Ifa, no one can ever know enough; and the only way Ifa can totally express itself is by going the rounds— here today, over there tomorrow, like the movable market.

It is not surprising that a simpler form of divination (with cowrie shells), which may be practiced by priests or priestesses of any of the Yoruba divinities, is culturally more prominent in the

New

World

than

in Yorubaland,

introduced, became

where

the paramount

traditional divinities (orisa) wanes,

Ifa

(a man’s

cult),

once

teacher. As the strength of the

Ifa continues ubiquitous,

at-

tracting “clients” of all persuasions including agnostics and Chris-

tians. This does not mean that babalawo are necessarily wealthy. [ 9 |

Io

|

A Recitation of Ifa

When it comes to gifts of the spirit, the worldly pay no more there than here.

In all systems of divination based, as Ifa is, upon lots rather

than upon the spontaneous pronouncements of inspired individuals, the manipulation of certain sacred (or originally sacred) objects produces a set of signs. These signs point to an equivalent set of symbolic responses to questions implicit in various human dilemmas. In more elaborate systems, the major symbols, interrelated, proliferate into constellations of images and ideas that reflect divine thought in action. At the same time they correspond to happenings in the world of appearances, which ordinary men in their blindness cannot rightly interpret. Arrows, according to Old Testament evidence, were perhaps

the first lots used in divination. One of the key Arabic words for

lot casting in general, specifically both the throwing of stones and the writing of the results upon earth, is targ, semantically related

to the sound

made

by methodically

beating

something

against

something else, applied by extension to the sound of a blacksmith at work in the forge.! Babalawo speak of “beating” the palm-nut counters they use; and Ogun, the Yoruba divinity of iron and the hunt, is, as we shall see, deeply involved in Ifa procedures and teachings. Iron gongs, indeed, are the praise drums of Ifa. The sacred lots that contain the virtual presence of the Yoruba’s oracular divinity are nuts gathered from the oil palm—opu-

lent tree of life and knowledge whose products (oil, wine, fronds

for thatch, garlands, brooms) play as central a part in the religious as in the economic life of the Yoruba people. Sixteen of these palm nuts (ovoid, about an inch long) are manipulated by the diviner to produce a “remainder” of one or two. He shakes (or beats)

them between closed palms. Then he lets them settle into his cupped

left hand, and with his right rapidly grabs from the left as a child grabs jacks. But in this game of Ifa either one or two must remain

in his palm—otherwise the operation is invalid and must be tried again. The “signs” of Ifa are made by pushing the middle finger of the right hand

(if two palm

nuts remain)

or middle

and ring

fingers (if one) upon a special wood dust sprinkled across the sur1. Toufic Fahd, (passim).

La

Divination

Arabe,

Brille,

Leiden,

1966,

Part

II, Chapt.

1

HOW

DOES

IFA

WORK?

[ II

face of a ritual tray with a carved, raised rim. Four of these single/ double shuffle-prints, the result of four valid beatings and grabbings of the counters, constitute a completed sign. Since Ifa’s signs are always read in pairs (right to left, “stronger” to Weaker' ) in order to cut down the number of valid casts from eight to one, the more “talkative” opele is commonly substituted for palm nuts. This instrument, which Awotunde used for our castings, consists of eight pieces (seed pods or metal rep-

licas of these), each with a visibly convex and concave side, strung at intervals along a chain

(four on each side, with a much

longer

interval of chain in the center).? The opele is held in the center,

balanced back and forth, then thrown down upon a cloth-covered surface so that the tips of the resulting U-shape face the diviner, who reads the concaves and convexes of the two columns as ones

and twos respectively.

Mathematically, it is not difficult to see, there are 16 possible

combinations

of odds

or evens

in

a sequence

of 4 positions;

and

since any figure may happen to be paired with any other figure (itself included), there are 256 possible derivatives of the original 16. The double signs outrank the others like aces in a deck of cards, and they too are lined up, together with their suits of derivatives, according to their ontological importance. The moment the figures are “named” they are already symbols, containers of syndromes of meaning. When like figures appear on the board this original meaning is strongly stated, reiterated; when unequal combinations occur there is a dynamic interchange (the first-born figure taking the lead) resulting in a new departure rather than a mere synopsis; for as figures they stand for, and as categories of thought they behave like, vectors.

The Yoruba call sign, symbol, and both of these in paired combination odu (connoting a big calabash). In action, odu are synon-

ymous with ona—the “roads” of Ifa. The primary odu—which the

humanistic imagination of the Yoruba endows with the awesome energy of super-personalities—in their usual pecking order are shown on pages 12-13. 2. The concave pieces are indicated by a single symbol by a double symbol ($$).

($ ), the convex

pieces

12

|

A Recitation of Ifa

4. Odi Meji

§ §§ §§ §

9. Ogunda Meji

W

§

§§ §; à §

8. Okonron

im

$$

14. Irete Meji

8 $s :$

§ $5 = §§ §

§§

8

§

= §

Meji

13. Otura Meji

S Yi Y$

$ Yi §

I have set the figures on the page this way to highlight the im-

portance of the first four as roots of the world, and the last two as

fallen from grace. What images and ideas do these markings of odd and even suggest to the student, as opposed to the practitioner of Ifa? The outsider must be extremely careful not to spatialize a dynamic process, not to categorize too abruptly—for as a means of communication nothing could be further from Ifa’s intention than closed systems. The major odu indeed seem to rule over various processes, but each figure in conjunction with another and with the life process of the consultant can produce, within certain limits, a broad range of meanings. Nor would any two interpreters speak about the odu in quite the same terms. Were I to transfix them now to give the reader a sense of direction at this prefatory stage, I'd reluctantly come up with bracketed impulses as gross as these:

1. life, 2. death, 3. impetus,

4. containment,

5. deception-

anxiety, 6. disease, 7. plenitude-excess, 8. rapidity-proliferation, 9. male aggressiveness, techne, 10. female aggressiveness, magic,

HOW

3. Iwori Meji

§§

$$

Wa $$

§§

7. Obara Meji

NI $

$

§§

$$

12. Oturupọn Meji

§§

Ṣ$Ṣ$

y SS

ri S$$

DOES

IFA

WORK?

2. Oyeku Meji

SS

$$

WN $$

§§

6 Ọwọrin Meji

WI. SS

S$

§

$

II. Ika Meji

SS

S$$

à SS

À $$

16. Ofun Meji

§§ ; §§ §

S$$ $ $$ $

[ 13

1. Eji Ogbe

S

§

§

$

"

5. Irosun Meji

W

§§

$$

10. Ọsa Meji

LL

S$$

$S

$

15. Ose Meji

§§ ; SS

§ $$ $ $$

II. blighting, 12. sacrifice, 13. word-chance, 14. earth-fate, 15. violation-putrefaction, 16. purification-transcendence. Upon reflection, these impulses appear to be paired opposites whose meanings as markings (configurations of single and double lines with significant reversals) are mirrored in their moralities. Deception (5) has the same relation to disease (6) as blighting (11)

has to sacrifice (12). Disease and sacrifice, both of which imply suffering, are authentic, necessary roads to renewal. To fall into a trap (5) is the passive equivalent of the use of magic implied by blighting (11), a peevish wickedness. However, such binaries are but the two-toned capsules in which the grains of mystery are contained. Dissolve them in dreaming. The random selection of odd or even remainders to generate sixteen signs of four dimensions each is as generic to geomancy as the writing of these signs upon the face (or simulated surface) of the earth. This oracular system, whose origins are said to reach

14

|

A Recitation of Ifa

back into Chaldean history, whose implicit ontology (elementalism and numinous numbers) is attributed to Greek the binary theme, gained enormous currency

improvisation on in the medieval

Islamic world. Probably transmitted by Arab scholars at GondéShapour and Baghdad in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., geomancy spread to Madagascar, to upper Egypt, thence to Dafour and the Black

African

kingdoms,

to the Magreb,

and

thence

to Spain,

Italy, and France To Moslem mathematicians are attributed the astonishing refinements of the systems numerical properties. In Europe the secret science was consciously correlated with astrology and alchemy. From the first of these sisters it had already, from antiquity, absorbed

the notion

of “houses,”

and

from

the second

a psychic daring along with a nomenclature Arabic-terminology-in-translation away from

meanings.

it borrowed

into which to tease culturally restricted

The categories of geomancy, naturally nomadic, adapt easily to new social and intellectual situations, finding a predetermined inheritance of signification in the classification system of the receivers. But, strangely enough, accretions of meaning cling, as if to the frames of new windows as they open upon the perpetual unseen, thus subtly shaping provincial visibilities. So, even though Ifa is a radical departure from the traditional geomantic way of conceiving fatality, traces of the old tracks remain. Ideographically the first figure in the Ifa scheme still suggests a straight road, a journey, a way, although these Arabic meanings have been, as we shall see, absorbed into a more complex sense of life-direction. The notion of houses as fixed locations, and the primacy of the

four highest ranking

figures

(Ogbe,

Oyeku,

Iwori,

and

Odi)

as

“roots,” for example, although no longer functional in the derivation of tabular readings in specific cases, have been ingeniously retained by the Yoruba diviners. They are symbols of cosmic organization (roughly: life, death, impetus, and containment).

No one knows

how

or when

the Yoruba

acquired

the geo-

mantic rudiments from which Ifa developed. Popular migrationmyths face east and north along the caravan routes by which 3.

E. Caslant, Traité Elémentaire

de Géomancie,

Vega,

Paris,

1935,

p. 169.

HOW

DOES

IFA

WORK?

[ 15

geomancy itself probably entered the forest (thereby becoming totally sacred). Scholars assume Yoruba culture to be the product

of a fusion between

invaders

(perhaps

in waves

from

different

directions) and autocthones. So it must be with Ifa. Because this system represents the reorganization of a spiritual world already elaborately in existence, one must assume Ifa came into action

some time after the arrival of the “fighting” divinities that founded the early cities. Because Ifa differs so markedly from the secular geomancy

practiced by Moslem

diviners in the same

regions, one

also assumes the palm nuts were first beaten while the procedures and the meanings of the latter were still in the process of codifica-

tion.

Words for new technological processes usually enter the lan-

guage of the receivers and stay that way. The name of the oracular divinity as a being, the prototype of the diviner-in-action, Orunmila, comes from the Arabic word for sand (ram1) upon which the signs

are written; and this same divinity, conceived as an intelligence

that speaks and teaches, Ifa itself, is derived from the Arabic word for omen (fal)—the most important omen, bird-presages, being

tyafa.* Here perhaps we have the kernel of Ifa myths about witches arriving in the world with bird-power, a gift that may originally have been divinatory, only later sorcerous. The metaphysical assumptions out of which Ifa evolved its transcendental ethical system are shared by all traditionally educated Black Africans whose forefathers perceived themselves to be part of a continuum of forces both seen and unseen, of all be-

ings including have-beens and will-agains. Man is born related to certain things, to various people including the dead whose concerns become his conscience. When cracks occur along the seams of this continuum, since they affect the entire human community, they must be mended by ritual means. Medicine, based on elective affini-

ties between plants, physiological and psychological processes, and

patterns of speech, is one way of restitution. Sacrifice, particularly the ritual slaughter of animals, releases pent-up energies (carried

in blood like the juice of leaves), activates beneficial vibrations in 4. Fahd, op. cit., Part II, Chapt. 4 (passim).

16

|

A Recitation of Ifa

the unseen world,

and heals the gap between heaven

and earth

(as does rain) or between the individual sufferer and the outraged divinity or spirit that’s eating him. Witchcraft embodies a continuous threat of perverse use of these magical affiliations. The

Yoruba

world

is, for

want

of

a better

word,

“stronger,”

more highly charged with divinity than most. Natural phenomena, ancestor-kings who lived especially intense lives, and certain virtues-at-large, having outgrown their local habitations, settle everywhere they please—behaving like authoritative super-personalities. Any one of them may suddenly assert an undisputed claim to the head of any living being—thereby permitting him to share, in exchange for veneration, a modicum of this or that directional

power.

Such,

far

too

simplistically,

was

the

situation

when

Ifa

ar-

rived on the scene. At which point the great divinities, in exchange for services of communication rendered by the oracle, allowed themselves to be put in their places and to be made predictable, though they continued to express their tendencies no matter how destructive these, to men heedless of appropriate means of recon-

ciliation, might be. Ifa taught men how to seek the beneficial as-

pects of these cosmic personalities. Only one divinity, Esu-Elegba, was allowed to continue in his unpredictability, for that’s what he is—mishap, error incarnate, ubiquitous slip-up, uncertainty, and assistant to Orunmila. In the mind of Ifa, geomancy was transformed from a passive

system of perception and avoidance to an active process of fore-

stalling calamity, of overcoming all obstacles threatening to prevent the living-out of one’s allotted span, of ensuring that one’s destiny be full to the brim of its particular possibilities for increase of well-being through wealth, women and children, reputation . . . if Ifa’s instructions be obeyed. The means of accomplishing these ends consists of sacrifice to the divinity who bestows one’s individual

fate

at the

time

of birth,

and

often

to other

divinities

as

well—placatory offerings to witches. Eshu takes the prescribed sacrifices to heaven and, since he is permitted to keep a fee, and if the client follows Ifa’s recommendations, chance is always, minimally

at least, propitiated. Sometimes,

in

addition,

medicinal

remedies

are

prescribed.

HOW

DOES

IFA

WORK?

[ 17

These are administered by the diviner himself whose training must include

acquiring

a recondite

knowledge

of spells

and

simples.

Some diviners are powerful psychotherapists who, counting on the effects

of

ritual

sacrifice

and

natural

medicaments,

are

able

to

cure those whose heads are in such confusion that they cannot function in the community, let alone prosper. The sign upon the divining board shows the complications of the situation the client is really in—the tangle of ropes behind the scenes. That is why, although divination is particularly appropriate in times of decision making, illness, crisis, and calamity, regular Ifa checkups are advisable for all men and communities—not to

foretell the future, but rather to illuminate the hidden aspects of

the present, and on the basis of these to predict and thence deflect. Which courses of conduct will prove self-destructive, ruinous? Which agencies, unknown to the client, are responsible for his con-

dition?

And

if there

released by what to changing fate. For each of ciple, 16 “rows” the common law

are imbalances,

which

energies

must

be

means to right them? All these are not equivalent

the 256 signs-in-combination there are, in prinof discourse—each of which contains a case in of Ifa. These cases, although presented as real

precedents, are intentionally paradigmatic and involve an animal,

a divinity, an exemplary king, or other special being as “client” whose situation runs parallel to that of any living person who iden-

tifies with it. The patient silently asks a question of the palm nuts.

He never speaks it aloud. The diviner, doubtless intuitively aware of the territory in which lies buried the problem under consideration,

casts

and

inscribes

the

resulting

double

to recite the first row that comes to mind, when the shoe fits, the patient puts it on.

Ideally, the sign that comes

figure,

then

then

begins

another—until,

up is itself a giveaway of the

client’s disposition with regard to the adverse influences to which he is at the moment in the position of being subjected, or the choice

he is faced with making. There being, however, a rather limited range of human predicaments, it’s the ontological context that’s crucial. For example,

the predicament of impotence

or barrenness

may be indicated by several odu. But since childlessness as a negative quality of life means different things in different perspectives,

18

|

A Recitation of Ifa

so the courses of action to be undertaken differ accordingly. Beginning with the prescribed ingredients, the medicinal remedies, the solution may proceed perhaps as far as a total reorientation of the client’s motives,

emotional biases, perceptions,

social and ritual

obligations.

Awotunde and I agreed that he would begin by reciting verses for the sixteen major (double) figures and then go on to cast and recite for the signs thus randomly presented for his consideration. But the amount of disclosure was left entirely up to him. So for each odu he gave as many rows of discourse as he saw fit, most often two or three. Sometimes the dangers inherent in certain com-

binations

forced

him

to limit his discourse;

on other

occasions

he

relaxed and expatiated; clearly some combinations were favorites of his. Every diviner knows more rows for some odu than for others. The major signs will of course be fullest—the first four brimming. Although each odu would seem to have its own style (at least such has been my experience with Awotunde’s perhaps exceptional sense of artistic organization), the order in which the verbal events are presented does not vary. Even when, as in the case of the first, Eji Ogbe, song threatens to overwhelm all else, a superstructure is discernible—the order—a fixed sequence into which various elements must fall increases the diviner’s mnemonic power and at the same time the sacramental efficacy of the recital; for Ifa, with all its rich humor, its cryptic poetry, its wanton magical punning, is essentially a literature of salvation. Each new departure begins with a salutation, aboru aboye, which is usually translated “sacrifice offered, sacrifice received, sacrifice [be] efficacious” (that is, may our worthy sacrifice suffice to pull us through, ensure our survival despite the odds that precipitated it). Discouraged by the seemingly unavoidable cumbersomeness in translation of this elegant little phrase, I sent John Ogundipe an SOS. Upon which he came up with the following comment: In every Yoruba religion there is a special greeting used exclusively

by

believers—participants

and

priests

who

worship

a

HOW

DOES

IFA

WORK?

[ 19

particular divinity. “Aboru Aboye” is the religious Ifa greet-

ing.

...

Having been impressed, as any traveler must be, by the graceful etiquette of greetings in Africa, John’s words struck home. I decided that, rather than tripping over these words, it would be better simply to translate them functionally as “greetings” or, occasionally, “greetings for the sacrifice” to remind the reader of the paramount importance of the deed in Ifa divination. Thereupon

follows

the phrase,

“It is [name

of the odu]

we

want now to praise.” Praising is a verbal activity directed towards the enhancement of being. The entire row is thus to be construed as an activation through attribution of the powers of the odu in question. Sometimes at this point a nickname for the sign is given, a pun on its official name indicative of the way it behaves—a modal premise to be validated by the story or case study that forms the main body of each row. Then, a question: “Do you see the way Ifa took to be so-called?” whose meaning, hopefully, will gradually begin to dawn upon the reader. The exemplary instance of this odu’s turning up on the board begins with the annunciation of one, or two, or perhaps a series of fanciful diviners’ names like: Palm oil gleams on the surface of the water Shiny leaves on the neck of the palm tree These are followed by the words “made Ifa for,” thenby the name of the paradigmatic client and a brief indication of what he was up to or against at the time of his consultation. (Often this personage is Orunmila himself.) Some, notably Bascom and his informants, have claimed that no special significance is to be attached to these diviners’ names. I have found, on the contrary (often later, come to think of it), an astonishing relevance. Perhaps it’s just

Awotunde’s flair, but I think it is at this point that Ifa, in the oblique

way of poetry, conveys the mood—the moral meaning as tonality — of the odu. Next the sacrificial ingredients are normally listed, their numbers being as important as the items themselves, and now and

20

|

A Recitation of Ifa

again the client is told to include a tool with which to extricate himself from his predicament. Whether he does or does not sacrifice is crucial

to the

outcome.

If he

does,

this

is the

time

when

medicinal leaves may be mentioned, rarely by name. What happened to the model client (after his sacrifice or through neglect of it) comes next—sometimes in brief, other times in the extended form of a fable, a playlet, or something like a ballad (with refrain). All of which, because of the diviner’s rhythmical intonation, the assonant language, the periodic line lengths broken in just the right places, seem to the Western ear closer to poetry or prose-poetry than to paragraphed prose sentences. Whatever happens is, of course, predicted,

and this logically

justifies a summary repetition beginning “So the babalawo said... .” This recapitulation may ease into song, the words of which,

like as not, contain the charm

said in connection with the leaves

(whether or not these were actually named). After countless repetitions (sometimes we all joined in), the song trails off into the closing salutation, same as the opening, “aboru aboye," but with a different feeling now that we've been

through that particular conjunction of circumstance vicariously.

Were we to go through them all, travel all the roads and by-

paths, we would know Ifa.

1 Major Odu: The First Four

Two words have spoken Two tasks have given themselves to me The road is open

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Good medicine stays told a certain person way back when tears of compassion refused the curse of barrenness that she should take a long-necked jar, and when her sacrifice was done go to the place where water seeps slowly, slowly until the womb is full. She sipped the dreaming water and they called her child Oshun,

generous river.

Ifa says to sacrifice is beneficial, nothing waits for nothing good. 1. The concave pieces are indicated by the symbol symbol © .

1231

, convex pieces by the

24

1

Major Odu: The First Four

Come and see my bouncing newborn baby at the foot of Lord Orisha. Wayfarers, you who are coming and going from your farms and you, setting out or returning from distant journeys, don’t you know the joy come home to me here? Ibosi, O, attention everyone,

Sing the praises of the mother of Oshun on account of her good fortune. Greetings for the sacrifice.

Greetings! Coal refuses to be black, darkness, obscurity,

stalwart elder holds the secrets of the compound made Ifa for Spread out the mat of jealousy, Ocean’s diviner; Coal won't be black darkness repels obscurity respected elder casts kola for the compound made Ifa for Spread out the mat of jealousy, Lagoon’s diviner; Coal won't let blackness happen to him, darkness wards off obscurity elder divines for his people made Ifa for Divining tray before cock crow that time they were all complaining, The good things of life have passed us by, without even pausing. “Sacrifice for good luck in this life.” And one by one they did as the diviner said. Coal refuses. .. . Wealth, wives, and children

will keep us from obscurity.

EJI

OGBE

My head is crowned with good fortune kolas wide open to the way a python’s coiled beneath the container of existence that’s where my head is; now Ifa, don’t let the mat of jealousy be spread for me. Envy’s the name we call wealth, envy the name for wives, for children; O, please, Ifa, don’t let them humiliate me,

don’t let them strip me of my good fortune.

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings.

It’s the third verse of Eji Ogbe we now want to praise; don't you see the road Ifa takes to be so-called? Right, right, right—protecol, calm, calm, calm—words of anointment,

one by one we eat groundnuts, one by one goober peas,

to each his own in his own way,

head’s thing belongs to the king, completely, nothing broken, nothing fragmentary, we give entirely to the king that he may bestow upon us liberality. Orunmila is complete, whole calabashes grow abundantly, for Ifa, the reason being that he who carves the bowl also carves the lid. At the base of the tree market sits trade moves and that’s the basis of market-tree. Eagle breaks the net, but Orunmila’s nuts are hid. When monkey’s rear end starts to itch he rubs it rough against a tree.

[ 25

26

|

Major Odu: The First Four

Orunmila, it is he

who plays this game for good luck

and when he plays it again this time next year

they'll give him the gift

of a new worshiper.

Diviner for bull-roarer goes to the Ocean,

casts his net in the Lagoon; home from Lagoon, back from the Sea,

you will take the oath, eat rat, eat fish. You who are seated comfortably, come to my aid, come quickly, and your morning prayer must be this one, early, that one, early; watch out, be careful where you throw that water,

you might wipe out a favorable signification;

Good women in the king’s harem we call wealth made Ifa for I praise the dawn,

mother of two I shall sustain I shall endure

Ifa, I Ifa, I Ifa, I Ifa, I With I I I I

wake to greet you in the morning, wake to greet you in my regalia, wake to greet you with the entire army, wake to greet you with my six titles, six retainers. my good character I greet him most worthy of honor; greet the divinity of the white cloth, greet the master of the sacrificial knife, greet house where I live, greet road

EJI

OGBE

and, finally, open space who is big enough to take everything upon his chest. Ifa, such is my awakening. Diviner of birds and travelers,

diviner of thoughts and avoidances, Clothe the image of Elegba, O,

Obalufon is worthy of honor, O, made Ifa for far-out Farm, —-

made Ifa for domestic Animal. Told to sacrifice, neither did, both dead.

Fingernail sacrificed for breaking pepper,

Jaw sacrificed for chewing kola,

and these old codgers both outlived themselves.

The way to Ife leads down easy street, I ran to hide, but my head wouldn't let me,

I tried not to meet people,

but my head refused the side streets,

Death got everyone but the seed of creeper shrub, Agbärin, made Ifa for Earth, aspiring skyward. Sacrifice, sacrifice they said. Scurry down the hidden track, slash him to ribbons, slash him to ribbons;

stealthily, stealthily;

my head wouldn't help me made Ifa for Mat— you can’t flatten me out.

Sacrifice, they said. Only Agbarin . . . creeps to longevity made Ifa for Throne,

ambitious for exulted position.

Ran to the thicket, thorns won’t hide me,

Only Agbarin made Ifa for King and the crown on his head,

[ 27

28

1

Major Odu: The First Four

Can't top me; Sacrifice, they said.

Wherever I turn, wherever I twist.

Stealthily Made Ifa On top of Sacrifice,

. . .

outruns death. . . . for Fly— the world I'll alight with sticky feet, they said.

Elder vine shuffles toward death. . .. Down these mean streets with no end. . . .

Made Ifa for very thin Wind aspiring upwards. Sacrifice, they said, blow it, they said,

way out

riff

he did and with the secret assistance of his diviner, air wins;

highest being in the world, air sings

Eji Ogbe’s praises:

First thing we wake to see

is Eji Ogbe our king. He comes

first thing awake and sing open wide, breathe him

rising east awake and see Alafia

health peace.

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings.

Sacrifice for longevity, King of the sweet journey, blessings upon you, may we live another year;

EJI

OGBE

[ 29

and if next year comes ’round again, we will celebrate, saying, King of the sweet journey, blessings. . . . Let us call him. Call whom? Call this thin tree who will live to become full-leaved, hanyin,

Shortcut who is going to become a highway, who made Ifa for He who cuts the first swathe. They say it’s time for him to die, but he says, the bad news hasn’t reached me yet, call Oyeku Meji. Oyeku Meji says, it’s not my turn, better Iwori Meji. Iwori Meji says, Odi Meji’s time is up, try him. Odi Meji says, I defer to Irosun Meji; Irosun Meji says, not me, you mean Oworin Meji. Oworin Meji says, sorry, wrong number, dial Obara Meji. Obara Meji says, my line is busy, try Ogunda Meiji. Ogunda Meji says, out of order, call Osa Meji; Osa Meji says, I'm all tied up, Ika Meji’s free. Ika Meji says, youve mistaken me for my next door neighbor;

Oturupon Meji says, can t pay now, Otura Meji s my guaranty. Otura Meji says, who me? I’m leaving town, try number fourteen;

Irete Meji says, collect all back rent from Oshe Meji; Oshe Meji says, out to lunch, apply next door; Ofun Meji says, youve come to the right place, but you're bugging the wrong person, Oshe Tura must go before to carry my luggage. Now Oshe Tura has two thousand diviners to mark the road signs for him, one to perform the sacrifice,

two thousand chances of avoiding death and one to prepare the medicine, which means he must have recourse to the animal kingdom. It is I upon whom the task has fallen of finding the one to relieve me of this heavy death; goat, please take my place,

let me free so that next year, you will all see me again, and we will celebrate, saying,

30

|

Major Odu: The First Four

blessings upon you, king of the sweet journey: Sacrifice for immortality is what the diviner is doing. Let us call Ifa now,

recalling vulture’s flight to heaven,

my eyes are torturing me made Ifa for Freshness within kola, hidden droplets of dew,

wife of Orunmila. Come and sit down,

you must sacrifice, ancient mother, they said.

So she sat down and made a sacrifice to death—

rat, fish, and cold water. She did not die, she. . . . Live to see the diviner, this time, next year Water drags sands, gerere,

water has no legs

water has no hands along the slope of riverbend water drags sands, gerere saying over, over again,

my life will never end, water drags sands, gerere no legs no hands. . . the meaning has finally gripped me! Ahhhhh, this time next year we'll celebrate again,

Ehhhhh, this time next year we'll celebrate again, Ohhhhh, Orunmila, this recurrent anniversary. Let us call him, halooooo,

. . .

Needle’s eye has no sleepy winkers, hanyin Path to the privy can’t accommodate a lorry, hanyin who made Ifa for Orunmila on the day he was going to swear an oath behind the house with the spirits of the dead.

EJI

OGBE

May there be no more death, may there be no betrayal,

my affair concerns my creator, sacrifice for longevity— that’s what the diviner is doing. Listen to what I am going to say, hanyin Let us call up husband of a wife tomorrow, if he lives

white cloths crowd round me within the month, alternative if he dies. They say, our child is valuable as brass, hanyin

So our child doesn’t have a shiny black bottom, we should be tying beads on another child’s waist?

Our own is ours to love, heaven forbid

made Ifa for the Red-complexioned commander on a hill where iron is rooted the day when death and disease struck home as aresult of which death failed to recognize him, disease didn’t touch primordial mud, loss stayed away from the dark-complexioned champion of an old divinity. No more, enough’s enough, never again stop, plug-up Sacrifice for immortality— that’s what the diviner is doing.

Ye ye ye, child of Orunmila, listen to what’s coming now

whereby asaresult... Fold folk into a lump stuff in a jug cover with dust made Ifa for Weather vane who shifted the wind to defeat his enemies. It’s all right, come on in, be seated, give. Tightly, tightly Ifa nails the head of the enemy, pounds it to a tree with blacksmith’s hammer,

[ 31

32

|

Major Odu: The First Four

Ponderous encounter with the comfortably robed who steadily, steadily weathers his troubles may we may our may we through

not die a sudden death feet be placed correctly find our way the underbrush

Listen, I will give you the meaning:

Ye ye ye, child of Orunmila, first let us call Ifa

that Ifa may hear;

then let us call palm, that palm may know; let us call the two thousand and one divinities,

may they hear us in heaven; for whoever says we surely die salt shall lose its savour palm oil in his hands turn water should he pass by the river, current, carry him away for whoever is struggling has no time for dying. You, children of all the divinities,

let us call him, Eji Ogbe, the one who attends. So so so is how a hoe is made So so so goes the forging of a cutlass not so the wizard who would make hoe, forge cutlass but didn’t know to bring the haft from heaven.

Help-me-take-up-my-load is whole earth’s diviner,

Help-me-to-put-it-down, diviner for hallway

made Ifa for Orunmila, healer of all diseases.

Ifa, please don’t let me be born to them for whom hunters scour the forest; So so so is the sound of the hoe blow-on-the-coals for cutlass

EJI

OGBE

wizard didn’t know the haft is from heaven Help me to take it up whole earth’s diviner Help me to put it down my destiny in the corridor made Ifa for Orunmila who holds all remedies. Let me not come to earth in the form of a bird,

please Orunmila, boys go to bush to throw stones, So so so Help me take it up Help me put it down

Ifa, please, please, Let me not come down as a child of mat,

people beat the delicate fibers. So so so matchete Ho ho ho handle take up, put down

He said he was going to be palm nut’s child— from buying and selling there’s no hiding place for palm nut people, so please Orunmila, don’t make that morning magic for me. Out of the fire onto the anvil | He says he would come to earth as a spirit enlivening hilltop, swamp, or tree;

and I say thank you, father, well done, death never kills children of spirits

disease never smites them— Sacrifice for immortality that’s what the diviner is doing.

The first thing we wake to see is Eji Ogbe our king; See him proceeding on his way

[

33

Major Odu: The First Four

34 1

in the freshness of the morning. This is the explanation of your immortality— good guardian angel

forehead king.

[ENCORE] Greetings for the sacrifice!

Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Orunmila says, Acquitted— proceed joyfully to a high position on the outermost fortifications I say, Ifa, mine is the short-run

to the near-distant Osumare, rainbow messenger, divines for the power of lead Good woodcock, carry my voice to the sea Gray parrot, carry speech to Lagoon Log of wood, carry my voice to Qyo Honor’s clad in long prosperity, Orunmila’s diviner,

made Ifa for Him on the day some said, There’s nobody can make Ifa for a man if he has not plenty of money. Others said, Of course there is.

Tell us his name. Road, they said,

road we take to the sea road that goes to Lagoon Road made Ifa for Orunmila. By the time the following year came round, Orunmila was blessed with plenty of money, and he said,

Provided it stays with me, I'll praise Honor with respect to my fortune. Ifa, mine is the short race

to a commanding position Oshumare sees the secrets of lead

Blue touraco, take my voice to Ocean,

EJI

OGBE

Gray parrot, carry speech to Lagoon Great canopied tree, let my voice reach as far as Oyo To honor belongs continued prosperity made Ifa for Orunmila on the day someone said, There’s no one in this land can make Ifa for the purpose of wiving. O, yes there is. Name please. Call it, call them: Secret recess, Dark corner,

Plume who made Ifa for Orunmila. And when the year came round again, he celebrated with several, saying, If I don’t lose these new women of mine,

Pll sing praises to you, Hidden corner. Short-run near-distant Rainbow-serpent brings riches

Gray parrot chatters

Lagoon makes answer Who can concoct for a flock of children? Cold bathroom,

son of the one who eats snail through her ass, that’s who made Ifa for Orunmila. If these new children continue to live,

Pll praise my diviner again next year, said increasing Orunmila. Who in all this land can make Ifa for the acquisition of horses?

[ 35

36

1

Major Odu: The First Four

Tall peg can tether them, somebody said.

If these horses stay put,

sing praises to stalwart diviner.

Who in all this land can make good medicine for house building? Four corners can,

Four corners did. The following year an entire compound rose around him with an audience room to accommodate crowds of well-wishers.

If center post holds,

TITI praise you too, Four corners, this time, next year. Mine is the race, Oshumare, mine the voice,

Feathered emissaries,

to honor belongs

prosperity.

Who can bring me all the good things of life? Owner of road goes his own way, who owns the path inherits the place Road of interminable memory made Ifa for Orunmila. What road brings, night may carry away, may all good things remain with me! Come everybody, travelers suppliants

slaves join me on the road, come, share my good luck with me.

Sacrifice, be efficacious, Greetings!

EJI

OGBE

[ 37

Da We have consulted Eji Ogbe,

may the way of death not open for usi?

Eji Ogbe is the sign of life—a vigorous awakening, moral daybreak

revealing

the emergent

contours

of social organization,

personal

awareness penetrating adversity to take in distant prospects of ful-

fillment. The first odu, as chief, expresses the principle of seniority

upon which traditional social relations are based,’ a principle affirmed in the beginning—then reasserted with a certain stridency somewhat at variance with Eji Ogbe’s otherwise dignified utterance. Order, coming into being, measures, limits, defies the dark inchoate; to continue, to succeed,

this new principle must play a

kind of cosmological politics—winning through concessions made to the opposition. Yoruba stories about beginnings speak of usurpation,

violation of nascent seniorities followed by the reestablishment of prior tendencies—with a difference. And so unstable are original conditions that it’s difficult to say who (or what) had precedence before being tendentially superseded. The stories refer to events in three areas of being: there is a mythology of the odu themselves, expressive of their interrelationships; then there are the myths

of

the orisha, a fluid polytheodicy from which Ifa borrows when the occasion suits; and finally, there are legends of the founding of Yoruba civilization in which the orisha participate as remote ancestors. Accordingly, in the realm of the odu, some say that Oyeku Meji took his elder’s place on earth, as a result of which Eji Ogbe, who had reigned over the unknown, suddenly jolted into action, ordered all existing creatures killed, banished Oyeku Meji to rule over them in a newly

created Kingdom

of the Dead,

and

took life’s

highroad for himself. Others say that Day was brought to earth by Eji Ogbe who, taking his incompetent elder brother’s place, rele2. The invocations, as opposed to the epigraphs, are traditional. My source for them was Bernard Maupoil, La Géomancie à l’Ancienne Côte des Esclaves, Travaux

et Mémoires

de l’Institut d’Ethnologie, XLII

(1943), pp. 425-

429. 3. See William R. Bascom, “The Principle of Seniority in the Social Structure

of the Yoruba,” American Anthropologist, XLIV, 1, pp. 37—46. 4. Bernard Maupoil, La Géomancie à l’Ancienne Côte des Esclaves, et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie, XLII (1943), p. 450.

Travaux

38

1

Major Odu: The First Four

gated Oyeku Meji to the Kingdom of Darkness.5 Those who know the history of the orisha tell us that the world was colonized down-

wards

from

heaven

senior (Obatala)

by

an

aggressive

younger

slept drunkenly.$ Legends

brother

while

his

of the establishment

of Ile Ife, the original Yoruba city, link the preceding myth to a struggle between indigenous “owners of the earth” and intruders from “the east.” The pattern is the same. Alternativeness, perceived in the course of being, was built into the character of the odu from the beginning, all linkages in Ifa implying their own loosenings. The orisha, however, no matter how paradoxical the dynamics of their personalities, are constants. Separable attributes of these divinities are, as it were, detached and brought in as witnesses speaking to the point Ifa wishes to make, thus temporarily becoming coefficients

of odu equations. And, by reciprocal agreement, the odu are tuned

to certain frequencies that enable orisha to communicate through them to human beings. In essence, odu and orisha are independent conceptions, agencies cooperating for their mutual benefit. But sometimes the structure of their personalities is so similar that the moment they overlap they seem on the same plane, identical. Thus Ogun, god of iron, has impressed his very name upon the ninth odu, and Obatala,

the “white” orisha,

and

Ofun,

share the same fate, partake of the same mystery. These

two

divinities

have,

of course,

other

the sixteenth roles

to play

odu, and

words to speak in different odu—especially in the first two where,

as we have seen, Obatala’s history parallels Oyeku Meji s. Both were dishonored and displaced. In Obatala’s case, suffering was refined into a sublime patience that became the basis of a new, awesome seniority among the divinities. Obatala is an artist, the creator who

forms the child in the womb; Oyeku Meji is death (the destroyer tuned to the frequency of Babaluaye), but his relation to Obatala can again be seen at the final stage of life’s process—dissolution and return, rebirth, the seniority of the dead

guardian spirits. Oyeku’s way 5.

Ibid., pp. 560-561.

6. For an extended

is called treatment

“crooked,”

as Egun,

meaning

of this story in English

both

as ancestral

devious

see Judith

Orisha: The Gods of Yorubaland, Atheneum, New York, 1971.

and

Gleason,

EJI

OGBE

[ 39

circular. Obatala's way is a purified version of this, being digressive, eventual, the way of acceptance. It is Eji Ogbe whose way is straight. Indeed he is “roadness” personified, as is Ogun, the divin-

ity who always goes before the others with his machete. But Eji Ogbe’s road leads beyond pioneering and driving, beyond means

to mighty ends; it is, among other things, the via of geomantic tra-

dition.

Facing east, revolving with the rising sun, moving through the darkness of ignorance to the plane of experience, Eji Ogbe’s road, as the essence of alignment, is the still point through which all the opposites pass. His raw material is neither iron (Ogun) nor

lead

(Obatala),

but atmosphere—which

is why

he occasionally

calls upon that element’s more turbulent aspects (Shango) to whip dissenters into shape. It is the rising air mass that best expresses Eji Ogbe’s buoyant temper. His is the primary biological function

of breathing. Anatomically Eji Ogbe properly rules the head, a synechdoche, as anyone familiar with African sculpture knows, for spiritual

strength. Sculptured heads are oversize, with quiet generalized features, to suggest the link between individuals generically con-

ceived and the pervasive energy of being. One’s head provides access to possession by divinity, but is also worshiped in its own right

as the seat of two aspects of the living human soul: individual des-

tiny,

allocated before

birth,

and

the

ancestral

guardian

spirit who

has opted to reexpress his being through a particular inheritor. The principle

him,

is

manifested as breath. Eji Ogbe, speaking of all three moments

of

life

in

man,

however,

that

which

animates

of

personality, becomes in turn spokesman for Olodumare, the remote divinity who

gives breath, bestows destiny,

and is responsible

for

the cycle of reincarnation. Mythologically conceived as child of Ere, the eternal python (ouroboros) who brought the world-egg into existence, Olodumare, emerging first, is considered the “owner” of Odu—the egg qua container of the secret principles of life. Odu (whose name might be translated as “bigness, holder of

striving”) is encountered at various levels of contemplative experience. She is sometimes personified as the mother or wife of Orun-

mila—an

identification suggesting a synthesis of chthonic forces

with which cool intelligence must come to terms, the inner core of

4o

1

Major Odu: The First Four

what one must know in order to opine correctly. The verses of Eji Ogbe also refer to Oduduwa, an extension of the previous concept to include that of existence—Odu

lives! Oduduwa,

in some

Yoruba

myths, is feminine, the divinity of the earth, Obatala’s consort (together they form a closed calabash). But here Ifa sometimes aligns itself with another group of myths in which Oduduwa is a male divinity, or hero, he who in founding a kingdom of this world took Obatala’s place and drove him out of Ile Ife.

According

to stories from

Ife, Oduduwa

came

down

from

heaven with a packet of black earth and iron. (Again the ambiguity of priorities!) They say he was red-complexioned and that he and Ogun (who as orisha of the forge knows blackness better

than anyone) jointly fathered a son who was born half black, half

red. The mother was a captive forest dweller, an autochthon.

The

strange-complexioned son became in his turn a famous conqueror’

with whom the traditions of a rival city, Oyo, associate creation of the world. They say that an indigenous chief of Ife, infuriated by conquering Oduduwa’s arrogance, made the warrior’s daughter sick, promising to heal her only if the intruder came to terms with

the local forest divinities.’ Again the pattern is the same:

entering

history as a process of conquest through assimilation of which all great civilizations, so born, retain recollected guilt and corresponding rituals of forgiveness; entering individual psychology as the punitive force of the male dead contained within the regenerative earth; entering cosmology as a “quarrel” between earth and sky for which,

interestingly

enough,

the

former

is held

accountable.

Ac-

cording to Ifa’s version of the rift, earth’s atonement, which secured

sky’s withheld benefits again, was the head of a rat—carried up to

the heavens

by

a vulture.

(Dried

fish is rat’s sacramental

twin,

earth and water being simultaneously the “other half” of complete being.)

Culture placates earth; earth’s placation of sky is domineer-

ing intellects requirement. Male chauvinism, yes; but men make a pact with the earth when they swear eternal friendship.

7. Pierre Verger, Notes sur le Culte des Orisa et Vodun a Bahia, la Baie de Tous les Saints, au Brésil et à l’Ancienne Cotes des Esclaves en Afrique, Mémoires de l'Institut Français d’Afrique Noire, LI (1957), p. 443. 8. E. Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare, God in Yoruba Belief, Praeger, New York,

1963, pp. 23-24.

EJI

OGBE

[ 41

Earth’s pact with sky is customarily announced ginning” as the first verse of the first major odu?:

“in the be-

Orunmila says it is bit by bit I say it is little by little

we should eat the head of the rat slowly, bit by bit, the head of the fish to be eaten. . . .1°

Thus the Ifa initiate assumes the part of the sky, with humility, establishing the primacy of moderation as both an intellectual and a moral virtue. The ancient pact, this act of recognition, judicious and deliberate homage to the immoderate, must be continually renewed by the man who in Eji Ogbe’s sense would be victor. For despite earth’s initial surrender,

the adversative forces associated

with this darker power continue to operate. Nor would anything like perpetual subjection be desirable. Rather, hers, like the Erinyes’, is a strengthening threat to be indulged as well as limited. To this end secret societies like Gelede, Ogboni, and Oro have

been immemorially

operative

among

the Yoruba—bound

to the

earth in her various aspects, tapping her energies to prevent their uncontrolled, hostile expression. These societies harness the forces

of earth to check the tyrannical tendencies of rulers, to reinforce the loyalties of the kinship system, to adjudicate violations involving the profanation of the earth by bloodshed or the breaking of sacred oaths, and to punish the guilty—importantly including those who defy the moral and social order that has thwarted them by turning to the practice of witchcraft. (To us it seems strange that the energizing claims of the unconscious should be thus viewed juridically. Ancestors operate as superegos, keeping the individual on the right track, but the earth-matrix also punishes. At every turn assertive consciousness is called upon to evoke and sacrifice, to generate new psychic energy which, in freeing the individual ego from “check,”

at the same

time recharges

all the potentially

9. Awotunde did not observe this precedent.

opposing

10. William Bascom, Ifa Divination, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1969, pp. 140-141. His Yoruba; my rearrangement of the English

words on the page to suit the format of these recitations.

42

1

Major Odu: The First Four

pieces on the board. When witchcraft is hounded down and pun-

ished by ancestral vengeance, earth is forced to short-circuit, sacri-

fice its own queen. )

The eery voice of the bull-roarer, avatar of the Oro society, which taps the avenging powers of the ancestors, resonates in Eji Ogbe’s verses because the health and prosperity that this odu prom-

ises are constantly threatened by the evil forces of this world—by

slanderers, humiliators, most especially by witches (Oro’s most hated victims). Their dark, envious energy may indeed be seen as a positive check upon ignoble aspects of pride, male dominance, avarice, and mad aggressiveness. This threat is felt by the fortunate as well as the down-and-out with an intensity often verging on paranoia.!! Health and prosperity may be maintained only through the exercise of pious caution, continued reconciliation, and transference of evil to a consecrated animal so that life may flow down a clean path with unrestricted élan.!” The first section of the recitation refers in an indirect way to the birth of Orunmila whose mother was Oshun, daughter of the king of renewal.!? The healing properties of the river’s source are those

of the future river-goddess herself to whom women turn for children. As we pored over the transcription that first evening it seemed to us that Eji Ogbe was telling of the slow, slow process of absorbing Ifa’s wisdom. The second section expresses the will to overcome adversity.

Because Orunmila was present at the receiving of individual destiny, he knows how a bad life can be avoided—if indeed a decent one was intended.

This is the irony, the inescapable

irony of the

II. For sensitive insights into witches see Ulli Beier, “Gelede Masks,” Odu, VI (1956). Also see T. Adeoye Lambo, “The Role of Cultural Factors in Paranoid Psychosis Among the Yoruba Tribe,” Journal of Mental Science, CI,

423 (1955).

12. Raymond Prince, Ifa, Yoruba Divination and Sacrifice, Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, 1963. 13. E. M. McClelland, “The Significance of Number in the Odu of Ifa,” in “Two Studies of Yoruba Divination,” Africa, XXXVI (1966). I have somewhere read that Oshun, mother of Orunmila, was not the river but a famous

witch of that name.

has a right to certain a babalawo.

Both identifications are simultaneously “secrets.”

One

of her daughters

is the

possible. Oshun proper

wife

for

EJI oracle.

Coal

is after

all black;

OGBE but

[ 43

need

darkness

be

obscure?

Ifa

must assume the contrary. The third section consists of an old chant for the procuring

of a chieftainship.’* The necessity for gifts to be given whole so the

king can eat them bit by bit within the sacred confines of the palace, so that he may, if he chooses, sacrifice them in the same manner, leads to an abstract consideration of hidden wholeness in the

context of Ifa’s ritual and mythology. Rat and fish recall the pact;

they remain secret ingredients of all initiations. Lagoon and Ocean both are and are not as far away as they seem. In Ife town these

generic names are given to small bodies of water taken to be the

quintessence

of these water-forces,

water

divinities,

vast reservoirs

of multiple beginnings. The morning prayer is still said facing east by all for whom the Yoruba religion is a living reality. The verses conclude with a humorous ballad on the acquisition of chieftaincy.

Part four contains a litany of the major signs including Ose Tura who, because of his special role in the system, is always

named out of order, directly after the 16 major odu. He is the messenger for all 256; it is he who brings the appropriate sacrifices to heaven. Elegba, the ubiquitous orisha, plays this role vis-a-vis Olo-

dumare

and

the human

community;

it is in this capacity

that

Elegba is bound to Orunmila. But Oshe Tura is not Elegba in person; Elegba “speaks” more strongly in certain other combinations.

Oshe Tura is the conjunction

of Otura,

master

of tongues

(of

speaking, communication ) with Oshe, a dangerous earth-sign redo-

lent of putrefaction, dismembering,

and the horror of incest. To

the fugitive from death, a wild regressive trajectory to earth seems

the only escape from dissolution. Illusory, but, at the threshold of

annihilation, earth which refuses to be violated together with the will which insists on preservation through transformation at any

price produce an image of vitality that can be sacrificed for both their sakes.

animal.

Thus

The narrative

Oshe

Tura,

when

at this point turns

pressed,

comes

to reflect once

up

with

more

an

upon

Odu, Orunmila’s mother/wife who, aging, performed at his insistence

a sacrifice

to hide

and

keep

her

powers,

for initiated

use, in

a special container upon which her name devolved. Odu, the aged

14.

Maupoil, op. cit., p. 440.

44 1

Major Odu: The First Four

woman, is always spoken of as blind or as having weak eyes. This condition, usually said to be the result of punishment by her consort, suits her state of being. She is blind as a bat, or a mole in the earth—blind as libidinal energy. The Yoruba word for civilization is “open-eyed.” Odu is Our Lady of the Discontents. Road four concludes with a beautiful song of pure, blind, featureless existence. The fifth section, last of the true sequence, speaks of Ogun as well as of Olodumare

and Oshumare.

As we have seen,

Odu-

duwa’s pact with the earth involves Ogun; in this instance the forging of tools is an analogue for the getting-together of the human personality on the brink of birth. Oshumare, the rainbow serpent who brings rain, also brings good fortune, is the bridge between heaven and earth, the divine counterpart of breath, the moving principle of all life, that which animates it. The litany of petitions against various difficult incarnations is a humorous way of expressing the real poignancy of existence. The woodland spirit is, in its final phase, free.

The Encore came about atypically. After Awotunde had finished his recitation of the sixteen major signs, I asked him if he would be good enough to give me one more of Eji Ogbe. I felt I had missed something. He gladly complied in an unexpected way —with a rousing ballad on the theme of the road to riches. When a client sees Eji Ogbe on the board as the first sign of his consultation, he must pay the diviner extra.

DA

2

&

Oyeku Meji

We are composed of flesh and death; Turn and return, father of transformations.

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Whoever clings to walls of clay house from which roof May come along now. Hid-in-the-hinterland built the where shimmering fish You who have promises to keep come along, it’s time to

has rotted away place scales shield the heat be going.

Whoever’s acquainted with Apa’s chief,

calls the killer respectfully (come along with me)

Shrouded visitor. Let us call Him now,

importantly, importantly,

Let us call the diviner of Pounded Yam’s child, lots of it, lots of it,

Let us call him the day the children of the world were saying, over and over, insisting on it,

[ 45 ]

46

1

Major Odu: The First Four

“Death is boasting he'll kill Secret-eats-yam-flour”; but death cannot kill Secret-eats-yam-flour again, and the mouths of the people of the world were silent. All the trees, boasting that they can kill Secret-eats-yam-flour, cannot perceive that wanderers will clear the forest, burn the boasters. Firmly, firmly nailed the head to the tree, Ifa nailed

the head of the hostage, firmly. Let us consider the case of Mute Medicine— we broke all those leaves and nothing spoke above a whisper;

We cut so much grass,

and there was nothing to roof with it,

nothing,

Who set things right for Honor-the-chief of the Egba people in the house of the Alake of Abeokuta. Someone has turned his house into a marketplace of secrets.

Shrieking owlets congregate in the backyard; Ifa will turn this rookery into a refuge. Someone has built an altar behind— swarming children hidden in the cave of Here’s-an-end-to-their-wanderings.

We have sacrificed, Greetings.

Greetings for the sacrifice!

This is the second part of Oyeku Meji.

Let us consider the case of Eri the oil-nut tree, Eri breaks, hanyin Eri bears, hanyin

Eri wakes up early burgeoning,

Who cast Ifa for Orunmila

When he was going to marry Rebellious sleep. Eri breaks, hanyin Eri bears, hanyin

OYEKU

MEJI

[ 47

I am going to be married in the morning, o, Head carries the child’s prosperity, e, heavily carries prosperity, hanyin. Let us consider the case of Short stick shaken to brush away dew, Two feet on the narrow path compete,

gborogan, gborogan

Who cast Ifa for Marry-me-or-bury-me-on-the-day-my-cloths-areready when They were returning to the world from heaven, stealthily, forboding. Now just sit down quietly, Calico;

all you have to do is sacrifice and they won't take you along. Calico scurried to see what she could find. Palm provides everything you need, Calico. Softly she made the correct appeasement.

Now red cloths won’t follow the dead to heaven;

Sacrifice for longevity, that’s what the diviner is doing.

Be careful, don’t touch,

Sacrifice for immunity;

that’s what the diviner is doing.

Let us consider the case of Clod— watch your words, you can't retract them; clods break on the ground and Farm hut stands guard, never catches a thief— our name for spotted hyena, Who made Ifa for Alapa, the survivor, child of Greet-the-diviner. Who won't recognize those pitted walls will never walk bent over,

The owner of a murderous title,

is Alapa, our shrouded visitor. Would you live to walk bent over? Brave words are inappropriate, coward. Consider antelope, Who-lacks-beauty-lacks-valor.

48

1

Major Odu: The First Four

She used a smith’s tool as charm against hunter.

Hammer's child on her neck

wore gradually down to a needle,

and the needle ate itself thinner and thinner and. .

Bold is the hero’s song! Sacrifice for longevity,

that’s what the diviner is doing, Sacrifice for survival.

Eri breaks, Eri bears,

Eri’s crown is leafy, I’m going to be married in the morning, 000000 Old potency, eeeeee, child of Orunmila,

Ifa said he would support me. Let us consider Reddish aspect of brass makes it appear like fire,

Who made Ifa for It-dawns,

another aspect of blackness

from heaven will shine forth into the world like the king of lightning. Plantain coming into the world with implicit children:

It is from heaven I have brought my calabash of prosperity. Head carries the child’s sweet ripening. Let us consider Foam on palm wine stopped up at the neck Who made Ifa for Elder endlessly picking— insanity, insanity;

Swarming insects up to the brim Made Ifa for Elder whose feet carried him round and round withershins

. .

OYEKU

MEJI

Stupefied head, spin, Made Ifa for Elder whose occiput was so thin his rearview clouded agitation, agitation, hanyin

Black death rubs itself with black palmade, Red death with camwood; if you don’t know how to anoint correctly, yourself exposed to the sunset. They said, Kill the cripple and make of him a rope to tie hunchback, hanyin They said, Kill the hunchback and make of him a rope to bind cripple, hanyin Coward’s son, hearing these commands,

felt his heart beat, pokan, pokan

Elder, would-be man of valor, must not stutter like a coward, hanyin Elder coward,

mustn't swagger, hanyin Elder ghost’s potion silences bull-roarer, hanyin Our king won't order some woman to strip then turn his back and dismiss her,

Words like this, words like this.

. . .

Made Ifa for Black billygoat, Nanny goat’s husband, Incoherent chatter Made Ifa for Ram, husband of Bleating sheep, Words like this commit him

Made Ifa for Tall cock, Plump hen’s husband, Words like this, words like this. . . .

Made Ifa for Strapping owner of straight back; They said to him: Kill cripple, tie hunchback with that string, Kill hunchback, fashion crippling medicine!

Listening, Coward’s son heard his own heart beat, pokan, pokan

Brave Elder mustn’t speak weak words, nor coward tongues exaggerate,

[ 49

50 1

Major Odu: The First Four

Ghost’s medicine has enthralled me,

The king who orders me stripped in the marketplace will not reject my beauty Made Ifa for My extraordinary mother on the day she was coming into the world with numerous children. Ifa said, What have we come to?

This place is Oro, I said, Renowned for its cloths.

The people were shouting: Greetings to the chief! Tell me, what are they doing yonder? Naming a child in his father’s house, some said. Well then, I greet the owner of the child of that household, Praise to him whose kind are numerous as birds,

Now let me be on my way to where I’m going. That child arrived at respectable old age

Antelope who has longevity

made an amulet of Hammer’s kid which wore thin, thin,

thinner than a needle.

Ifa said, Hmmm,

we seem to have come to Oro again,

where the people persist in greeting their chief. I said, What are you doing? Someone’s getting married in his father’s house. I greet you, owner of the wives of this compound, and the bride, whose beauty forbids a name,

how unspoiled she is! Now it’s time for me to be going.

When she conceived, already her child aged manfully— Beauty begets valor, hanyin Again we arrived in Oro city, where the people, predictably: Praise to the chief! And I said, What’s up? A chief’s being installed in his father’s house! Greetings for taking one title after another!

OYEKU

MEJI

The chief lived so long as to bend towards a cane, antelope, elopes with old age brave is beautiful, hanyin

half halves itself and needle dwindles.

On we go till we reach the place I might call Hold-back, strangers-rush-to-eat. There we met an old woman. She set out pounded yam on the right, set out water yam on the left, and in the center she put coco yam together with the appropriate oil

for yam eating. She asked me to join in.

I cannot break new yams, I said,

that belong to Creator-of-all-creatures,

nor those of the Summoner-to-feastS,

no more those of the Dead. She ran to me then, smeared oil on my lips, pleading,

ran up to me and smeared oil on my lips— oil and blood on my big toe, warning

As a result of which I arrived to say, Mother, I’m hungry. I thought you ate outside the house. No indeed. Then she said, Go to Father,

you being the eldest, inheritor.

When I got there, he said, Thought you'd already eaten. No, I touched nothing out there in the grove. They said they would beat me;

You wouldn’t dare beat the father of secrets in Ife.

They said, But what if we do? What will you do? What do you usually do to people?

[ 51

52 |

Major Odu: The First Four

I said, Good begets good, Pepper cancels thorn,

Chainbell binds the wandering abiku,

Refuse-to-live supersedes venom. If it comes to a fight, I know what I’m up against; my fire got going at home.

Elephant strode to the fighting-ground— my fire consumed him; Bush cow arrived in time to be eaten,

Hartebeest turned up,

he too, hanyin.

They said, Witnesses please! Vagina, I said, Has a mouth but doesn’t speak— another name for chicken;

I said, Likewise in the presence of Just Happen— a title we give to our mothers, the witches.

They said, But we thought you ate outside the city limits. O no, I dared not eat in the forest.

Who taught you to say all this? The farmers of secrets taught me, I said, sweet yam that spreads as it grows, rains that fall and suppress the dust, Death taught me also, I said, death stored in a calabash head,

growing, spreading all over the ground, Death taught me thinking creeping gradually covers the bole hanyin, hanyin.

Small death on Albizza has two Albizza, Albizza has two

the head of mimosa tree: thousand humiliators, which alternative? thousand invisible victims,

Albizza side-stepped

Death tripped, luckily

OYEKU

MEJI

[ 53

Dodging leaves proved efficacious, Ducked-his-head-out-of-the-way

knocked Death off balance. Small death on the head of silk cotton tree, oldest there is,

greatest diviner.

. . .

Pied Whydah is the supernumerary bird: overburdened with tail feathers;

Owner of all good things, including the corpse, enjoys camwood; we call him, tactfully,

the pacifier.

Tintin, slave of night, is the dyer’s bird:

drip, drip Fleeing Death, Wagtail went to the house of contagion, then returned to You-shouldn’t-have-rubbed-yourself-withred; Tintin escaped to The-boiling-infusion-seized-me, and thence to the place of the horse owner where there’s nothing to worry about, hanyin If you greet me phlegmatically, don’t expect enthusiasm; If you greet me with indifference, I'll respond offhandedly;

If I greet you with feeling, you will answer accordingly; I shall say, Hello, Baba, hanyin Greetings, honored senior citizen, you dig? They said to match equals in single combat. We did. Neither could defeat the other. Father-unexpectedly-chose-birth begat the father of Kill-him-bury-him

541

Major Odu: The First Four

I-wish-I-knew-the-reason is the quest that killed Unexpectedly. . . . I will kill him and cut him up into pieces, I will, and show him to my friend! Ifa makes everything straight divines for the Alake in Egba country; He who pounded yam encumbered by flowing robes in accordance with his wife’s wishes divines for Ijesha people. Only one woman is the happiness of her husband. When they become two, Wickedness is the word for wives in collusion;

When they become three,

Disruption of the house is the accusation

brought against the new one; When they become four, Sweetness; for whom?

but for my mother who gave me to you I wouldn’t have got myself into this situation; When they become five, it’s Peep in the house and put your behind outside; When they become six, It all depends on the first customer, says she who stands at her market stall on the outskirts of town,

Stands holding a cudgel,

How the day’s sales will go;

When they become seven, it’s Witchcraft of which they accuse each other. Twenty virgins, forty headties: an unsure person will not call my father by name.

OYEKU

MEJI

Father crackling-fire is different, Father flapping-of-kite’s-wings is different, Father rain-drums-on-the-roof is different,

beats bata on the way towards soggy marsh to entice the wayward spirit. Catch that kid, | we need something for, whips to flail our bata skins. Wearing no trousers, he is, no underwear, not a stitch on,

lightly, lightly,

out in the open,

naked self exposed to the wind dancing your dance of the returning dead. Between ceiling and roof it was Attic who eavesdropped, heard everything, house in Igbore quarter, Abeokuta town. Medicine up there, hanging on the rafters,

perverse aloofness made Attic collapse and die: too much of a good thing overdid it. As a result of which they said to call Staff of wood split and joined together, the kind children carry as doll babies. This one will consult Ifa for our beloved. Now doctor, don’t let the life of our beloved be torn,

don’t let our beloved be taken away,

Orunmila, don’t let our beloved be broken. God forbid cinders

[ 55

56

1

Major Odu: The First Four

rattles

You who understand fighting, empty walls, rotted rafters, thank you, Master killer,

greetings, Masked intruder,

thank you,

Greetings fighter,

gently, gently hanyin

This is the story of Oyeku Meji.

We have sacrificed, Greetings for the possibility of survival, Greetings!

“oe2, “We have consulted Oyeku Meji, may night not fall upon us.” This odu speaks of the comings and goings between heaven and earth, of earth itself and its forces,

of the return

of the dead

and

their placation, of natural decrepitude. Babaluaye, powerful destroyer, the orisha who is always euphemistically named, appears in these verses in various guises, beginning as Alapa—from the phrase traditionally used to greet his priests at the conclusion of an epidemic: Alapa dupe (“Thanks to the owner of killing”). Alapa

also refers to a senior title in the cult of the Egun, the dead impersonated by multicolored cloths, full-length faceless masks. But the same word with a different tonal emphasis also means “walls from which roof has rotted away,” and I took the liberty of using this association to form a chord that is repeated throughout the verses. Apa is said to be the birthplace of Oyeku Meji,' the son of the king of that mythological, homicidal town; and therefore the odu itself 1. McClelland, op. cit.

OYEKU

MEJI

[

57

is Alapa. If the secret of Eji Ogbe is to be found in its centrality, Oyeku’s secret is, conversely, nowhereness; for Ifa rejects death or, rather, counteracts it with life.

The first section refers in particular to the founding of Abeokuta

(under rock) by Egba refugees from Ibadan in 1830. The historical

situation of the Egba-Yoruba, their displacement on account of war, their purposeful wandering and eventual establishment in a concealed place, the importance of the Ogboni society in their government?—all remind the listener of Oyeku’s and Obatala’s destinies, of the human condition generally, of the situation of the reincarnate human soul. The recitation of Oyeku Meji given here is a remarkable continuum,

with

shifts rather

than

breaks.

Related

themes

are intro-

duced, sometimes expanded and given the immediate focus of drama, repeated and recapitulated in the end fugato. Death by contamination is one of the most important of these motifs—the doing of the wrong thing, inadvertently or consciously, the violation of ritual law, of the logic of classification. Red pleases Babaluaye. He rubs his face with camwood. During the dry season one must never walk abroad in crimson for fear of attracting his attention. The dead themselves, the Egun, reject the color; and bright calico’s “why” story simply calls this taboo to mind. She sacrificed correctly and the dead did not take her with them. The “eat the yam” scene is of a different order of intensity, an astonishing dramatization of the feelings of someone coerced, or almost coerced, into the violation of a prohibition. When we first worked through this part, long before a specific cultural reference struck us, we were, it is not too strong to say, filled with unspeakable horror. The smearing of the narrator’s lips with oil made us shudder with revulsion. What? Why? Now it seems clear that we are being pressured to break the taboo of the new yams, which may not be eaten, even by the King of Ife himself, until appropriate ceremonies have been performed by the senior oracle priests in a sacred part of the forest.2 Who is the narrator? On one level, I 2. S. O. Biobaku,

“An

Historical

Sketch

Africa, XXII (1952). 3. Bascom, Ifa Divination, Chapt. 10.

of Egba

Traditional

Authorities,”

58

|

Major Odu: The First Four

think, the chief diviner in Ife, on another, Orunmila himself. The

old woman?

Our Mothers,

the witches, in order to justify their

anger, institute prohibitions and then fail to inform us what are, so that we unknowingly break them.

they

Oyeku, speaking of witches, speaks of insanity. (Oyeku Ose is the sign governing madmen.) The dissolution of the mind under stress, particularly under stress of obscure guilt feelings, fear of betwitchment, is no less within Oyeku’s province than dissolution of the body. Witches also enter this odu in a humorous way as too many wives (seven being witches’ traditional number) and as witnesses to the retaliatory medicinal powers of the diviner they tried to poison. But madness, a death-in-life, is attributable not only

to witches. Babaluaye,

working like a whirlwind,

may

decide to

“run into a man’s brain.”> The images of Elder’s agitation Yoruba, a synthesis of sound and kinetic vision: Esinkanrin

aboran

edidi

lorun

a difa

fun

are, in

baba

A faala we mo Lese iwèrèrè iwèrèrè o hanyin. Proper fices, chants,

avoidances

might

and medicines

have

may

prevented,

cure such

and

proper

sacri-

affliction of an individ-

ual mind. If an entire community is threatened, dodging disorder and decay may involve doing temporary violence to custom. Just before the passage about the seven wives comes a reference to a

man pounding yams in flowing robes. This is the King of Ife whose

two jealous wives independently urged him to pound their ingredi-

ents for them. Advised by his diviner, he did so, one foot in each

mortar. Having thus temporarily degraded himself, the King sacri-

ficed to Elegba, was crowned, and was given an even finer robe by the divinity and renewed admiration by the people. Finally, because he had temporarily allied himself with powerful womanly forces,

he was able to avert a calamity menacing his city.® “In Ife one day,”

Awotunde assured me, “this town will spoil. They did all that was 4. Pierre Fatumbi Osoronga,’ Journal

5. T. Adeoye

Lambo

Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence du de la Société des Africanistes, XXXV, 1

in Leighton,

Lambo,

Maclin, Psychiatric Disorder Among Ithaca, New York, 1963, p. 104. 6. Maupoil, op. cit., pp. 549-550.

the

Hughes,

Yoruba,

Culte d’iyémi (1965), p. 145.

Leighton,

Cornell

Murphy,

University

and

Press,

OYEKU

MEJI

[

59

asked; if you don't do these things in your town, it will be de-

stroyed."

Oro is the town where they do things right. (In another version of this story. Oro is Ar6.? Because Aro is a nickname for

Oshogbo,

where

we

were

and

where,

presumably,

as far

as Awo-

tunde is concerned, health and prosperity are maximized by correct ritual behavior, I was tempted to change the name to that of the

diviner’s city. But no, he clearly said Oro, a mythological town (al-

though there is a real town by that name which, like Oshogbo, is associated with indigo-dyed cloths, appropriate garments with which to clothe this odu). The trip to Oro is, among other things, an artful demonstration

with remarkable

of how verb tenses can be shifted to show,

succinctness,

swift passage of time

consequence, further illustrated by Awotunde’s warning

and moral

about the

fate of New York City. Old age is the destination; the speed with which the lucky person arrives is Oyeku’s irony.

The proverbial meaning of Oyeku retained by diviners with

shells in Cuba is “fight between brothers.” When Eji Ogbe instituted death as punishment for Oyeku Meji’s violation of the established

order, he employed thunder as executioner. When the orisha Shango speaks in this odu, it is as sudden death. To be thunderstruck during a storm is an abomination equal to that of the plague.

Although

the stories of usurpation

and

reassertion

of power

are

necessary ingredients for an understanding of Eji Ogbe’s psychol-

ogy, it is in Oyeku’s pot that they are properly placed. The dynamics of the action belong to the instigator, who eventually becomes the

sufferer. The two faces of Oyeku Meji are hidden. Somewhere, behind the swirling straw and cowrie-webbed visors trailing down to the ground lies the Yoruba conception of tragedy—so difficult for

a Westerner to understand because the potent disorder suggested by the masks of Babaluaye and the Egungun has nothing at all to

do with personality. The force of the “other” as dynamic cancella-

tion is heard in this recitation whenever Orunmila sizes up his enemy, measures his words, or keeps proportion in the form of a tit for

a tat—thrust and parry, words matched

carry, a more esoteric name

for Oyeku

7. Bascom, Ifa Divination, pp. 246-249. 8. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 100.

with deeds. “Fetch

and

Meji, points to a second

6o 1

Major Odu: The First Four

phase of the dialectic casually revealed in the cases of Calico, plantain, and Tintin, most poignantly in the scene at the swamp where the bata drummers of the Egungun society try to lure the

naked wandering spirit into their skins.

We have said of Oyeku Meji that his way is “crooked.” “Sidle and dodge” is another way of putting it, another manifestation of the war between brothers in which magical practice may be seen as a form of wit, a dangerous and elegant form of repartee. The odu is seeded with recipes for death-dodging, for tying up enemies. Spells materialize as images (their apparatus, their meaning unseen), which flit about like birds or meander in and out like ante-

lope between the forest trees of whose secrets she possesses more than any other creature, most importantly the key to longevity. Some stories say that antelope is Orunmila’s wife. In such cases she is intended, I think, to be a feminine analogue of Orunmila’s indispensable companion, servant, or slave—the orisha Osanyin who alone knows all the leaves essential to doctoring. Antelope seems fragile, but she isn’t. In these verses her evanescent charm and Alapa’s mask are charged with an equal intensity. Of gradual old age, sudden destruction is the ever-present, ever-shrouded double.

e 33 &

Iwori Meili

Cut, bind, halve the whole, Prowl on the outskirts, Claws, dig in.

Sacrifice for well-being Sacrifice for continuity

This is what,

O Orunmila,

the diviner is doing.

Iwori Meji we would now praise. Awake, take a first look, then a second

Two become a fact made Ifa for the Alafin of Oyo child of Alert first sizes up the day, twice ties it. Alafin is looking, looking— what will the outcome be? standing at the window, thinking of everyone and everything delightful to see.

[ 61 ]

62

]

Major Odu: The First Four

Let us recall Naked pleasure who standing on river bank after bathing unwittingly exposed herself gnashing her teeth to brutality of the farmer made Ifa for Spider whose secrets stay hidden whose offspring are legion who never runs out of string What about wealth I’m supposed to have? where clay of bank join sand of river mus’ be woun’ with a knowin’ hand All good things by—miracles. What about children I'm supposed to have? gourd afore me, gourd a’hine me, gourd be with me All good things by— miracles. What about house I’m supposed to have? is yo’ gwine? is yo’ gwine way off? is yo’ climbin’? All good things by—miracles. What about cloth I’m supposed to have? mus’ be tied with shroud ravelin’ fo’ time fo’ time fo’ am de gret numbeh All good things by conjurin’ All good things by miracles. What about all good things I’m supposed to have? may it bring ’im honor may it bring ’im riches may it bring ’im frens in plenty success in evry hundertakin’ may it bring im hahts deeesire Complete good luck, by miracles. Head carries calabash of happiness; honor and wealth tomorrow, these are his;

gourd contains child’s prosperity.

EEEEEEEEE Let us now consider Mortar: his character is deep, that’s how he can accommodate yam;

IWORI

MEJI

I 63

Bowl, with his concave chest holds plenty of soup who made Ifa for Church,

mother of Christianity.

Told to sacrifice, she did not,

as a result of which when her time came round she died gathering firewood in the bush nobody discovered her corpse as a result of which she became a curse— repercussion upon

her son who decided to go diviner’s farm. Things have been going from bad to worse can he ever improve his lot?

Told to go take care of his mother, he doesn’t know her whereabouts. Start searching! By the time he got there, body had decomposed but he managed to find his mother’s bones, brought them home. Told to sacrifice five shillings sixteen times. All right. Now get a white cloth, wrap up those bones,

fashion a coffin from planks of wood and carry her back to the bush. Along, along the path, he was asked to dance, hanyin Along, along the path, he was asked to sing, hanyin And talking drum followed him out of town: but what shall I beat? what shall I say, hanyin (Then Eshu jumped in front of the procession, told drum to say): nigbo, nigbo, nigbo, nothing but unkempt bush will do for mother of the flock of beeleevers who died once, died just now

64

1

Major Odu: The First Four in the bush, in the bush nigbo, nigbo, nigbo

(Which is why when a Christian dies, drum sounds) : nigbo, nigbo, nigbo

nothing but unkempt bush will do dundun, dundun

except where there’s cultivation.

We have sacrificed, Greetings!

Now let us sing a song for Iwori Meji this time, next year, we'll all get together to celebrate,

O Orunmila,

anniversary of our survival.

. . .

It’s anthill I saw turned into a viscous image, Did anybody stick his foot in that mother? | it's divided down the middle; Powdered chalk, when you inhale it, dust is attracted to the hair in your nostrils;

Throat phlegm hits the ground, starts rolling along, gbiri made Ifa for Life-force and Sperm who became heaven’s boy instead of ours, hanyin

You have color, you have spiritual vitality, why don’t you become a person? Would-be parents told to sacrifice four bush rats, four hens, four times twenty-thousand They did;

correct leaves were prepared for them and that energy from heaven stopped descending to the world, making pregnancy possible. Which is why the act becomes a child.

cowries,

IWORI

MEJI

[ 65

Not too long, not too distant, come rejoice with us for a strapping boy, (This is the song we are finally approaching): Ashe no longer flows into the world directly, ashe

If I make love, I will bear a child,

Ashe, the blood’s stopped coming; Her hands and feet—turning white as clay, When I make love, it will amount to something! Greetings!

“eo9, “We have consulted Iwori Meji, may you not make a hole in our roof for entering accidents.” The third major odu expresses impetus, exaggerated as impetuosity. The word iwôri suggests the act of looking at something buried (two), as well as the thrusting of something in (rì). One might call it the simultaneous beginning of cognition and purposeful activity, a condensed recollection of man’s initial efforts to acquire and transform natural energy so that he too might function creatively within the given world of stupendous forces. For this con-

quest of Being man stands in need of a technology of manipulation

which, without deprecation, is here called magic. One might also imagine this odu as a solstitial direction from north to south along the sky-earth axis—that verticality symbolic of contact between intellect and “reality” for which the primary experience of sexuality stands surrogate. Iwori Meji’s avatar in the animal world is hyena—thief of corpses, father of wild nocturnal beasts, of carnivores kept beyond the pale of the orderly domestic existence their fierce hunger generated. As cause to effect, it is the nature of penetration to take the shape of that which is penetrated. Iwori’s image is the hole, seen variously as pit, trap, grave, orifice. Topographically, earth’s excrescences rise to meet the burning in-

66

1

Major Odu: The First Four

truder from the heavens. Termite hill and tree are ambivalent symbols of this process of pentration, being both hollow containers and erect. The intruder may be regarded beneficially as fertilizing rain, destructively as searing fire. That which is desired is, or is contained within, the Magna Mater. The power lodged within the recalcitrant earth is, like that of woman, sanguinary. The Yoruba called it àse, which can be variously translated as authority, command, life-force, spiritual vitality. The impure form of this phenomenon is dsé, menstruation, whose perverse flow can be controlled only by male potency, a power associated with water. The pure form of this coveted earth-female power is secreted into the follicles that spring from earth’s epidermis, which is why herbs, plants, and the leaves of trees may, if their secrets are found

out, released, be used for magical purposes. (These leaves simply contain ashe; it is man who puts them to benevolent or malevolent use.) The blood of creatures who live and feed upon the earth may be shed sacrificially to release ashe, which, flowing from altar or ikon to divinity that thereupon “feeds,” is transmitted back again to empower the sacrificing priest and the community of worshipers. Just as the combination of sperm with blood within the womb produces a living child, so within the doctor-priest’s mortar fresh leaves ground with ritually desiccated flesh of rat and fish (paradigms of energizing ingredients produce afose (literally “washed” ashe )—magical powder, intellectually directed power. Iwori Meji, then, points to the inauguration of three ways that human beings can make themselves at home in the world through the exercise of some control over their environment: technology (the fashioning of efficient tools for hunting and farming), medi-

cine or magic (the understanding and use of the spiritual-chemical

properties of plants), and successful procreation. Ogun is the culture-hero of the Yoruba. But it is a proto-Ogun that speaks in Iwori Meji. The iron indispensable for future tech-

nological mastery lies rusting as red ore in the laterite from which the concentrated

aggression known

as work must extract it. Here

is Wole Soyinka’s interpretation of the process: The

could

Yoruba only

metaphysics

come

after

the

of accommodation passage

of the

and

gods

resolution

through

the

IWORI

MEJI

[ 67

transitional gulf, and the demonic test of the self-will of the explorer god in the creative cauldron of cosmic powers. Only after such testing could the Yoruba harmonious world be born, a harmonious will which accommodates every material or abstract phenomenon within its infinitely stressed spirituality. The artifact of Ogun’s conquest of separation, the “fetish,” was iron ore, symbol of earth’s womb energies, cleaver and welder of life. Ogun in his redemptive action became the first symbol of the union of contradictions when from earth itself he extracted elements for the subjugation of chthonic chaos. Yet iron ore, as we have

seen, is not the only power

extracted

by violence from the earth. Ogun and Ososi, brother hunters, learned about charms from a one-legged forest person whom the Yoruba call Aroni or Osanyin. Eventually this divinity of medicinal

leaves becomes

Orunmila’s

servant.

But before

Orunmila,

before

Ogun and Oshosi, Osanyin himself had to acquire the power, make earth serve him; and it is this tale that belongs to the canon of Iwori. In Dahomey (a neighboring state whose people learned Ifa from the Yoruba) Maupoil collected a fascinating story belonging to the combination Iwori Ika—the conjunction of phallic aggression with the creeping, crawling sorcery of the forest floor. In this story Osanyin is called, simply, Ashe. The initial protagonist is a woodcutter called Stranger-axe who, despite continued hard luck, refuses to sacrifice. Eshu tells Earthtortoise (avatar of the fertility of the earth, trickster, diviner for the animal kingdom) to install herself in a hole at the base of the tree Stranger-axe is trying to fell. He whacks it once and her hidden voice begins to sing: Don’t cut down this tree d-d-d-don’t do it

Death sits upon it n-n-n-not for killing! Sickness haunts it

tort, tort is 1. Wole Soyinka, “The Fourth Stage; Through the Mysteries of Ogun to the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy,” in The Morality of Art, ed. D. W. Jefferson, Routledge, London, 1969, p. 123.

68

1

Major Odu: The First Four Lawsuit clothes it tort, tort is

Bad luck won't leave it

n-n-n-not for killing!

The woodcutter flees in terror, as do all the king’s emissaries sent to witness the phenomenon and all the great divinities. Again Stranger-axe consults his diviner, again comes up with Iwori Ika. He is told to sacrifice double the items originally required. This time he complies, and Eshu sends Ashe (Osanyin) to the base of the tree in question. Forest-father orders his attendant smith to build a charcoal fire. While the smith blows, Ashe hops in and stays in the fire until his one leg becomes completely red. Then he plunges it into the hole from which the song has been issuing. Earth-tortoise shrieks: “It’s me, your slave, forever more your slave, forgive me.” Upon which Ashe pries her out of her hole, saying, “From now on I'll never eat tortoise.” In Earth-tortoise’s place today is buried the umbilical cord, while the placenta is thrown into the bush—precinct of impurity. Hyena is a stupid precursor of the culture hero to which Ifa, in Iwori Meji, heuristically refers his pupils, forcing them to understand the process of sublimation by which impetus becomes productive—organized for the benefit of the community that must continually atone for the manipulative violence done to nature. Stories from this odu’s canon tell how hunger drove Hyena to the acquisition, through Ifa, of iron claws; of how Eshu had to bend the beast’s craving for live flesh into the consumption of dead meat.’ Before they were taken away from him, Hyena’s super-claws were used not only to ravage but to till. According to the Dogon of the western

Sudan,

earth’s ravisher invented

the means

of restor-

ing Magna Placenta to purity through rituals of cultivation from which his own “dry” impurity subsequently excluded him. Less evolved than King Leopard (avatar of Babaluaye), not yet Dog (Ogun’s sacred animal), Hyena remains the totem of undifferentiated libidinal energy at the moment of its primary contraction and release. The first sexual act is darkened by fear of incest and 2. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 620-621. 3.

Ibid., "Iwori Meji," passim.

IWORI

MEJI

I 69

charged with the aggressiveness of rape. Those haunted by the shadow of sterility.

subsequent

are

Awotunde's recitation begins with a play on one of Iwori Mejis etymological nicknames, ìjò (ko) ri, which means "looking but not seeing.” There is an optimistic assumption here that if you don't see the hole, you won't fall in—the sort of fiat that is the basis of spells uttered the world over. In a footnote to one of his verses from the canon of Iwori Meji, Bascom informs us that children who have reason to fear punishment from their parents sing these words over and over on their way home: "the eye of the secret won t see evil, diviner's eye will not see evil."f (Interestingly enough, the diviner in Bascom's instance is Hoe-handle-has-a-head-full-of-marrow-which-is-not-yet-brains. ) The diviner in our first case is Naked Pleasure. The incident recalled in brief is the very act of violence that brought Iwori Meji into existence. The King of Ogodo ravished a naked woman on the bank of a famous river. The resulting odu was supposedly born in Senegal.5 His orientation, however, is southerly. Indeed, among

the de-

scendants of the Yoruba people in Cuba the word Iwori means “south.” South is also the direction taken by Ogo, premature rebel

and placenta-ravisher of the Dogon myth whose name is associated with the umbilical cord, with sperm, with male sexual organs,

and with precipitous activity generally." Dé, in Yoruba, is the equivalent of “fuck” in English. Despite the fun of it, nomenclatural “evidence” usually turns out to be mere coincidence. Who knows how the King of Ogodo came to be so-called? But categories of thought, symbol-clusters around certain nuclear insights, are often reliable indicators of cross-cultural relationships. The congruence of the sign of Hyena and the sign of Pale Fox (known on the vulgar level as Hyena

or Jackal)

into which

4. Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 289. 5. McClelland, op. cit. 6. Lydia Cabrera, Anag6, Vocabulario

Chihereka, p. 176.

7. Genevieve Calame-Griaule, Paris, 1968, pp. 209-210.

Lucumi,

Dictionnaire

Ogo,

for his crimes,

Miami,

Dogon,

1970,

Librarie

Coleccién C.

was

del

Klincksieck,

70

|

Major Odu: The First Four

transformed is no more surprising a link between the cultures of the western Sudan and those of the Gap of Benin than certain agricultural links between these cultures. For example, grains ennobled on the banks of the upper Senegal were planted between the Volta and the lower Niger wherever the fertility of the soil permitted—long before the triumphal entry of the yam into the forested regions.® Hyena’s head being in a formative state, his brains are sup-

plied by a trickster who assumes various guises in West African

stories. Spider, the Ashanti sky god’s avatar, plays the part of the Rebel’s linguist in Dogon mythology, a feeble companion who wove the form of his “dry” word—imperfect prologue to the first revelation.® It is spider who assumes Ashe-Osanyin’s medicinal practice here. This being an odu of thefts and intrusions, when spider’s song came up, I felt justified in borrowing now and again the “voice” of King A—, a renowned student of simples and spells who practiced his secret art in the southwestern United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century.’° The use of dialect is always questionable, but just as King A’s voice brought this odu closer to home for me, so I hope will be the effect of the “trans-

lation.” And, remarkably, one can hear sequences of expression in

the King’s dialect that are strictly Yoruba. Awotunde’s refrain, ire gbo bi idan bi idan, means “all good things” (or “great good luck”) by

idan,

which

to a Christian

means

“miracles,”

to

an

old-timer,

“magic,” or in King As idiom, “conjurin’.”. On account of the story that follows the song, I have used the word “miracles” in an ironic way, thus preserving spider’s secret (which of course he sacrificed to keep hidden) as well as the irony of an historical situation in which the rhythm and phraseology of certain Yoruba prayers and chants, ancient procedures of medicine making, were preserved and inherited upon the most arid and hostile soil imaginable. It is in this wilderness that Mother of Christianity and all her

progeny must be buried—as abominations governed by alien forces 8. George Peter Murdock, Africa, Its Peoples and Their McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959, p. 245 (and passim). 9. Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, Le Renard

Pále,

Travaux

10.

New

York,

Memoires de l'Institut d'Ethnologie, LXXII Mary

Chapt. 12.

Alicia

Owen,

ed.,

Voodoo

Tales,

Cultural

(1965), pp. 211-216. G.

P.

Putnam,

History, et

1893,

IWORI who would

MEJI

[ 71

defile the civilized ground into which

the consecrated

corpses of the living community go to become, if remembered cor-

rectly, beneficial influences. Iwori Meji’s hole assumes its final archetypal form as source of fertilizing power with a wry thrust into a circumstantial realism that is without parallel in our lofty system of analogies. The concluding song reveals Yoruba wit at its intricate best. As mortar and bowl foreshadowed the receptive roundness that the inner eye must see in the image of the Church as dwelling matrix for all Christians, so nose and throat are appropriate preludes to the implied image of the desired opening. But more than mere anticipations, these orifices are active symbols in their own right, for we are dealing here not only with the human sexual act but with the formation of living matter generally, with genesis. Dust is the soul of the earth, desiring germination; phlegm is moist essence in motion on the way to substantiation, or words-like-this, words-like-this. Sperm

is considered

to be

a white,

pure,

watery

fluid,

an

in-

tellectual principle, definitive, constitutive. Water and blood: of these two principles are we composed.!! Since Ashe is a cosmic energy and superior natural forces are heavily charged with it, a

sublime restraint was necessary, a sacrifice of divine power, so that human conception could take place and a human world could de-

velop. This restraint is the result of another version of “the pact” with earth.

Iwori Meji governs woman’s “closed” womb,

the blood form-

ing the embryo. To other odu belong the more “dangerous” aspects of her menstrual cycle. The ceremony of “closing the hole” to avert disaster, imminent death, must be performed by anyone born under the sign of Iwori-Ogbe.!? Fear of sterility haunts Iwori Meji as Hyena haunts the unproductive bush. But he leaves his track. His Sudanese brother, Pale Fox, is the founder and active agent of a

rudimentary

system

of divination

upon

town. The Yoruba word for geomancy

the

is wiwo

ground,

outside

of

yonrin, “sand-look-

ing.” The power of divination, that too, was wrested from earth. It is the implied fourth dimension of Iwori’s vector, a fourth way of

making a go of human life amid the forces. 11. Cf. the Akan principles mogya and ntoro. 12.

Maupoil, op. cit., p. 616.

AAA

one divides two perform three sustains wants accord hole up

releases four

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Odi Meji. Don’t you see, Ifa has promised to receive what we relinquish. Listen, listen to what I’m saying now: Though our heads are carrying

heavy loads,

if we haven’t arrived,

we've got to keep Cast Ifa for Gong sounds on the day he set for Sough-sayer’s to see things.

going gong-sound off house

Now Sough-sayer was sobbing he had no children, hanyin

[ 73 |

Major Odu: The First Four

74 1

So they told him to sacrifice everything by sixes, hanyin (Two won't teeter on Three )

He agreed.

Obedience (in conjunction with stability)

produced these: Arrive well, Good walking, and Got-there-promptly-on-my-two-feet followed by Just as we’d spread out all our riches, that’s when

I came

on the scene

accompanied by My-father-possesses-all-these-things

together with No-relative-of-mine’s-the owner, hanyin

Still Sough-sayer sighed,

What’s wrong with me, Elewi, I have no children.

So they told him to sacrifice everything by sixes. (Ground and bottom agree)

Again he sacrificed by sixes and (she) gave birth to three knives: Cut that precisely Fumbler, be careful

Flexible pares nails, lances infections bore in addition: The cutter of roots on the road leaves negative bulges We'd just rolled up the mat (when along came) A man of powerful authority

And still that excessive breeder moaned,

No use consoling me, Elewi, I have no children. So they told him to sacrifice everything by sixes, hanyin Two by two he progressed to three and (Here is honor indeed, She)

gave birth to three orisha:

Eshu Odara, wild old man of Ikoyi

Shango, the troublemaker who didn’t hang, oba koso Oya, fiery daughter of a contentious household But still that repetitive windbag was discontented: I see no children born to me, o woe, Elewi.

Then they said,

ODI

MEJI

We can make no more sacrifices of this sort for you in Ile Ife. Angry, he got a medicine gourd from the hands of a butcher, took it into the crumbled bush,

killed a black leopard there where farmland's bounded by tufted forest. On the site of that embrace he flayed it, from jaw to bottom and fashioned three leopard-skin bags he named Distinguished feature Swarming dream and Awoke accordingly. Whereupon he took all three enclosed in the largest, all decorated with cowries,

to the house of Cat’s diviner. Find me a place where people worship correctly. Only Rat knows. How then do you give kola to Orunmila in your town? When one remains, scratch one; if two, two scratches,

said Cat’s diviner. You re spoiling life in Ife town! And with that the postulant broke Bush Rat's head, threw it into his leopard-skin bag; down into Distinguishing feature it rolled, past Swarming dream to Awoke accordingly. Now where, now whom? There’s Confused squall, someone said,

blowing water in all directions, diviner of Rain-sound. Well then, how do you do your Ifa drumming? Here’s the beat: if one, press one; if two, double down.

You are ruining life in Ile Ife! said he, breaking Rain’s head and dropping it into the big bag buzzing with cowries. Now where, does he exist

I 75

26

1

Major Odu: The First Four

to initiate me

into the mysteries? There’s Giant-rat, very senior, diviner for Quickly, out of Kite’s way. And how does he divine secrets?

When one remains, one mark is made,

two marks for two. Aha, it’s you who are spoiling life in Ile Ife.

And with that he broke off Senior Rat’s head,

thrust it into the leopard’s skin

from Distinguishing feature into Swarming dream, Measures awakening. Now where can I turn? What can I do? There remains Odi-is-resting-on, somebody said, diviner for Running-to-thought’s-arrival. How do you divine in Ile Ife?

When one remains, I press two; if two, then one.

You, Odimo, are repairing life in Ife! Is Odi Meji correctly counted? hanyin You are making life easy here in Ile Ife! O Closer of roads, close well

towards death towards disease

O Closer, close these roads well.

O Closer, don’t close the road to riches,

don’t obstruct the way to women But close the road to all bad things, Road-closer.

Now what remains to be done for divination? They said, there remains casting the palm nuts, releasing the freshness; there remains the creator of song and heroism. It's up to you to start casting, It’s up to me to begin. But where is the chorus? Who will join in?

ODI

MEJI

No stranger knows how, hanyin to respond to the sound of our song in Ile Ife hanyin

Aerial roots, little hangers upside down mother of infancies cast Ifa for Where did you hang his death? Secret says, I have hung it on something vertical

with sixteen branches where they use a slave’s head to eat oil; all are equal to the task; your case is cool. I can see my death is well suspended.

There remains casting the palm nuts, releasing their freshness May you begin May I begin But where is the chorus? Who, surely not strangers, will be able to join in? Little aerial roots,

Where did you hang my death?

On Albizzia tree with sixteen branches,

eight of which are stiff, eight supple.

I can see my death is well hung. There remains Creator of song and heroism, May you begin, May I begin Who will know to join in? Little aerial roots,

Where did you hang my death? On Kola can be split into sixteen segments eight of which are dry eight of which are fresh.

78

|

Major Odu: The First Four

I can see my death is well hung. There remains casting the palm nuts, releasing their freshness “May you begin, may I begin, but who will sing the responses, hanyin Little aerial roots,

Where did you hang my death? On Iroko tree with sixteen branches eight of which are fresh, eight brittle. I can see my death is well hung. There remains Creator of song and heroism, Let us both begin but who will follow? Little aerial roots,

Where did you hang my death? On Palm tree with sixteen branches,

none of which is dry. This time you have hung my death very well indeed! Go, bring me unbroken pepper, bring unbroken kola and foaming wine for whoever eats alligator pepper with us shall not die whoever eats kola with four eyes whoever drinks guinea-corn wine with us shall not perish.

In the calabash of Odu we shall drink guinea-corn wine. O Closer of roads, close well;

close the road to death block the way to ill health but keep open the road to good things to wealth to women O Closer of roads close well,

but do not bar the opening.

We have sacrificed, Greetings!

ODI

MEJI

[ 79

Le9.

“We have consulted Odi Meji, may you not shut us in and crush us.” Odi Meji rounds the circle. The fourth quadrant by which we take our bearings, she faces north, towards the unknown—the

position

taken by somebody asking a question. Complete in her own knowledge, Odi rules over indiscreet curiosity—a vice invented by those in control of secrets, by men, who

attributed it to prying women.

When it is committed by inquiring youths it is forgiven as a sign of spiritual aptitude, as a prelude to initiation, to vision. The dialec-

tical opposite of Iwori Meji, Odi Meji transforms restlessness into the active quiescence necessary for germination. Her images define a completed space—the outness of in. Under her aegis, hole

becomes pot, a self-contained container with ambivalent propensities towards suffocating or overflowing. She is also visualized as a short-legged stool, cylindrical in shape,! which we might see as Isis enthroned, or the Pythoness seated upon her tripod. In its Yoruba context this stool is a sacred box called apere, which contains the

mysterious closed calabash called odu—a seat that is also an altar upon which the Great Mother is fed.? Finally, there is her fleshy image and the agreed meaning of her name?: buttocks divided into two, clay become flesh in the act of sitting or squatting to give birth. When Odi Meji speaks, the voice of the embryo is heard prophesying from the womb—prophesying war, death of the father, separation of the child (which the child takes as betrayal on the mother’s part), and enslavement of the mother from which the nascent prophet will perforce one day redeem her.* When Odi Meji 1. McClelland, op. cit., gives apere as the name of Odi’s mother and translates this as “short-legged stool.” 2. Maupoil, op. cit. (“Di Meji 1-2”) gives the name akpako to this seat; the word akpako in Nigeria refers rather to the diviner’ss bag and to the man who carries it—diviner’s apprentice. In “Di Meji 1, Ifa appears seated on a tripod that Yoruba diviners in Dahomey call zikpo. Bascom’s informants (Ifa Divination, pp. 82-83) call the cylinder containing Odu, apẹrẹ. In Maupoil’s second story, akpako is also diviner’s bag, and mother sits on it! 3. 4.

Maupoil, op. cit., p. 460. Ibid., “Odi Meji 1-2.”

80

|

Major Odu: The First Four

speaks, hook reaches

up or out for something

to catch

on to; roots

are put down, but branches (failure to sacrifice) are lopped off. Odi Meji acts as a kind of ballast: journeys undertaken are likely to be successful, but internal troubles from stomach aches to treach-

ery menace the unwary stay-at-home’; lost objects are likely to be found—where you left them. saga

Awotunde’s of

the

recitation

stubborn

takes

questioner’s

the form quest.

of a black-humorous

Suppose

Parsifal

were

played by Edward Learn—such would be our cultural equivalent. Who is this Elewi? I have called him Sough-sayer because his name connotes the whispering leaves of prophecy, bearing witness. With

maker.

a different

set of

tones

he

would

Elewi is, clearly, a descendant

be

a bellows,

or bellows

of the king of the air, the

first diviner’s grandfather, according to Bascom.® More precisely, in our story, he is the first male diviner, apprentice to Odimo, whom

he discovers putting his “original” idea into practice, just as Ge was at Delphi first, before Apollo. Again, more precisely, she is practicing an idea that resembles his but is complete, better, just as four is “better” than three. Why is Elewi dissatisfied with the results of sacrifices made for him? What sort of children does he want that he refuses to ac-

knowledge

the existence of those fifteen he’s got? What

follows

makes

this clear enough. He himself is pregnant with longings of

wants.

Here

another sort. What do the children his fertile wife produces have to do with him? They are but counterparts of the immortality he I think

of Zarathustra.

Note,

however,

the

sequence

of the offspring: from pure arrival, to attributive substantiality (wealth), to power (activities of iron), to divine force. The three orisha reveal the stubborn restlessness of his character. They are

the “hot” violent ones:

Shango, Oya (the wild wind that precedes

Shango’s thunderstorms), man’s swastika dance.’

and

Eshu,

here

doing

his

horny

old

5. Bascom, Ifa Divination, “Odi Meji.” Also mentioned in extant lore among devotees of the Yoruba religion as practiced in Cuba.

6. Ibid., p. 110. 7. See Joan Wescott and Peter Morton-Williams, “The Symbolism and Ritual Context of the Yoruba Laba Shango, Journal of the Royal African Institute, XCII, Part 1 (1962), pp. 23-37.

ODI

MEJI

[ 81

Killing the leopard for its chthonic strength, Elewi fashions a sort of external womb as a divining bag. Now begins his search for the teacher who does things the right way. What’s wrong about the other, the usual way?

Ifa is the only geomantic system known to register the reverse

of what the lots display. Ordinarily, when of random

lines is made,

a remainder

a rapid count by twos

of one is noted

as such. But,

as we have seen, when the sixteen palm nuts are beaten, then rap-

idly grabbed by one hand from another, if one remains, two marks are pressed upon the powder of the divining tray. If two, one mark (if neither, repeat )—until the octogram or double odu is completed. Why this traditional Ifa-perversity? Awotunde’s recitation contains the kernel of an explanation.

Sough-sayer is so infuriated by the logical—which he considers to be malpractice—that he kills the offending practitioners and

throws their heads into that three-in-one bag of his.’ His is the anger of the man obsessed with an idea. He refuses to see the world as it apparently is. He wants to be initiated into a truer world, that of his dream, where one turns into two and back to one plus, life into death and death into life again. This is Ifa—a clean slate.’° The generic optimism of the institution is built right into the numbers that express it. Thus, on the fourth try, Elewi comes up with

the answer and finds that to which he has been trying to give birth

all along, that which has all but smothered him. It is Odi, the tireless womb transformed into an enclosure within which sits the container

of existence,

which

in turn

stores

four

taining symbols of the first four odu—-primary (the “other” ) reality.

The

four

stages

of

containment

calabashes

symbols

(within,

within,

con-

of divine

within,

8. Note where he does this, idi-oko, a play on words for “edge of farm” and

“conjunction of buttocks with penis,” both universal symbols of sacred transitional sites! 9. This would seem, among other things, to be a transforming device that will either emit them whole with cured heads as correct diviners, or make them into magical counters—the sacred contents of the bag: rain’s head into a thunder-stone, which can be used to make certain concrete predictions, and so on. 10. Fa means “to scrape clean,” hence Ifa, “the scraping or shaving clean.”

Head shaving is an important part of all Yoruba initiations.

82

1

Major Odu: The First Four

within) refer, I think, to the four powers to which, in the Ifa bi-

nary system, the number four is raised to produce two hundred fifty-six combinations. Elewi is on the way, but he remains, as we would say, at sixes and sevens because everything he does is by threes or sixes (male numbers,

according to the Yoruba scheme).

His fifteen children dissatisfy him. One more is needed, the one that can generate a perfect sixteen, themselves each generative of sixteen more. It is perhaps of interest here to note that when stories are told of Orunmila’s coming to the world, he is accompanied by two other male orisha and one female divinity, who is sometimes referred to in the plural as “witches.” This is Odi, who in this recitation produces yet another image of herself: the chalice from which all initiates will drink to celebrate their Great Mother. The count, under Odi’s aegis, is complete, and it is time for Sough-sayer to begin practicing his profession. Like all heroes he must begin by singing alone, or rather in a duet with Odimo, his teacher. The holy city of this world (Ile Ife) is populated at this stage by people who cannot possibly understand him. Is he not, from their point of view, the stranger? The Ife he lives in is not the same as the one you see, although the one contains the other. The invocation of the little aerial roots, themselves

mothers

who hang out deaths like laundered small clothes, points to this Ife within Ile Ife as the place of the reversed cosmic tree—rooted

to

heaven. The scene is real—delicate epiphytes suspended from the roof of the forest, plants taking nourishment from nothing—and the meaning is universal. Again Sough-sayer goes through the process of inquiry. The first tree is an abstraction—just an idea. The next three are sacred,

or special, or producers

fruit. But they are still shadows of life, which provides everything one counters of Ifa divination. Now we that tree and feast, defy death, defy

of sacramental

the final thing: the palm needs, most importantly may sit down at the base disease, sing the song of

versal of all ills that were not meant to be. Greetings.

of the of re-

ITI Major Odu: The Next

Twelve

&

5

ojẹ.

Irosun Weji

mms

AAA

| JLTOTO

TO © 7

AA,

|

A

Ÿ

Conceived in sleep tie and dye transform me blood will not blind me at break of noon

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Eeeee, Ifa says you will

countenance, O Orunmila,

our humility. Now let us praise Irosun Meji, Eeeee, let us consider the nature of homage: were I to pay it, might it be received: Homage to snail shell— upside down, doesn’t perish Homage to penis— upside down, never known to break off Homage to straight road Homage to crooked Homage to path I tread up this hill Homage I will pay all day long in the house of secrets, Orunmila,

Homage I am going to deliver. [ 85 1

86

1

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Let us call upon the case of cutlass,

What about cutlass?

Went to the farm,

What about cutlass?

Went to the river,

What about cutlass? Became very sharp, cast told told and

You don’t have to strike twice with this cutlass,

Ifa for destitute Eko-seller her to sacrifice—become rich before dimity her to sacrifice okra, oranges, cold water long yam (that’s with difficulty ) roasted.

The king, he also sacrificed with okra, with oranges, long roasted yam, cold water

Eko-seller, before nightfall, did become wealthy. She wrapped herself in black cloth,

then wrapped herself in red, wrapped herself in a white cloth, threw a shimmering scarf about her shoulders— shot-silk sky-blue praise-worthy iridescently seated. O Eko-seller, I hope you said “no offense” to us, I hope you haven’t dressed yourself in borrowed finery There you sit, clothed in black, in red, swathed in silken luminosity saying, Here am I, lowly Eko-vender who will Sell Ifa to the Alafin of Oyo. He, languishing in deject poverty, must sacrifice for self-assurance okra, oranges, roasted long yam

IROSUN

MEJI

[ 87

and a calabash of cold water.

When he had done,

grown comfortable, more confident

he asked his drum to praise him first thing in the morning. The sweet drum sounded dun-dun daylight oranges dun-dun charcoal, yams by the fire dun-dun cool water dun-dun to sweeten the tongue dun-dun for oba’s comfort. Dun-dun-dun-dun once begun, always sung. Head carries the child’s prosperity. May we have sacrificed well, Greetings!

Add one about elephant seeking his place in the sun: camwood, red rub sixteen pigeons

and sixteen times twenty-thousand cowries.

Now when elephant comes,

lightly lumbering they say, here comes dignity itself— for grace is also among the animals. Greetings for the sacrifice we have made;

May we come through. Greetings.

a>,

“We have consulted Irosun Meji, may you not redden our eyes with suffering.” With Irosun Meji begins another cycle of odu. These focus on the human condition as unstable—within and without—at the mercy, that is to say, of elemental

strife, of seasonal

change,

of evil and

beneficial forces, of psychosomatic disorders.’ Within this context

1. The order of the figures is not entirely fixed. Awotunde’s sequence is standard, but Bascom’s informants followed a regional variation with Obara Meji

88

1

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

the human being strives (with Ifa’s help) to achieve equilibrium and beyond that comfort, a fullness of being which, ironically, contains the immanent possibility of reversal, of refutation. The perilousness of this condition, of our situation as we attempt to assert ourselves, to live life, is expressed by the odu as ideograms. The “instability” of figures seven through fourteen is

obvious, a corollary of their odd-numberedness. Irosun and Oworin

are transitional figures whose even-numberedness and vertical symmetry are the more dangerous for concealing or deflecting attention from their reversibility. These two present us with human hopes at their nadir. The dangers implicit in Iwori and Odi (the roots of the world that define the north-south axis of endeavoring and completing) are explicit in Irosun and Oworin: the hole gapes, beckons; peristalsis of the magic pot, the boa constricts.

§

Odi lẹ and Iwori

§§ i

like the female and male organs, respectively,

§

may be turned upside down and remain the same. But if you rotate and Okranran Meji in fifth and ‘sixth positions, Irosun Meji and Oworin Meji in seventh and eighth. Maupoil says that the adage “Fire can be extinguished, but never red tail feathers” is often mistakenly attributed to Irosun instead

of to Oworin

Meji

where

it belongs

(and

where

Awotunde

places

it). My

guess is that the confusion stems from attempts to reconcile the twelve houses of the zodiac with the fifteen compartments of geomancy. Iwori and Oworin

are different types of sun in Leo.

Just as the even alterations of day and night in the tropics seem to “fit” with

the conceptions of Eji Ogbe and Oyeku Meji, so the climatic phenomenon of the moving Intertropical Front seems to have a bearing on the meaning of odu 4-7. The mean latitude of Yorubaland is about seven degrees north. The line of convergence between sea winds from the Atlantic and dry winds from the Sahara is two degrees. This band moves northward with the sun

sixteen degrees, and then back

again every year. In the wake

of the north-

ward thrust, moist air rushes in; the season of the heavy rains begins with violent storms. (This is how the vernal equinox is felt in Nigeria. Planting

begins on soil that has been prepared by brush season.)

As the front moves

down

towards

fires at the end of the dry

the equator

again

in the

time

of

“light rains,” Shango’s festival is celebrated in Ede—after the autumnal equinox, a time of transition marked again by thunder and lightning. Hence the war between fire and water in Irosun/Oworin. The situation in both is “day.”

IROSUN

§

Jrosun

|

MEJI

180 degrees, you get Oworin

[ 89

§§

Ni . Fear flames into dis-

§§

ease; the home you are establishing for yourself may turn out to be your grave-digging. The recitation of Irosun Meji, therefore, begins with appropri-

ate caution by paying homage to the four major signs that preceded

it: homage

to elders to put the aspiring self in proper perspective,

and then specifically, homage

to the biological processes respon-

sible for our being, homage to the life and death that are the limits of our existence. Irosun, standing as it were at the brink of change and instability, is the sign par excellence of deception. The psychic condition to which it corresponds is intense anxiety. The moral imperative it bespeaks is this: to your own self, despite deceiving

appearances, be true. Self-respect can be achieved by ritual means.

Cutlass goes to the river and becomes sharp. Elephant rubs himself with camwood and achieves the dignity and grace (don't be deceived by his bulk ) of a king. Irosun, the uneasy odu, during its restless nights keeps etymological company with tree, bird, fire, and dreams—signs of its affiliation with witches. When the stem of the Irosun tree (Baphia Nitida) is wounded, it bleeds a pinkish tinge? (although its wood is yellow-white), so the eyes of the suffering, of the angry, of the person poisoned by

paranoid feelings or witches’ animosity, appear bloodshot. If there

be such

suffers

a thing

from

as spiritual malaria,

it, chronically.

However,

then

as

the Irosun

always,

personality

transforming

powers are inherent in the most dangerous situations. Irosun is one

variety of camwood. which is applied medicinally and ritually as a rub; it is from the wood dust (created by boring insects) of this tree that the divining powder comes.

The Irosun bird, a type of cardinal, leads a frail existence, has

a faint voice—the male being as drab as the female except during

the breeding season when it puts on brilliant red-black coloring.* 2. R. C. Abraham, 1958, p. 316.

Dictionary of Modern

3. Some Nigerian Woods,

Lagos,

1962,

p. 44. Dust

Yoruba,

University of London

published by the Federal Ministry of Information,

upon

which

signs have

been

their force and may also be “medicinally” employed.

4.

Abraham,

loc. cit.

Press,

written

is imbued

with

90

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Hence the double relevance of homage to snail shell and penis, the long-yam requirement and the cool waters of the sacrifice, intended to produce the kind of assurance and well-being that follow upon sexual union. Iron is “eyesight”; sun means, among other things, “to set fire

to”:

hence

misfortune’s burning

eyes—the

lids of which,

when

this sign appears, should be touched three times with white chalk dust.5 For which of us can see the trap into which we might fall? Iron is “nightmare” or “prophetic vision”; sun is “sleep.” The

mother of this odu, a high-spirited woman, was drugged, and Iro-

sun, therefore, was “conceived in sleep. Nightmares, sent by witches, are signs of psychic disequilibrium. “Who knows what's at

the bottom

of the sea?” runs the Afro-Cuban

adage

for Irosun.

Drowning, he clutched riches. Can he come up? In presenting us with the possibility of the pit, Irosun also tells us how to get out of it.

In Awotunde’s story the transformation occurs by daylight as

if in the crucible of the sun, whom the poor woman, putting on her succession of brighter cloths, becomes. The self-assertive sun

is at its zenith—defining its appearance as it moves through black

clouds across the horizon to red dawn through the early morning haze, burning through to white, higher to “shimmering high noon” in a clear blue sky. Here Ifa-meaning briefly coincides with that of our popular astrology. Why does she sell eko? It is a modest staple food made of cornmeal,

which

has

its ritual

as well

as its nutritional

uses.

For

example, eko is sprinkled upon the dead, and during the first-fruits

festival in Ife the palm nuts belonging to the King are buried in eko porridge overnight by the royal diviners. Iro, which refers to the way eko is cooked, is also the word for a cloth that

a woman wraps

around the most generous middle part of her body. The okra of the

sacrificial prolixity. absorbed the midst of faulty 5. 6.

ingredients is a favorite food of Shango’s; its seeds imply Expansion, extension of the self, can counterbalance selfdepression. The oba’s parallel case (deftly anticipated in of Eko-seller’s story) suggests affliction as the product self-evaluation. Note that he is the King of Oyo who

Maupoil, op. cit., p. 469. McClelland, op. cit.

IROSUN

MEJI

[ 91

should be the paradigm of energy invested in symbols of richness and authority—the exuberant Shango type. But this oba has all of Shango’s anxieties without his supernatural power, his maniacal sense of self. Such a wounded ego needs a praise drum; so here is the origin of the institution of personal inflation known as praising. The higher one’s rank, the more praising one needs, the more authority (ashe) one must have to combat the dangers inherent in such an exposed and eminent position, and the more commanding must be one’s presence. Words of the drum are fragments of the sun—warming, comforting, bestowing the lion’s mane upon someone who, ironically, can embody no more and no less than the combined strivings of his people. Without homage, without the verbal power conveyed through the drum, without the mirror of applause, the oba would, by definition, be nothing.

ele 6

ojọ

Oworin

Welii

AAA

COL 17 COL 17

LA A;

A

YÁ

Hand presses down heavily upon me The invisible worm walks crookedly within me Broom song: Sweep out, out upon the road, cleanse me.

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Eeeee, let us call forth Oworin Meji Ifa promises, O Orunmila, to acknowledge our striving. Let us call forth Tangling co-wives I have seen, never sisters-in-law

who made Ifa for Akitipa on the day he decided to cling;

who made Ifa for Oro, ceremonial tree,

uptight on account of creepers. Asked to sacrifice against constriction : seven cocks, one cutlass, seven bags of cowries.

[ 93 |

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

94 1

Oro obeyed immediately. Ifa leaves were made for him: Akitipa lost his grip; Old canopy rose above his enemies. So the babalawo said,

Co-wives contending I have seen, never sisters-in-law Creepers cut loose decisively Ifa nails the head of destiny’s hostage.

Now let us consider three types of scarification: = Thirty sets of abaja horizontals

—||

|||

Twenty sets of perpendiculars called keke

Fifty upright woro woro slashes who made Ifa for The-year-I-should-have-died child of Stand-up-and-fight : Five bags of cowries and a five-legged chicken. Taken out upon the road,

snatched up

by Hawk

out of sight, completely. So when Death came along,

I-should-have-died said,

Sorry, bought a chicken to buy off road but Hawk got there first; roadblock too bad I can't go with you this year.

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings.

Now listen to the third verse: Road-watcher

flutters a warning:

Kill fire!

OWORIN

MEJI

Hot tongue is stretching out his tendrils, Tree demon darts crookedly, Barely-audible reaches out from behind the green wall plucks the child’s eyeball, rambles, jingle-jangle, whirring mirth, swallows made Ifa for Fire, child of the big king Here comes tree-climber all aflutter with appendages. . . . Kill fire! Tree sprite saunters.

. . .

made Ifa for Sun, child of the big king Hot tongue comes on strong Green words wander to the mark made Ifa for Moon, child of the big king Watch out, fire-fighters, he will seize the child,

pluck the eyeball made Ifa for Stars, big king’s children Cold eye famishes fire A voice in the forest wanders, devours

made Ifa for Tail-feathers, son of the big king wonna wonna pango pango pango pana oro rin woroworo

They said, all five of you have good reason to sacrifice— get with it; but fire didn’t nor sun nor moon— stars also deficient. Tail-feathers, gray parrot, hearing the news, complied with the verdict.

[ 95

96

1

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

So they lit the fire of Ifa for him

and he was installed chief in his father’s house— Owner-of-red-tail-feathers.

After a time it began to pour and fire was dead, sun expelled to the distant heavens, moon condemned to mope behind a thick veil. Down poured the rain but could not extinguish gray parrot’s high-ranking feathers. So they promoted him great king. Ifa, don’t let bitter children of the world

O Orunmila, extinguish my fire,

long-lived coconut, fresh forever,

as red tail-feathers weathered the rain

which sizzled out fire, that boldest of warriors,

which exiled sun

to the smutch of heaven,

please don’t let them snuff out me: downpour

never quenched gray bird great king

red tail-feathers.

So the diviner praised Ifa, saying

It is anthill we call Boldest-of-warriors;

Rain refused to extinguish power

but anthill remains boldest of warriors;

Sun and moon were put out, red feathers triumphed; but hot mound which sprouts from earth like a horn, surely he remains boldest of warriors— fire, water, hotter, drier—

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings!

OWORIN

MEJI

[ 97

+ “9

“We have consulted Oworin Meji, may evil not surprise us, causing us to flee, leaving our children.” This is an extremely

dangerous

sign:

an indication

of persistent

drought, famine, and lingering disease—all conditions associated

with Babaluaye as father of black sorcery’s practitioners, son of outraged earth that refuses to yield, and as the dry wind that brings premonitions of epidermal and abdominal maladies. Other divini-

ties

associated

with

this

climacteric

are

the

agricultural

Oko,

Gbegbekunegbe (given as the “place” Oworin was born ),! and, not surprisingly, Our Mothers, the witches, with Eshu as agent provocateur and Shango as antagonist. Etymologically, hand (owo) ought to wash hand—so goes the proverb expressive of social harmony. But there is no water, and hand either flees (rin-walks) or presses

down heavily (rin). One may also be in the grip of dysentery (orin). Babaluaye’s broom (owo) expresses, among other things, the division of the human community into doomed, mutually suspicious strands of straw. His crooked walk (wororin) is the way of death, malevolence, and therefore of the strongest countermeasures.

The first verse sets the tone by pointing, through the diviner’s name, to divisive weakness in family relations. The number of sacrificial items indicates witchcraft at work on the client whose claustrophobic situation anticipates that of the doomed protagonist in the second instance. There is a curious link between the two passages

having to do with sacrifice as exorcism. The chicken (with its prodigious five legs)? is an example of adie-iranon, “the sacrifice we abandon

on the road,” commented

Awotunde.

It is meant

to in-

sure the entry of the soul of the deceased into heaven; but there are

1. McClelland, op. cit. Apparently this new yam-divinity has been active from the beginning of Oworin’s existence. 2. Why the five legs? A sign of the climacteric? An expression of the real impossibility of such postponement? A device to make the witches stop to count and, with disbelief, to recount and recount the legs? The first fowl to come to earth had five legs. This was the chicken sent down from heaven to scratch and spread the black soil on the waters.

98

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

other associations. More generally, any traveler might sacrifice a fowl to the road;? more specifically, there is an Oro cult ceremony called iranon held to expel evil influences from dwellings in the township.‘ Akitipa, the constricting vine in verse one, declares him-

self to be a creature who afflicts, or eats (pa) by gripping (a-kiti), and also warns that one can’t close up (evil) too tightly (aki-atipa). Maupoil, in discussing types of sacrifices required by Ifa gives kiti as the Yoruba name for a mound outside of town especially prepared to represent all places where abandoned sacrifices could pos-

sibly go. This embassy of diverse locales belongs to Ifa. Most orisha

rarely require abandoned sacrifices, rather a taking-in or taking-on, housing their symbols where they may be appropriately fed; but Babaluaye is an important exception. Not only are his shrines established well away from the human community, but he also has his own special kiti, which Maupoil translates “dangerous clod.”® Sacrifices to placate witches are always taken out. Oworin Meji, custodian of the land-locked, customs officer of the way out, reminds us of the high price (own) we pay for living, for dying, for existence

at the subsistence

level—low

blood

count, minimal

ashe.

For ashe as vital authority is equivalent in the Yoruba scheme

of things to Christian grace. As blood-power, found in the sap of leaves, as a kind of fire to which witches and sorcerers have ready access it may, as we have seen, be ritually augmented, magically— or medicinally—increased, as in the case of gray parrot. High concentrations are found in the persons of kings and priests, who “represent” divinity. Parrot’s blood-red tail-feathers are magic emblems

of authority worn by various dignitaries and masked dancers. It is not unusual to find them concealed in the hair or under the scarf or cap of a new-world worshiper of the orisha: a bright daub of evil-repellent, a pentecostal tongue telling of ashe. But although he may not burn so bright as a natural ruler endowed with the brilliance of command,® the orisha who dominates this major odu 3. See Wole Soyinka’s poem

“Death in the Dawn,”

>

also his play The Strong

Breed, which deals with the figure of the scapegoat. 4. Abraham, op. cit., p. 484. 5. Maupoil, op. cit., pp. 357-359. 6. This is Thompson’s word for ashe. See Robert Farris Thompson, Black Gods and Kings, Occasional Papers of the Museum and Laboratories of

Ethnic Arts and Technology, (1971)

(passim).

University of California

at Los Angeles, No.

2

OWORIN

MEJI

smolders longer, will burn on beneath out of mind—long after all other fires very seas have dried. This is why the it does; as the diviner says, this, lest we is the meaning of Oworin Meji."

[ 99

his chthonic ant-heap time are put out, long after the final chorus takes the form forget the primacy of earth,

7. Illness-resistance-scarcity-persistence: the images of this odu are eclipsed for me by that of the gaunt, dark-gowned, wicked-eyed priest of Babaluaye whose scrawny wit caused infectious hilarity in Suzanne Wenger’s house when he, rumored dead (poisoned by Moslem enemies, I think), suddenly appeared—throwing up his arms with a wild grin, saying, “Death has rejected me!”

ae '7 &}

Obara

Meji

I awoke to the sound of winnowing rain

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Listen to what’s coming now— May we survive the combination! Obara Meji wants praising. Frailty of my right hand gains confidence in my left Two coco-yam leaves applauding, gently, gently Heavy fan declares war on perspiration, energetically cools the eyes of the lady vendor made Ifa for King Startled awake by breaking of a string of beads (sudden storm at the place of the forked stick ) child of | Tiny caps for bald palm nut shells (can he catch hold of them? )

[ 101|

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|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

on the day he was going to swear an oath with the orisha of the bush. Two pigeons, two chickens, two bags of cowries required, given. Ifa leaves were made for him. O Orunmila,

may the spirit of the bush be bound by my oath as a stake supports new yam shoots

may orisha take hold said the King of new-founded Ido.

Now let us cultivate the second row. Orunmila tells of a clod

which collects loose wrongs, becoming a glob of trouble which squats upon the ground but doesn’t produce any children, ever.

When birds alight, their wings are loose as flapping garments, Good fortune out of Eshu’s kingdom walks ponderously northwest to Ijero; avoiding pestilence, he takes the slow white-cotton road. The one who winds iron round his arm

is Ogun’s son.

Ogun it was who waking early in the morning, alerted his hunting hand; nor did he bat an eye, his gaze was open, steady— Despite all this you cannot ostracize him from society— He says, whoever has food, should go on buying it, for it's a lean king who introduces us to death a thin staff who makes us come to know disease

OBARA

MEJI

I 103

a meager ruler from whom we learn about fighting. O Orunmila, don’t let the person-swallower gulp me, wake the household, strike the bata

Don't let the person-grabber get me in his clutches! Ifa hides, Ifa seeks, dodges deeply, as the diver. . . . “Orisha’s sword is always sharp—” forever green although it doesn’t grow upright highly respected used according to prescription— that’s the way to catch a thief!

made Ifa for Deathly-regains-his-strength on his way to consult the father of secrets. Passing through the great forest he heard the gong-gonger, strolling back, strolling forth— no mistaking that voice— go-go ago, song of the gong-warner; So he turned off onto Melon-seed road, o-bara

and there he found the divining board, opon, opon: They'd uprooted a stump and carved it king of the forest; Blotchy-red-death installed king of the savannah; Melon seed alapa— king of foods;

Newcomer-burst-into-manifold-fullness king of the court called In-time-of-hunger-escape-from-misery, 0-bara. Daybreak, another dawning, I Water-carriers on their way to O Orunmila, how can I go with I must take care of my father’s bind them together my father’s velvet

dare not go. the river, them? kind |

hands spinning in unison, gbogbogbo

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|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

remember my father's flocks

feet shuffling in unison, gbogbogbo

my father’s wild ram eyes like fireballs delighting in the life of conflagration. Its community lifts the striving hand above the crowd to attainment Its entirety allows the moon to outshine the stars

Its muchness lengthens the menace of thorns,

gbogbogbo

Cast Ifa for the King of Ife early in the morning Who wanted Ifa taught to his children. Orunmila taught them the calabash of the hand and they knew it— sixteen fingers and an opposable guardian

Then he taught them how to press the ground

with two digits and they knew it Then he showed them how to sacrifice in the back yard As a result of which they understood Ifa as if palm wine flowed in their veins like the helpful assistant and they understood medicine as well, if not better

than the owner of vast black wickedness. Then they began to practice their knowledge as far, as wide

as uncertain line between swamp and lagoon

However,

They killed black dog, without feeding Ogun, They killed ram, and forgot about Shango, They killed pigeon,

OBARA

MEJI

and neglected Odu, They killed two giant rats, without offering them to our wingẹ̀d mothers, They smoked two fish,

and let our father the horse owner go hungry, They killed a goat and withheld it from our elder big enough to sound an ivory tusk like a trumpet. As a result of which Orunmila said, Baba, break loose,

spread yourself like a darkling plain

before their vision,

dig a trench behind them to cut off all retreat;

and you, worthless students, may work may behold the land of Ife no longer. Early in the morning Olofin, Chief Legislator, came to Orunmila

asking that his children be taught Ifa. Last time I did this, they didn’t appreciate my teaching. Don’t worry, my children will, the Olofin assured him. So Orunmila taught the legislator’s children about the hands and their container about pressing the dust about the first sacrifice sent from earth to heaven and when he was finished they understood Ifa as if palm tree had nursed them and they understood medicine as if their father were chief of all black magicians. Then they went forth as far as swamp, no farther than lagoon working their secrets.

[ 105

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|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

They killed black dog and gave him to the leader of the opposition, Ram they slaughtered in honor of Shango, Pigeon they strangled in honor of the great container, Giant rat they gave to our mother whose wings enable the penetration of hidden corners, Two fish to our father who rides a living broom, Goat to the trumpeter of ivory. May darkness obstructing the path of their vision like tangle of creepers dissipate into infinite shadows cast by shade trees on tilled soil, May darkness of the pitfall behind them creep out upon the savannah. All are forgiven.

May my children move freely now in the land of Ife For on the day goat is delivered on that very day kid’s eyes are opened, Sheep gives birth, ewe’s eyes open betimes, So human infants, once born, start seeing,

twice born, start seeing.

—thus Orunmila.

O Opener, open my eyes that I may look upon the world, O Opener, help me clear my path of vision O Opener, open my eyes O Carver, incise reality, clear vision. May sacrifice dissipate foreshadowing. How does it happen that this road answers to the name of Obara Meji? Identical cloths imply the bonds of association

OBARA

MEJI

Trade is getting better all the time steadily, people converging together Forked stick brings mercy from heaven to sweeten my insides. Made Ifa for the Oba on the day he was going to purchase two slaves. He wanted to know if they would give good service. Asked to sacrifice: what should he give? Two pigeons, two hens, and twenty-two bags of cowries.

He complied and they fixed Ifa leaves for him:

Give this medicine time to work, then go to market.

Arrived, and beheld two slaves immediately. How much are they worth? Two hundred bags of cowries. TITI pay half. That’s enough. Payment rendered. No sooner had he taken these two home with him than his affairs began to prosper, peace and quiet settled upon his township, his children didn’t die, nor yet his wives, so people were attracted to this leader. Say, where are you going? To the king-who-bought-two, oba-ra-meji,

that’s where. Which king? He who bought two for the price of ..

.

are betterthan.... Praise to identical cloths Praise to the sweet rain of cowries We have sacrificed; Greetings for the deed

may its worthiness be the means of continuity.

[ 107

108

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

So “We have sacrificed to Obara Meji; it is fan that vanishes sweat.”

Obara Meji is the odu of prosperity, “he who comes to life when watermelon (bara) seeds are hammered”!—to extract their oil.

Awotunde’s recitation is like a eulogy (rdra) to a good king (oba) whose corpulent well-being eases the life of all within range. The

weather has turned, we are under the aegis of the rainbow, of a cool breeze from the sea promising riches. Effort and relaxation are balanced; sinister forces are respected, kept in their place; the mood is generous, expansionist. Case number one is the oba who pioneers, piously seeking the protection of the force that rules the bush he must penetrate to settle. Evils are ceremonially deposited in Babaluaye’s rubbish heap;

that which should be avoided is bypassed. Ogun-the-dangerous is

not expelled, but respected for his open-eyed realism. We listen to

his advice on increase: if you have, spend (an oba-ra is a buying king). Thieves?

Orunmila’s

priests know

the right leaves and the

right charms to ferret them out.? Obara, hitherto weak, finds him-

self king according to Ifa’s prediction, while Oworin (in the guise of Babaluaye) reigns out in the savannah where he ought to be. The lyric beginning “Daybreak, another dawning . . .” is an exploration through images of abundance and achievement of a state of being praised and threatened by the refrain gbogbogbo with its conflicting associations of healthy corpulence (fat king) and

restless agitation to be channeled into patterned activity. According to the swing of meaning taken by the phrase in context, gbogbogbo expresses a shaky plenitude that Gerard Manley Hopkins would

have

understood,

and

there are connotations

of infinite, un-

tamed combustibility in the Shango-esque image of the ram which reminded me of Yeats’s phrase “a flaming brand comes to destroy.”

“Charisma” might be an academic translation of gbogbogbo, but a charisma expressive of the entire household or community. The concept

is what

a Hegelian

might

call the secularization

of the

spirit of ashe—quantitative, cooperative, humanistic ashe. But the 1. McClelland, op. cit. 2. Pierre Fatumbi Verger,

Yoruba

Medicinal

Leaves,

University

of Ife, p. 44.

OBARA

MEJI

[ 109

society implied is so far from secularization in our sense that such a definition is inadequate. Here are further predications to gbogbogbo from our verbal world: charged with the glory of/ catch fire, draw

flame/

only

connect/

tuned

in,

turned

on,

tuned

out/

intelligence/ ripeness is all/ togetherness. The moral corollary of this state of imbalance is the gravity of personal responsibility: “I must take care of. . . .” The greater the capacity, the greater the outpouring and stress of receptivity—the insistence that everyone do his own thing for everyone’s benefit. Obdrd means “rope,” that which, like the king, binds all accomplishments, that they may endure. But ripeness is and is not all there is to it. Such is Ifa’s spirit. Final ripeness must burst out to achieve wisdom, or end in mad-

ness. Therefore we find the King of Ife (the city of inwardness as opposed to the external arete of Oyo) now asking Orunmila to teach his children the science of divination. They fail because they have

not understood the meaning of sacrifice, nor the meaning of the

odu itself—the lesson of the rope, that which is due to each on behalf of everything. Unable to see the entirety, their insensitivity to the complexity of powers ruling the universe precludes their success

in realizing their predictions as diviners. There is a good deal of ambiguity about the second king. One might consider him to be the supreme god of creation, or, more prosaically, the traditional

ruler of Lagos. I have taken a middle meaning

for Olofin. The

beautiful eye-opener is a song of initiated rebirth. The image of the carver incising “visibility” comes from Thompson’s exegesis of the Yoruba

aesthetic.2

membered,

The

Yoruba

word

for civilization,

it will be re-

is “open-eyed.” The civilized king is also open-handed,

most importantly, balanced. To be too open is to be disoriented. Obara is extremely dangerous. As we have seen, without the proper

gravity, gbogbogbo can become frenetic agitation; vision can imply hallucination. Otura-Obara is the Ifa combination for the tranquil-

izer rauwolfia.

The last section,‘ the buying

(ra)

of the two slaves is more

3. First published in Art News, January, 1968, as “Aesthetics in Traditional Africa,” and later elaborated in Black Gods and Kings, op. cit. 4. Note the diviner’s name, a further expression of the sense of community. Identical costumes are worn by various groups at the time of the festival (as

indeed all over the world from Rio to Tokyo), and more generally by friends who wish by this means to give evidence of their affection.

IIO

Ì

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

important philosophically than it seems. Wisdom

may well be the

crown of human achievement, but the apotheosis of plenitude is bifurcation. (On the darker side, the apotheosis of self in its intensity leads to disintegration—the splitting of personality.) The miracle of twins reaffirms creation’s original postulate: being is two. The king purchases, I think, Dioscuri: slave-of-the-day, slaveof-the-night. The season shifts, and we are on to Okanran Meji.

ojẹ

$

&

Okanran

Meii

Washes off catches on doubles, redoubles paints the world red.

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Okanran Meji; Don't you see the road Ifa took to respond to this name? You killed rat Ifa tasted nothing You killed fish Ifa tasted nothing How dare you eat bean cake in the presence of witches? Made Ifa for Cock-on-his-way to roost at the place of secrets. Cock-a-doodle, they said, you ought to sacrifice

that no harm befall you traveling for many the evil eyes of the envious. What must I provide? [ 111|

II2

)

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

One of your own kind, Ifa leaves plucked on the dry side of the farm, a cutlass, and ten bags of cowries. Cock complied, they worked leaves for him and suggested he bathe with the prepared soap. Cock did so, but on-his-way to the backyard of secrets he unwittingly crossed a place on the road where bad medicine had been sprinkled. So when he knelt at Ifa’s shrine his prayers became curses—cock-a-doodle to you,

O, what am I saying? Then the sky became dark, threatening rain which suddenly poured down in torrents. Antidote, antidote; whereupon,

Cock crowed forth abundant blessings.

But you started off cursing, bystanders said, what is the meaning? All words spoken before rain, said Cock-a-doodle, were but seemingly evil, and in the ears of Orunmila already turned beneficial. Meanwhile, Cock’s children, his wives—

Calabash waddles ahead Sooty cloth straggles after having heard the news that Cock-a-doodle had trouble awaiting in the yard of secrets, got dressed and followed after. Approaching, they saw Cock-a-doodle himself, beckoning from a distance; drawing nearer, they heard him announcing in person, This is I, Cock-a-doodle,

no need to worry, rain has changed evil to goodle; in the words of the diviner: You killed rat, gave Ifa nothing, You smoked fish, gave Ifa nothing,

OKANRAN

MEJI

[ 113

How dare you flaunt your bean cake before witches? Made Ifa for Cock on his way to roost with secrets. . . . Waddling Calabash, Cock-a-doodle’s senior wife Straggling sooty cloth a close second took up the chorus: Rain beat down on Cock-a-doodle,

turning mockery to beatitude Waddling Calabash—ho, Straggling Sooty-feathers—hey, Rain provided the antidote turned the cloak of curses right side out bad to good drummed on Cock

sounding devout, devout, devout.

Now can you see how praises run for Okanran Meji? Sew them up send them once twice-begot. Nail them down drum them in ne er forgot.

May our sacrifice bring survival.

The second verse of Okanran Meji: Can’t you see the way Ifa took to arrive at this designation? Fly lit upon glowing brass tray— fancied himself king of reflected glory Made Ifa for Sacrifice-to-divinity-before-darkness, slave of Alapa the destroyer. Can I get out from under? Maybe. Sacrifice accomplishes wonders. What then? Six pigeons, six hens, six shillings, and a bar of soap.

114

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

He sacrificed. They fixed medicinal leaves, asked him to bathe with them, saying that all things denied would now be his— money, progeny, buildings to house them, fame. He sacrificed again, had recourse to Ifa regularly, and from then on, small jobs brought in big money. He started building houses to accommodate more wives, more children,

and people were amazed: We thought Sacrifice-to-divinity-before-darkness was but a slave,

now look at him.

How did he come to be

such an important person?

and the people said, Ha,

come and see what this slave has accomplished,

for he, no son of the manor,

has become a local celebrity. Sacrifice-to-divinity, dancing and singing: Praise to the diviner who told me: Fly lit upon glowing brass tray: How well this reflects my glory Who made Ifa for Sacrifice-to-divinity-before-darkness, destroyer’s slave, Come and see how well I am doing! and the people said, He is fit to wear beads,

come look at his qualifications; singing and dancing graced with distinction come and see how beads would reflect his authority.

Greetings for sacrifice offered and received, Greetings!

This is the third verse of Okanran Meji; now can you see how Ifa came to be so-called?

OKANRAN

MEJI

Touching you touches me made Ifa for Wild woman seized by intermittent madness on the day she ran about shrieking Can't I ever have any children? She was prepared to promise anything to anybody. They said, you can have a child, but you must bring plenty of camwood, two pigeons, two hens, and twenty-two heads of cowries. She sacrificed; they doctored the camwood and told her to rub it all over her body. That very month she became pregnant. During the tenth month she gave birth to four identical children,

and Wild woman was astonished to see how the pomade prepared for her glowed on the skin of these infants— one more alike than the other. Singing, Ifa, all born to resemble me Fierce red that’s how Wild woman has her children. Rubbed on you rubbed on me can’t rub off Sang the Wild woman, twice twinned— We have sacrificed, Greetings!

This is the fourth verse; now it must be apparent

how Ifa came to be so-called. There is something shaking inside the gourd Blue touraco is shaking: existence delights me. made Ifa for Child smacks brass: obstreperous language who insisted on drinking firewater for three shillings.

[ 115

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Will he get on in the world?

Asked to provide three shillings worth of spirits,

six cocks

and six heads of cowries. Having sacrificed, he took a wife who happened to be Oya. They distilled Ifa leaves with his liquor for him and said, Start drinking. No sooner had he begun to sip than money poured in, houses sprang up all around his yard, the beginnings of authority. But the people said, watch out,

this wife of yours is a very strong woman. Never mind! He began to prosper exceedingly and went about rejoicing, dancing, praising his diviners,

Though but one cup

three shillings worth’s enough for from this trade I shall prosper. The fiercer the wife the fiercer the husband but Oya is more

ferocious than most— my wife’s an unusual woman. Headstrong spirits both of us but wilder my wife than her husband. So you want to go call upon Shango? Are you not afraid of that wife of his? Her rows can ruin everything. Shango drinks fire, but all the same,

his wife is a very strong woman. Shango spits fire, well and good, but Oya’s fierce, fiercer than her husband— Tornado is a liberated woman. We have sacrificed, Greetings!

OKANRAN

MEJI

[ 117

olọ “We have consulted Okanran Meji; I have got up from the place where one speaks evil of my friend and gone to a better.” Okanran Meji is the door through which Shango entered the world, and his great double-axe all but fills the frame. Traveling from Obara to Okanran we shift from plenitude to hyperbole. From realm to courtyard we pass on, entering the palace of Oyo’s legendary fourth king who in a fit of rage against the enemy

(his own limita-

tions) inadvertently destroyed his own family. Expelled for his tyranny, he committed suicide and became an orisha. All aspiration narrows to a flame, the forest to a single unyielding tree. Breadth contracts, then plummets along the perpendicular from mountain peak (where Shango acquired supernatural powers by using magical fire in a fit of elemental destructiveness) to cavity (where he entered the earth, grounding the power of his thunder-

bolt), then ascends the sky of his apotheosis. This is the axis of the atmospheric

energy

that human

beings in moments

of exaltation

seize upon as the natural correlative to their desire for transcendence. Suzanne Wenger is always at pains to make clear to me the difference between highly controlled possession in Nigeria and flamboyant behavior under trance—the cultivation of dissociation in New World cult situations. There are those whose control is such that they might be said to be in a discreet and continuous

State of possession by divinity. This quality of consciousness is particularly appropriate to those who worship Obatala,’ for ex-

ample, or Ifa. However, extreme behavior, consummated by the temporary abrogation during possession dances of the distinction

between elemental (fiery) and human passion, is characteristic of Shango priests in Yoruba country. On the other side of the Atlantic,

Shango

1. This

is not

to say

repressed emotion,

op. Cit.

in some that

places

(Recife,

all orisha-worship

for example, does

not

involve

or Trinidad) the

that of Obatala in an especially subtle way.

release

of

See Lambo,

118

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

is the proper name for all Yoruba-derived celebrations of the orisha.” But the meaning of Okanran is not limited to the space in which Shango’s personality expresses itself. It is also the locus of twins. This door through which germs of new life burst, bifurcate, and multiply rapidly is associated with the eighth house of astrology and traditional geomancy, the place of death and regeneration. In Ifa’s scheme, this eighth phase of psychic development is linked to its double,

the sixteenth;

Okanran

and

ent positions, share the same rank—an

Ofun,

although

anomaly

in differ-

dramatized

on

the mythological level by Shango’s famous friendship with Obatala.

There are two odu for which the client must pay extra: Eji Ogbe, the way of life, the road transcendence, the way sion. In the shell system these signs actually take

to reason; and Okanran Meji, of orisha worship as a religion of divination (hereafter called reversed places: eight is one

eight; the extreme, the mean; 2.

Sociohistorical

conditions

are

the will to of possesDilogun),? and one is

the trough, the crest of the wave. responsible

not

only

for

the

psychic

needs

at the basis of the “violent’”-possession syndrome, but also for the extraordi-

nary power this particular orisha has acquired in the New World. 3. The word Dilogun is derived from the Yoruba word meaning “sixteen.” The system is called Elegba in Yorubaland and Dilogun in Cuban-derived Yoruba cults. Any fully initiated priest or priestess of an orisha may throw the sixteen shells and, with certain restrictions, interpret them to clients. Although most of the names of the figures are related to certain odu of Ifa, as are the meanings, their order is different and seems to reflect a more ancient organization of the world’s active forces. Because there are but fifteen work-

able possibilities

(rather than 256)

Dilogun is a far simpler system,

which

by the same token places a burden of scope upon each figure. Furthermore, being what it is, who speaks and what that orisha has to say is of the utmost importance. A comparison between the two systems is often illuminating. For example, Shango dominates two of the fifteen ways of Dilogun. In the sign called Obara, he speaks like the other orisha. The number of this sign in Dilogun is six (“In dreams begin responsibilities”), a solid auspicious number. In the crucial twelfth sign he “appears in person”—a simple phrase that means more than “everything” and cannot possibly be interpreted here, Save to say that the meaning of the Ifa odu “Okanran Meji” is implied. The name of this figure is “work of the gods” or ‘sacrifice to the gods.” A name derived from Okanran is given to the first sign of Dilogun, which is extremely dangerous, being the opening through which Death, the dead, as well as Elegba, and Ogun may speak. (Here, clearly, is a sense of the “older” order.) See William Bascom, “Two Forms of Afro-Cuban Divination,” in Acculturation in the Americas, edited by Sol Tax, Cooper Square Publishers, New York, 1967.

OKANRAN

MEJI

[ 119

Etymologically, okon is “one”; okôn is “heart”; the odu takes both low tones. Heart for the Yoruba is the site of emotive and psychic

energy;*

for

the

alchemists

it is the

sun

in

man—im-

memorially the organ eaten for strength, the only innard the Egyptians embalmed

within

the body.

Take

heart,

take courage;

tively it means

“to bask,” the reflexive validation

hearts

ardor is loyalty. The verb ron describes the effect of fire as fed by wind: something “caught” fire, the conflagration “spread.” Intransi-

seen in the Ifa

images of the fly on the brass tray, and the promoted slave seeming to attract beads to his radiant person. Back to Shango again: a synapse of the apposite energies of accentuated personality (stress) and passive possession by divinity. Shango’s

divided

personality

is full of conceits

of validation

through opposition and consummation. Outraged dispenser of jus-

tice

in

never,

a

thunderbolt,

until the end,

he

annihilates

the

accept

the truth

about

liar

because

himself.

As

he

could

a divinity

he permits his priests to exercise a certain tyranny over those whom

human society will accept as legitimate victims of his wrath, because his mercy is rain, the blessing of fertility. Like all thunder gods he engenders twins, statuettes of which, carved to substitute on earth for the heavenly ones who die early, may be seen dressed in miniature replicas of vests worn by thun-

der-god

priests.

Sometimes,

from

his ceremonial

double-axe,

when

the ends are tapered to recall the horns of his fiery avatar the ram,

small heads may be seen to sprout. The axe itself is a plant. The haft is a stem, the leaves organic thunder-stones upon which eyes are often incised—two,

or four,

or six. When

the

axe bursts

from

the head of a carving of a Shango worshiper, her swelling breasts repeat the motif. In the West Indies, Shango, the paradigm of machismo, is syncretized with Santa Barbara,’ apparently for meteorological reasons; but there’s more to it than that. In the ancient

world the double-axe belonged not only to the Hittite weather god but to the Cretan hearth goddess. Its power originally rested in its

fertile ambivalence, the centrality of its location between mountain

top and bird wings, between

4. 5.

the horns of the sacrificial animal,

E. Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare, Praeger, New York, 1963, p. 170. In Brazil he is most often linked with the solstitial saint, John

The identification is, of course, equally apt.

the Baptist.

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

only later in the upraised hand of justice. Shango’s axe subsumes

all ancient associations including the double nature of sexuality.

Even

his priests are of two

types. “One

is hearty,

given

to noisy

display and fascinated by conjuring; the other is less confidently

boisterous and often temperamental. Both types are subject to violent bouts of dissociation and are transvestite in this state.5

Oya, the mother of twins, orisha of high winds and the Niger River, Shango’s favorite consort who shares (most myths say stole) some

of his fire, would

seem

at some

distant time

to have been

his

twin. Loyally (after a brief bout of desertion) she committed suicide after him. Logically, had she any other course? She must play Cathy to his Heathcliffe. In the New World, however, Shango seems to prefer his earthier river-wife, the gleaming Oshun, while Oya in exile has developed her potential as death goddess: medium, Medusa, Hecate, Kali.

In Awotunde’s recitation of Okanran Meji we see Oya twice: as the bickering Hera, and as Hera’s alter ego, her rival, her victim who, like Alcmene (also strong-in-wrath), would give birth to hero-

ism and song were not her womb tied up by witchcraft. Camwood is medicinally rubbed on the bellies of pregnant women to facilitate

parturition. So rubbed were children of Oyo born through Shango’s intercession; so twin images from Oyo to this day are rubbed.’ By some miracle of artistic intuition, Awotunde produced quadruplets for Okanran Meji: two Oyas (with Shango in one and multiple births in the other), and two images of the Shango personality as expressive of reversal, inversion. The humorous tale

of Cock-a-doodle conceals a dangerous bit of sorcery, the mechanism of making a curse boomerang. Note it is Shango’s rain-power that defeats the witchcraft of which,

were

I Cock-a-doodle,

I would

Suspect those all-too-knowledgeable wives of his—feathered containers of earth’s darker secrets. In Spanish-speaking households

where the orisha are worshiped, Cock sits atop the diminutive altar that represents

the worshipers

personality—a

homely

version

of

6. Joan Wescott and Peter Morton-Williams, op. cit., p. 25. 7. Thompson, Black Gods and Kings, Chapt. 13. For her help in procuring me materials on the iconography of the Dioscuri and many other topics I would like here to thank my friend Louise Bradford.

OKANRAN

MEJI

[ 121

the watch-bird of power put upon king’s crowns and certain priestly staffs in Yorubaland.® The promoted slave’s name, Borisha, is similar to that of the twelfth sign under which Shango “appears in person” during consultations with cowries. On the surface, the name also suggests a conjunction of sacrifice and divine dispensation and conceals the violent incestuous encounter that haunts the entire odu system— the darker side of duality as vivification, one of the fundamental mysteries of human consciousness.

There are tales, told repeatedly in the New World, suggesting that Shango really was a slave who managed to become Oyo’s king in a troubled time. True it is in any case that he was passion’s slave and that his existence, authenticated by fire, must be tempered by the calm virtue implicit in water. This control is symbolized by the alternately-strung red and white beads all devotees of the thunder orisha wear to commemorate the time Obatala was dishonored in Shango’s house and then restituted. This passion play of humility and forgiveness reaffirms, each time it is reenacted, the loyal devotion that is self-conscious duality in the affective sphere. Iconographically, then, Shango-beads express purity juxtaposed with anger, transcendent reconciliation.

The literal meaning of Okanran (or Okonron) Maupoil’s informants, is “the first word.” “Word”

means “affair” us back to Eji cry of the gray nounced again

according to here (oron)

(“to do” or “to be done”), also “trouble,” which brings Ogbe (“mine is important, mine is important,” the heron) whose triumph over stagnation must be anand again. That first business is life, and in order

for this to be so, the first word must be two. The ram, himself a twin, uttered it. A water-word, contradiction of its solar origin,

despite the ever-increasing gap between the two worlds of earth and heaven, you, any one of us, can still hear when it thunders. 8. Robert Farris Thompson, “The Sign of the Arts d'Afrique, III, 3 (Spring, 1970) (passim).

Divine

King,”

African

Arts/

9. This odu provides another interesting parallel between the cosmic worldview of the western-Sudanese Dogon and the Yoruba metaphysic. In these last phrases I am thinking of the Nommo as expounded to Marcel Griaule in his Conversations

with

Ogotemmeli,

Oxford

University

Press,

1965.

e

O

+

Ogunda Meji

By thy rod, black fire, center me.

Greetings for the sacrifice.

Now let us praise Ogunda Meji: Pa-pa-pow: Ogun went off spontaneously made Ifa for Gun on the day he was going to war against his enemies. Told to sacrifice for overcoming— seven cocks and seven bags of cowries. This done, they made gun medicine, asking him to repeat: “may my voice not die in my mouth.”

Virile, pa-pa-pow, gun snapped pa-pa-pow:

now his enemies are dying by the thousands: So the diviner said on the day gun went off to war;

that’s the day he woke up and started speaking: ogun-da-jiii May our sacrifice mean survival, Greetings.

[ 123 ]

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Row two: can you see the road Ifa took to this designation? Fixed farm-plots, O my volatile. . . . I arrived in oko, ate and drank out there,

leaned back against akoko tree and thought, I have come to the place of getting myself together

Made Ifa for Orunmila on the day he was traveling out to Oko (warning: pull out, avoid arguments )

Will everything go all right with him there?

You should have known better than to choose Oko,

but sacrifice and see what happens. Two pigeons, two cocks, twenty-two bags of cowries.

Orunmila complied, they made medicine for him— Now you should find good at your destination. He went on up to Oko and started to get on famously; married My-breasts-have-ripened-ready-to-fall, child of Oko’s chief, Whip-lash, love-potion, child of Oko’s chief,

and So-heavy-my-breasts-they-have-fallen-down-

still-am-I-without-a-husband,

Oloko’s daughter. So the diviners told him: Arrived in Oko,

ate and drank in Oko,

my back against the tree of Ogun here I knew, here was where I could see myself together.

So Orunmila got on well and married

Melon-breasted, Love-potion, Pendulous.

Then I will go with you to Oko next time, they sang, Here comes the diviner,

Over the ridge of the farm path he comes

. . .

OGUNDA

MEJI

[ 125

followed by full-breasted women;

dividing the kola: three up and one down

must be a favorable omen;

crowned with good fortune homeward bound behold the diviner —He's got it made! —Right on! —Juncture, all-of-a-piece.

— Together!

. . .

Greetings!

ef2, “We have consulted Ogunda Meji, do not show us your power.” Ogunda Meji and Osa Meji begin a new cycle the original conflicts between earth and sky, and water are brought into sharper focus witchcraft and Ifa functions, as the wresting earth, from women.

of odu action in which female and male, fire as a struggle between of mantic power from

Osa is the sign of the crescent moon,

Ose of

the decrescent. And between these two, from the tenth to the fifteenth odu, action unfolds by night, in the darker half of the human

psyche as projected into the intelligible geometry of Ifa. And just as the night sky falls under planetary influences, so one senses in these odu the alternating influences of Venus and Mars, while Mercury, as Elegba, moves back and forth, disturbing the congealing order, clarifying murky situations. The lunar is also present as the menstrual flow over whose awful power Osa rules, just as Ika— another aspect of magic

(Yemoja the Great Mother as porcupine )

controls abortions. It is worthwhile here, perhaps, to note that the signs acting as “doors” through which witches come into the world are at the

same time “moments” in the process of divination, which have to

do with writing the signs on the divining board—a symbolic earthsurface. Under Irete the odu are marked; Osa “develops” them; Ika erases them. Some of the complicated ways in which Ogunda is

126

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

linked both to the world of witchcraft and to the process of divination will be discussed below. Suffice it to say here that Ogunda is related

to Irete

as hammer

as road to forest. The cycle that Ogunda back to Obara and Okanran

to anvil,

as sacrificial

knife

to victim,

begins consists of six signs that look and forward to Oshe and Ofun. Back

to Obara and Okanran because here odd-numberedness begins—the

dramatic disequilibrium of the “heavy” signs of seven traits; forward to Oshe and Ofun because they complete the “action” begun by Ogunda and Osa. The “thin” signs of five traits (as ideograms ) convey mobility, energy, thrust, and—conversely—target, destination, anchored accomplishment. If Obara and Okanran appear light-headed and top heavy, as potentially dangerous as overcharged circuits, Ika and Oturupon—the overladen signs of the dark hemisphere—seem rather full of foreboding as they gravitate towards Oyeku

§§

qe

Oshe

and

Ofun,

with

their reversible

arrangement

of

§§

six traits each, clearly belong at the beginning of the larger cycle, in the light half of the hemisphere. To speak of Ogunda is inevitably to consider the part of Ogun. Ritually, this orisha’s most important avatar is the knife—without which

no four-footed animal

can be sacrificed, no infant’s cord cut

(separating him into individual life), no identifying (civilizing) scarifications made, nor the act of circumcision accomplished. In the course of Orisha worship, both Ogun and Eshu “go before,” clearing the circuits. Eshu leads, but there is evidence point-

ing to the probability that Ogun at one time had Eshu’s role as Orunmila’s intermediary in the Ifa process.! To this day, the di1. The seed pod from which the divining chain takes its name (opele) “. . . naturally splits open at the base, with the two halves splaying out from the top where they are joined until broken apart. On the concave inner surface of each half is a marked medial ridge, and when two halves are placed side by side with this surface upward they are considered to resemble the figure Ogbe Meji as marked on the tray after the single lines have been joined together. According to an Ife diviner, when Ogunda Meji died at the town of Oko, a tree called opele oga Oko sprang up on his grave, and from it fell a fruit that split open, revealing the figure Ogbe Meji ‘written’ inside.” (Bascom, Ifa

OGUNDA

MEJI

[ 127

viner’s ceremonial sword represents Ogun. Optional use of the divining chain rather than the palm nuts, and the casting of kola broken into four parts by officiants at numerous rites (to find out

at once whether certain acts are being favorably regarded) are, it would seem, tokens of Ogun’s involvement in divination whenever the outcome is to be speeded up. Ogun is compulsive. The other divinities wait while his iron

a while, but Ogun is famous is hot. Like Prometheus, this

for striking at once Yoruba titan is far-

sighted, and there is a myth telling how, through the intercession of Ogunda Meji, Ifa finally acquired such vision.? (Again the neces-

sity for a pact with the earth: in this instance the sacrifice prescribed was a fish, belonging to the Mother of Witches, which Ogun cut in two pieces— giving Ifa the head and Our Mother the tail so

she could “sit down.” One is reminded of Apollo’s killing of the

python and the establishment of his priestess on a tripod.)

Numerologically and iconographically, Ogun,

Osanyin

(Ifa’s

herbalist), and witches display close affiliations. Seven (or eleven or twenty-one) are the tools of Ogun; seven the types of death he metes out, seven his “names”; seven the weapons Oya stole from him for her crown; seven the trees; seven the birds alighted thereon;

Divination, p. 30.) Ọgá Oko refers to the ant heap or termite hill from which the voice of the agricultural divinity speaks. The Gubasa, as Ogun’s ceremonial sword is called in Fon, was consid-

ered by Maupoil’s great informant to be the gift of the god of iron to Ifa so that

the

diviner

could

share

Ogun’s

powers

of decisive

action.

Decorations

along the handle of the object illustrated in Maupoil’s book include the four

directions, pierced “eyes” representing sun and moon, the lozenges of active energy, and an elongated parabola symbolic of the divining chain. A second emblem that Ogun permits the diviners to use is the long-handled bell called “cutlass of orisha” by the Yoruba. Together these gifts, in Maupoil’s words, recall a bygone era “. . . when Ogun had Elegba’s place as the intimate of Ifa.” (Maupoil, op. cit. p. 208.) Where then was Elegba? The shift

seems to have taken place when divination as a tellurian power was absorbed

into the broader, more ubiquitous perspective of the sky. Eshu at that time exchanged roles with Ogun, leaving to him the farm, the forest, the road, the

magic hearth. 2. Maupoil, op. cit., “Guda Meji.” 3. Among dedicated

the avatars of Ogun to his worship must

about—mute pythonic witnesses world order represented by Ifa.

is the carry

sacred python whom certain around their necks as they

to their lord’s

conquest

on

behalf

women wander

of the

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

seven the rivers of witches. (But despite their “control” of blood, witches do not possess the knife.) The circlet of iron tools displaying the power of Ogun on the worshiper’s chest, or upon his altar is like the circlet of birds crowning the medicinal staffs of Ifa and Osanyin, which represent, in Thompson’s words, the “control of deadly power by the human mind.”* Some herbalist wands indeed combine the emblems of bird and implement. It is as if hunter, herbalist, and sorcerer were imaginatively fused in the dark forest where a river goddess may turn into a horned animal, and angry women into long-beaked birds of the night. This is the primordial place of secrets, the breathing ground of transformed energy over whose mysteries various forces struggle to preside. Awotunde’s recitation presents us with two of the seven emblems of Ogun, gun-war and hoe-peace, in seeming opposition. However, upon closer examination, these tools of separation and union can be seen as phases in the struggle for communal- and self-definition. As the gun goes off, a play on words links this aggressive ejaculation with the satisfying sexual unions of the second verse. Oko, destination

of the

diviner-protagonist

of divided

consciousness,

is

a loaded term. AS a common noun it means “farm”; with a rising accent, “penis.” As a proper noun, Oko is an agricultural divinity, regularly worshiped by women at the time of the new moon and especially at new yam harvests—a dangerous mystery whose emblem is made of hoes beaten together by certain blacksmiths to form a staff suggesting both phallic and quadrate aspects of fertility and integration. It is said that Ogunda Meji was born when the

god

of iron,

on

a visit

to Oko,

ravished

violence that he broke her." (It was Eshu again—Eshu the mercurial amalgamator. )

a woman

who

put her

with

such

together

4. Thompson, Black Gods and Kings, Chapt. 11. 5. There is a special orisha from Ilesha whose cult is perpetuated in Brazil, and whose personality dramatizes or, better, fuses this forest association between the hunter-with-medicine and witches. For six months of the year, a Brazilian devotee of Logunede tells me, he is subjected to the influence of Erinle and for six months to that of Oshun. 6. McClelland, op. cit. Oko, with falling accents, is also a real town, once located near Old Oyo, now in the region of Ogbomosho. Ogbe-Otura is the sign of Oko (Otura being “mouth, earth’s utterance, Elegba speaking”).

OGUNDA Akoko

(Newboldia

Laevis),

(ako-lo-Oko),

among

MEJI the

philosophical

[ 129 tree

against

others. The hero-diviner

goes to

which the diviner leans, is sacred to Ogun. The word puns into several associations: time (àkôko); gray woodpecker (àkôk6)— the divining bird who “chatters” like the counters; and “we did not go to Oko”

acquire something ordinary man hesitates to seek: “the voice in the ant heap,” earth’s mantic utterance. The time is right, as the triple-goddess avatar of the agricultural divinity shows. And the ripe women return with him as evidence of the truth he has come to know. Is there not an historical meaning here also? Is not the struggle, discussed in connection with the first two odu, between autochthonous divinities and invaders, headed by Ogun, reintroduced here in another mode? Suppose the invader in this case to have been a geomantic system of divination from “the east.” Suppose another system of divination (by shells), as well as the medicine that could make it work, to have been in the hands of women—

known perhaps also by priests of the local divinities of earth and

forest. Ogun was Orunmila’s captain then, his arrows recalling the oldest lots thrown. Eshu ruled the cowries. The invading system might well have come to terms with the established one in a mu-

tually beneficial way. Suppose, then, that this was the source of the struggle between Orunmila and the witches, the struggle in which Obatala, the white divinity, plays such an important role— another instance of the subtile triumph of loss. Is not this odu telling us once again of the fusion that produced Ifa as we know it?

Ogunda Meji, among other manifestations of the power of Ogun’s metal, discloses a stubborn character. The expression “getting yourself together,” like “where your head is at” and “cool,” is strictly Yoruba.

Slaheless rtuer seven pines wings in the night

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now I, Awotunde, praise Osa Meji; do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? When elephant’s malevolent, bush cow better quit the scene; Red bulging eyes respond to pounding of mortar’s children: pulverize, pulverize made Ifa for Mistress of slim turbulence Child born to deepest of mothers. Both told to sacrifice for living one he-goat, one cock,

eleven bags of cowries, neither complied. It’s water we call Mistress-of-slim-turbulence;

fish, Born-of-the-deepest-mother.

[ 131 ]

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

When water died, fish, formerly hidden,

was found out and arrested;

When water no longer covered her child, slim fins flopped and was taken; So the diviner predicted: exposure brings fishers; They said, don’t you know? No one harms a child that’s protected; The day deep waters dried, that’s when turbulence surfaced;

Meaning Osa Meji, understand?

We have sacrificed, efficaciously.

Second row:

First to be reverenced definitely should be one’s elders.

Obediently sprinkled palm-kernel oil on rim of divining tray made Ifa for First to be reverenced—one’s elders on the day he was bringing small children into the world from heaven. What could he sacrifice to ensure long life to his creatures? eight pigeons

eight hens eight bags of cowries

When he had done so,

they made medicine for him, and his children did not die suddenly. Dancing, rejoicing, praising the diviners, SO, so, so sayeth the diviner, Osa Meji

Obediently put palm-kernel oil around the periphery made Ifa for Elders first, definitely

OSA

MEJI

I 133

Ifa brings children

squirming minnows

creeping snails

over the rim of existence. We have sacrificed, efficaciously.

Praise to Osa Meji! Now I want to explain how Osa Meji came into the world with witches;

but I cannot do so unless we hold

three shillings, four pence, and kola

prepared by sleeping three days on the head of Ifa; this is the procedure.

Now see the route Ifa took to be so-called? The one who poisons internally, Beginning with vagina, goes on to consume intestines,

The one who munches on heart as if it were mushroom, Shiny-wings, The one who keeps midnight meat in her cupboard, Insatiable—

All this to be said in praise of our elders, distinguished old women. Inner poisoner, we call father of witches; From vagina, on to intestines, we call mother of witches;

Cardio-mycophagist, we call senior relative of witches; Shiny-feathers—witches in person;

She who stores nibbles in her closet—simply, Our Mother. On the day they were coming into the world from heaven, each carried a covered calabash.

What are you going to do with these?

calabash-power: to kill and eat people; calabash-power: to kill and sell people; calabash-power: to kill and grow rich on the wreckage of accomplishment work of the hands wings shall despoil— Such be our intentions.

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Osa Meji, hearing this speech, gave an outraged cry: I have so many children in the world! Who then? Name them. I, Awotunde, am your child, he said,

Yekinni’s my child Gleason’s also my child and little Laisi. They said, all these people should bring proper materials for making a pact with the winged-eaters. But we don’t know what to provide. All right, if you didn’t know then, you’ve no excuse now. one kola three shillings fourpence each said the leader of witches. Then we said, Here are all the ingredients of the secret pact;

may you not quarrel with our village. Don't let Our Mothers fight with me, Awotunde Don't let Our Mothers fight with me, Yekinni Don't let Our Mothers fight with me, Gleason

Don’t let Our Mothers fight with me, Laisi on account of these things we are bringing to you: Inner poisoner,

Begin with vagina, nibble on to intestines,

Bloody mushroom eater, Shiny-feathers, Midnight knappler— When you come from heaven with your calabaggage ask for what we ve got to give—

For they're never so ravenous as to eat intestine of hawk For they're never so ravenous

as to eat

“bitter bird figs” For theyre never so furious

OSA

MEJI

as to consume

Osa Meji s children

Here am I Awotunde, child of Osa Meji Here am I, Yekinni, child of Osa Meji Here am I, Gleason, child of Osa Meji

Here May May May

am I, Laisi, child of Osa Meji no mother of ours. . . . we be. . .. what we are holding. . .. our hands your wings

Please May this immunity Please Do not be angry Forgive us, we have called your name only on account of what we are bringing.

Let this offering be placed on Ifa's head for three days, Only then may you begin to call up witches; Should you require medicinal protection, Kill a chicken hawk and extract the intestines,

Braise with essence of “bitter bird figs,” Mix with eko, As soon as palatable, drink: Now your seniors will not release their anger on you.

This is the oath sworn by Osa Meji— We have sacrificed, efficaciously.

Sing, the cutlass in my hand is orisha’s cutlass hand scans, words span the cutlass in my hand is orisha’s cutlass haft a bell toll blade a burrow

the cutlass in my hand is orisha’s cutlass light to give dark to hold the cutlass in my hand is orisha’s cutlass.

We have sacrificed, Greetings!

[ 135

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve So

“We have consulted Osa Meji:

all birds can be limed save the sorcerer s bird whose feet are oiled.” Osa Meji is one portal through which witches came into the world. (Iy) aje (“mother eats”), is the collective noun for this obsessing

terror of the Yoruba consciousness. She is no stranger to any of us, but few have retained imaginative resources adequate to

cope with the power of the devouring mother and therefore cannot take the risk of plunging into her transforming waters. Nor, it would seem, since the old religious institutions began to break down under the impact of Western colonialism, have the Yoruba

(despite the brilliance of their wit, which dares iconographic solu-

tions to the darkest enigmas of the human psyche) been able to keep the weaker egos among them from falling victim to the various hysterias brought about by neglect or inadvertent incitement

of that most dreaded anger.’ The Gelede masquerades of the farsouthwestern Yoruba posit ritual transvestism

as a form of placa-

tion.” But since it is precisely in this area that the most furious

acknowledgment of witch-power (witch-hunts) in recent times took hold, one is forced to a rational halt. Perhaps the territory is simply supersaturated with witch-power. After all, here the Mother of Them (and of us) has her principal shrine (at Abeokuta, midway between Ketu and Egbado)—not too far from Dr. Adeoye Lambo’s famous Aro Clinic, where mental illness is treated by a combination of modern and traditional methods. Again it would seem that the ancient wisdom preserved in sacred art objects and stored in myths

told from Ifa’s point of view is proved deeply valid. Only if the

symbols of this deadly power are allowed controlled ubiquity, always combined with (rather than overstressed, isolated from, or 1. According to the research of T. Adeoye Lambo, Alexander Leighton and his team from the Cornell Medical School Mental Health Research Project, and Raymond Prince. 2. See Raymond Prince, "The Yoruba Image of the Witch,” Journal of Mental Science, 107, 449 (1961), pp. 795-805; and Ulli Beier, "Gelede Masks,” Odu VI (1956), pp. 5-24. 3. Peter Morton-Williams, “The Atinga Cult among the South-Western Yoruba: a Sociological Analysis of a Witch-Finding Movement,” Bulletin de l'Institute Français d'Afrique Noir, XVIII, Sér. B., 3-4 (1956), pp. 315-334.

OSA

MEJI

[ 137

opposed to) symbols of regenerative healing can mental balance and spiritual growth of the individual within the community be promoted. Crucial for the maintenance of such an equilibrium is univer-

sal deference paid to Yemoja, Great Mother of Deep Waters, mother of all the orisha (save Oduduwa and Obatala), mother also of

witches.

Fortunately

for

our

mental

health,

though

we

were

far

from Abeokuta, Awotunde began with a verbal tribute to the source of our being, the protective waters of needful periods of regression.

The recitation proceeds with a cryptic deference to Obatala who alone of the orishas is capable, through calm and patience, of gaining ascendancy over the furious “eaters.”* Ogun, Obatala, and witches came into the world together. Our Mother complained: Two men, one gifted with the power to make war, the other with

the power to create; what’s my bag? Slightly later, she filed a second complaint: Men were abusing women, not taking them seriously. To which Olodumare, granter of destinies, replied: Your power shall be to sustain the world; that power shall be a bird contained in a covered calabash; but watch out, don’t exaggerate,

exercise your prerogative with discretion. Alas, Our Mother is a violent woman. (Were not those birds, as omens, hers in the first place?) In the end, her aggressiveness had to be controlled from

outside. There are two versions of this eventual triumph of Obatala: one, Great Orisha (Obatala) himself put the lid on by making her eat snail—symbol of calm; two, Orunmila intervened and called a halt to her harpian pursuit of Obatala by charming her with beancake upon which animal blood had been poured.® When Raymond Prince visited certain diviners in Yorubaland, famed for their successful treatment of psychoses through ritual and

traditional

medicine,

he

noted

that

“curse”

could

into “blessing” under

the following circumstances.

4. Before I had

any Ifa verses on the subject,

When

be

turned

the psy-

chotic patient arrives he is immediately put on a special diet that studied

alded by a student, Museum of Natural

this truth was

Margaret Wellington, who pointed to a piece in History marked “Obatala” and said, “Look, Jung’s

her-

the de-

vouring mother!” It was a monkey jaw cradling a skull. It is because of this aspect of Obatala (one might call it “nocturnal dissolution”) that he can

understand witches, Our Mother.

5. Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence .

. . ,” Sections vii and viii.

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

excludes coconut, snail, and palm wine

(all foods having to do with

Obatala). He proceeds to undergo treatment. When he is presumed

recovered, all these taboo foods are got together in a pot, cooked

with certain leaves, and fed to the patient. Seven days later they hold a lavish feast for which the patient must provide the money. All present ritually bless the cured one and he is free to go home.®

Note that the children Obatala brings into the world are de-

scribed as small snails and minnows, thus linking him to Yemoja and suggesting common parentage. The diviner’s name in this case

is a mystery. Whether deference is paid to Eshu by anointing the rim of the divining board (where Eshu’s face is carved at least once,

and sometimes

four times,

to indicate his control of the four

directions) or whether this action is performed to appease witches, I do not know. Palm-kernel oil would seem to imply Eshu, for this is one of his foods. On the other hand, any oil smooths the passage of night-birds on their deadly errands and would seem to insulate words about witches as well. Before he would recite anything from Osa Meji, Awotunde asked for palm (not palm-kernel) oil. Having lined his mouth with it, he felt free to speak of the first two in-

stances. As should be apparent from the text, we had to wait three days

for the third “row.” Instead compelled to make one. The cutlass of the final to Orunmila out of gratitude pitable beancake. It is used,

of merely hearing of a pact, we were

song belonged to Obatala who gave it for the calming of witches with hosalternately with the ivory bell called

Iro Ifa, both to scan verses and, by tapping the board, to solicit Ifa’s

close attention. Maupoil says this symbolic weapon was Ogun s second gift of himself to Orunmila. Perhaps Ogun first gave it to

Obatala as a souvenir of the time they entered the world together, accompanied by Our Plumed Mother. Its handle is shaped like a Yoruba bell-gong, which in turn is shaped like a vertically rolled leaf. As a forest emblem, in healing, rings in calm over the land.

Orisha’s cutlass rings out danger, rings strong enough to control bad magic all

6. Raymond Prince, “Curse, Invocation and Mental Health uba,” Canadian Psychiatric Journal, 2 (1960), pp. 65-79. 7. Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence . . . ,” p. 225.

among

the

Yor-

+ 11 +

Ika Meji

Everything can accounted be— crawlers and creepers keep away from me— wicked fingers!

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Ika Meji— Can you see how Ifa came to this designation? Up against the wall’s no place

to extend “long life!” to your elders; Coming straight on, gazing vaguely away signifies a voracious Visitor;

Might look as though I were up to no good, followed by all of you; stay home, said the snake to his hungry children Made Ifa for Slim-pickings, stubby little fellow who will survive twenty thousand years in this world if he sacrifice ten pigeons, a scroungy cock, and ten bags of cowries.

[ 139 1

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

He sacrificed, they made Ifa leaves for him, and he did not die—

unlike the broom swept into a wisp, he stayed together

We have sacrificed, efficaciously.

Now let’s get on to row two:

King of the counting house don’t count me Turn around, misery,

count me out;

Snake-eyes, if we’re being counted, why d ya call me? Accountable for no-account? No one’s seen me sin;

no wickedness on me. Mother counts the baskets Father counts the bins

One by one they counted us down, but we fixed them.

Ifa, hearing this: How is it all of you who live

in this rickety town

have icky names? ‘Cause hicks are what we called ourselves till you hit the scene. So that’s the reason, Ifa said,

All your lives you've been higgledy-piggledy, sick, sick, sick, like housewives rushing before the storm picking laundry off limbs. Now go distribute money to snails, for it’s their shells that spiral in— like Mother Yemoja making medicine with viper’s head. You dig? She covered herself with prickly cloth; and when this hedgehog edged over to sit

IKA

MEJI

beside her victim, they said: Go feed grass to that horse standing by the corn bin. When hedgehog hit it was beancake-vendor fell down dead. Now snail turned gravedigger; viper mourned the death of beancake-vendor. Creeping snail upon snail adds insult to injury; If witch’s snare can’t smell the entrance,

snail within will survive forever.

Will dog bite the heel of bush cow? Never! We sneaked out of the way to our rickety town early in the morning. Trading for years and nothing to show for it called on Axe strikes tree, definitively, diviner of the house of Orunmila. Secret arrived on foot,

blessed the rackety-packety inhabitants of Ika; and when he had done,

we praised the diviner, saying: Secret said I will have money, and here is money. Axe strikes tree, definitively,

as blade’s edge is the tongue of secrets. Diviner says I will have a wife— Here she is.

Axe strikes tree

Power sits

in the mouth of Ifa

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|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Diviner says I will have offspring— Here are children. His tongue speaks with authority.

Diviner says I will build me a house— See, over there—

Secret’s spit is commanding. Diviner says I will see good things— There they are, everywhere, everything— Energy fills the speech of diviner.

Then he started singing: Spiky fingers Aka leaves

grip iniquity bind hands of mine enemy Reverse wickedness! Close their hands globe, peel, pound, knead Till there’s no remainder! May they die young! Spiny cloth slim leaves bend and twist till there be no vise in hostility So be it! Greetings! May our sacrifice see us through this thicket.

© ẹ,;b

“We have consulted Ika Meji . . . the canoe has wet its anchor in the river and can't budge.” This odu deals with the dangers of teeming multiplicity, existence as scatter-shot,

mere

enumeration,

flickering fires,

corpuscles,

the

ignis fatuus of deceitful appearances. Its name suggests fingers (one thinks of the ubiquitous Islamic amulet, of the chthonic Greek dactyls), cruelty, a ward in Abeokuta (Yemoja’s town), as well as twin poisonous snakes—a

nefarious caduceus with witch-

wings on the top. This, it may be recalled, is the sign under which the signs of Ifa are wiped out, the negative of Osa’s action on the

IKA

MEJI

divining board. However, were they not erased, no new appear; Ika, therefore, insures sequence, a clean slate.

I 143 signs could

Ecologically, Ika Meji is the world of the forest floor envisaged as a thin substratum of poisonous invective and countervenom, a world of baneful creepers turned snares, of treacherous twigs and prickers, a place where everything must be constantly on its guard, for anything could suddenly reveal its treacherous nature. Hypocrisy and evil intention are revealed by the diviner’s proverbial names in the first verse of this recitation. The client in the first case is a poor, small creature, barely existing; in the second sequence the client is an entire town called Ika, which, for years “tied” by witchcraft, had been under the spell of its own name—a miserable place whose occupants, “trading for years with nothing to show for it,” have, justifiably, no sense of self-respect, no ability to get themselves together without Ifa’s help. Here is the twilight world of incantation, consciousness reduced to rigid reiteration of protective formulas—brilliantly conveyed in the Yoruba by an unremitting cacophony of “k” sounds: ka, aka, akika, akara, akeke, akaka, and so on, with tonal shifts left to

point the way to meanings that are always verging on the meaningless. The counting song (all traditional African populations refuse to be “counted” out loud by name for fear of attracting disaster) may be found, in a slightly different form, in Maupoil.' The Akakanikoko leaf is listed by Verger.? The scene sounds like the song of Cock Robin turned tongue twister and illuminated by Beatrix Potter’s sinister wit. The avatars of this wicked odu are viper, hedgehog, and snail. Here the endless war, the equivocal relationship based on functional similarities between Yemoja and Obatala, is made manifest in minuscule, as is the alliance between Ogun (axe) and Orunmila-Osanyin (leaf).

1. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 529.

2. Verger, Yoruba Medicinal Leaves, p. 18.

ojẹ

19

ojẹ

Oturupon Meji

Down in the dumps groping for all but forgotten light goat and I touched bottom.

Greetings for the sacrifice! Whoever would listen to Oturupon Meji in olden times or nowadays must turn his back upon the configuration. Sacrifice for well-being! |

Hornbill’s good deeds backfired on him,

no one since has done such kindness,

The look of surprise on hornbill’s face made Ifa for Death-grabs-the-owner, who is an early-morning driver. He says, What? They say, Sacrifice so you won't run into trouble. It is from heaven thin palm weevil brought

his bad luck into the world. They say, Go tell Elder-who-broke-palm-oil-container, he who, covering over, put in order...

[ 145 1

.

146 |

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

It is beginning war . .. in skull's backyard (home of ancestral guardian ) made Ifa for Favors-done,

consort in the Oba’s palace

until daybreak, glowing distinctly Clearly we see honor,

wealth is obvious; This is how odu came to be called Odu It turns out that

He-goat happens to be feeding on the night,

husband of his mother, that’s who We say, Ifa has come, O here comes Ifa!

Ifa quenches the light so dog may bite For that coupling must occur in darkness Turn away, Afterbirth of the night Evil, get off my back! [Now you may face forward again.]

He-goat feeds upon night

All women are one to him, husband-of-his-mother.

This is the forbidden side of Oturupon Meji:

[Wishing to praise this odu after dark, you must quench all lights till the process is completed. In the afternoon, close your eyes, turn the opposite way. Whoever is worshiping Ifa from start to finish, coming upon Oturupon Meji, must keep kola behind him, saying, Turn back, evil things, while dog is coupling, And evil things will go away. | Greetings for the sacrifice, given and received, may we survive this occasion.

OTURUPON

MEJI

I 147

+ LC

“We have consulted Oturupon Meji; rope-maker cannot cord sand,

nor reaching hand grasp sun.” Below the ceaseless apprehension of Ika Meji lies the despondent stability of Oturupon Meji. Below the magic threshold where furtive fires flit is the cold enclosure, the offal pit where he-goat lives, low point of the sun’s trajectory, straw-strewn rock bed of the newborn redeemer, and . . . not yet! We turn our backs, close our eyes, and behind us takes place a mystery. It is difficult to put together the few pieces we do have. Certain words that might have provided connections were blurred on the tape, perhaps intentionally, and these lacunae are marked by ellipses in the translation. Fair enough, let the secret kernel rest; we were fortunate in having been permitted a glimpse of the integument. What follows must therefore be regarded as even more conjectural than the rest. What did hornbill do that backfired on him? Hornbill is a solitary bird, emblematic of fertility. Although in Yoruba art he cannot claim the ubiquity he enjoys, for example, among the Senufo, birds of his type are often perched upon Yoruba crowns and staffs of divination and healing.! Perhaps he was kind enough to harbor a snake in his commodious belly and was astonished when that ungrateful guest began to feed upon his innards. This is a common folktale motif in Africa. One thinks of our pelican who nourished its young with its own blood—whose image the alchemists fashioned into one of their vessels of transformation. If these associations truly point the way, then it was Our Mother who was tricked, her “kindness” that backfired. Which of the sons of her mantic power was the thief?

The first client, the early-morning driver, is an Ogun worshiper. The elder who broke the palm-oil container is Obatala, whom Eshu tricked into besmirching himself. This too was a good 1. See Robert Farris Thompson, “The Sign of the Divine King,” African Arts,

II, 3 (Spring, 1970).

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|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

deed that “backfired.” The war at the back of the head could be interpreted as the superego (represented by the ancestral guardian spirit) in conflict with the evil impulses of the (bewitched) unconscious; but why take advantage of missing words in order to produce a simplistic statement? The concubine of the dark chamber in the oba’s palace needs no comment. Her nighttime favors result in that early-morning clarity sung in praise of Eji Ogbe—a situation parallel to the hierosgamos we are forbidden to see. Dog is Ogun’s sacred animal, but dog is also associated with

Eshu in the context of divination.? The goat in this instance also recalls the ithyphallic Eshu, aged son forever vigorous whose legend-

ary lust extends so far as mother, daughter, and mother-in-law—

including such notables as the king of death’s wife and Orunmila’s woman. Once upon an afternoon he successively raped three

corpses.’ Is he not the scapegoat of our undifferentiated instinctu-

ality, the substitute who, saving us from annihilation in the earth’s womb, dares the ultimate dissociation of personality in order to bring us back the light of transformed consciousness? Is this not why the diviner, at the moment of incestuous copulation, chants, “Ifa has come, O here comes Ifa”?

The inauguration of animal sacrifice took place, according to Bascom’s informants, at the conjunction of Oturupon with Otura, a sign nicknamed “which propitiates with a she-goat.”* Oturupon being the sign of earth’s stability and Otura being the sign of Elegba, the motif of the forbidden, the transforming marriage coincides with that of the scapegoat. Was it offered to propitiate earth after her violation, which took place, astrologically, when Venus 2. According to a Dahomean myth, dog derives his association with Elegba from the time he showed the trickster-divinity how to divide the cowries right. The three women who divided them wrong were killed and raped by Elegba—again an indication that women once possessed the power of divination, wrested from them in this case on account of their ineptness. Osa Meji tells us that Yoruba women were once in charge of Egun, i.e. had control of the cult masks worn by the impersonated dead, an old story told by the Dogon as well. See Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, Dahomean Narrative, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Ill, 1958, pp. 142-148; Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence . . . ,. Section vii; Marcel Griaule, Masques Dogon, Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1963, pp. 91-104. 3. Herskovits and Herskovits, op. cit., Chaps. 10-r1. 4. Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 446.

OTURUPON

MEJI

entered Libra? According to Maupoil, fered under beset

the first scapegoat was of-

Irete Meji, sign of the earth’s fate. But in Oturupon

Meji Maupoil stumbled upon

mila,

[ 149

with

melancholia,

a most extraordinary myth: consulted

Ifa

for

himself.

Orun-

How

to

renew his zest? He was told to bring a sacrifice to his mother,

upon whom all joy in his life depended. She was far away. It was Eshu who volunteered to go find her. When he got there he told the woman that her son was dead and that he would lead her back

to perform the funeral if she would give him a certain he-goat,

which had been entrusted to her care by Oduduwa—life itself. Reluctantly she agreed to give the animal up. Eshu-Elegba promptly

slaughtered it, and the blood that flowed forth, covering Eshu’s

body, was fire. Having at that time none of he-goat’s indestructible head and placed it in down upon his shoulders. And worn by Eshu, ered to contain the sun. (To the king of death

gave a ripe fruit; this became his head. )°

his own, Eshu took a jar turned upside that jar was discovOrunmila’s mother

Under Oyeku-Ogbe (death and life in conjunction) this solar he-goat after days of dark sulking during which the earth became deathly cold, was finally persuaded to come out of hiding and go up

into the sky—the only place where his desire for wives and children

could be satisfied. A kid was created on earth to remain a substitute

for him in men’s memories.

And before this kid mounts his woman,

he taps the earth in homage and lifts his head in praise to the sky.® In Odi-Ogunda Elegba outwits the king of the dead’s remarkable

four-eyed he-goat and wins the right to “eat” ordinary descendants

of that animal whose command

with his.? Odi-Ogunda

of the four directions is congruent

(conjunction of earth’s womb

and iron) is

the combination where Elegba manifests himself most often.® Here, 5. Maupoil, op. cit., pp. 53-56. 6.

Ibid., pp. 604-605.

7. Ibid., pp. 190-191.

8. Odi Ogunda, according to Maupoil’s informants, is the odu-time-when the major figures revert to their “houses,” take up their posts along the Yoruba equivalent of the celestial equator—a frontier of experience that in a subtle

way

retains

Elegba’s

own

directional

meaning.

Thus,

Oturupon

shares

a

loose

in

place, “witches’ room,” with Irosun, which is in twelfth place in the original geomantic system. In astrology, as in geomancy, this position connotes enemies, the self mobilized to meet all the confining factors of existence, the

threat

of death,

psychic

disintegration,

the

intractable

animality

150 Ì

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

one might say, where Ogun had first been, his successor emerged —weightless, numberless, humorous, particular, personal-impersonal, antimatter, the opposite of steadfast iron. In Oturupon the hermetic orisha darkened the sun, himself eclipsed, and, putting on he-goat’s head, descended into the black hole again on behalf of Ifa, on behalf of human sanity and wisdom, on behalf of cosmic circulation. When he rose again it was not as the sun but rather as ubiquitous quick-silver, in-wit.

the world,

and

the final place of overcoming

(in Zarathustra’s

sense).

Hence

the connection between the pit in Irosun Meji and the pit in Oturupon Meji. In Oturupon Meji the grave becomes the child-in-the-womb; the red-eyed Irosun turns blind; instead of touching your eyelids with chalk, listening to Oturupon you close them.

eje

13

pa

Otura Meji AAA—

©O©O© ©©O©

VVV

PA

YÁ

Sprout, big mouth, halve yourselves, lip-lobes; clam up, double tongue; utter!

Now let us praise Otura Meji; Can you see the road Ifa came by Ifa? It is viper who lives inside his nest ensconced in majesty who made Ifa for Beak-nosed owner of delicate eyeballs, child of the unconventional ruler,

spice of life in Ara; It is treacherous worm who breeds in mud floors— dust conceals his sword made Ifa for Cast-off Otu, calm prince of Ijebu When both of them, their people, lived in misery and destitution. Ifa said, It is machete

[ 151]

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

each of you holds in hand should be sacrificed with one cock and seven bags of cowries. Then the children of Ara thundered: We cut firewood with machete, how could anyone make a living who sacrificed that? while Otu quietly obeyed Ifa. The following day both young men went to the farms to fetch kindling. When they had finished,

Beak-nosed owner of delicate eyeballs used his machete to cut ropes for fagoting. When cool son of Sea’s food people asked leave to borrow that hatchet,

his companion said, If yesterday, I had sacrificed mine, what would you be asking for now? Otu said nothing and began to look around for shreds of rope to twine, particularly for creepers. He found one, bit off a length, then continued to yank till at last he unearthed a tortoise! This he bound atop his bundle of sticks, and they started off home together. Meanwhile, Misery, son of Oyo’s king,

had fallen ill,

was advised to sacrifice a tortoise.

When his household failed to find one in the market,

the Alafin told them to go to the farms— should they see a farmer possessing one, they should right away ask to buy it.

Moreover, the son of the sea god was sick,

also told to sacrifice a tortoise. King of Ocean sent his people to market; no tortoise to be found.

OTURA

MEJI

Then go to the farms and find one for any amount, buy it! As soon as Otu appeared on the road, firewood first, Oyo’s messenger spotted the tortoise, ran forward and begged him to sell it. All right, said Otu,

for two hundred bags of cowries.

Then up came Ocean’s servant

and offered eight hundred. To which the Alafin’s man replied, You re in no position to bargain,

I, representing a very rich man,

will close you out with four thousand. But the Olokun’s spokesman doubled that offer; and so the bargaining continued. . . . They came to a deadlock at four hundred thousand. Eshu spoke to Otu: I hope you sacrificed. —O yes. Then Eshu instructed everyone to close his eyes, took Otu’s yesterday-sacrificed machete, asked both contenders to hold on while he bifurcated Tortoise. First half included both head and tail Second half, likewise, front and behind

The same he gave to Alafin’s messenger,

The same to Olokun’s representative. First four-hundred-thousand, correct when counted; Second four-hundred-thousand, correct when counted.

Otu took all on his way to become prosperous. But before they parted company, he dashed Ara’s child a little bit, saying, Both of us went forth in suffering and poverty; had you sacrificed then,

you'd be wealthy today as | am.

[ 153

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1

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

This time, Beak-nosed owner of delicate eyes, son of Alara,

said nothing. Now the people started chanting, Otura Meji,

pulled out the tortoise,

divided it and became wealthy. And Otu: So the diviner said, Viper enthroned, the invisible worm made Ifa for Hot,

made Ifa for Cold. This year, said the people, Cut the tortoise in two, and we'll prosper.

We have sacrificed, may we pull through, Greetings!

Sacrifice for well-being;

now we shall sing the second song of Otura Meji.

Orunmila said, I hear a thunderlike sound. — Where are we now?

— We seem to have reached the house of Alara. — About this time last night his wife went into labor, and still she has not given birth. . . . — Bring me strong spirits!

He gave a dram to Orunmila, and his wife was delivered of her baby.

Orunmila said, I hear a thunderish sound, again rain threatens. —Where have we got to now? — They say we've come far as Ekiti country. —Were in Ijero, that’s where! —Last night our king’s wife started labor, still she’s not delivered. —You must provide kola. (He provided kola.)

Orunmila said, I hear a sound suspiciously like thunder, as if rain were expected. —Where are we?

—Northeast of where we started from, in the kingdom of the Orongun,

OTURA

MEJI

descendant of Oduduwa's fourth son. —Our king is grieved because his wife cannot accomplish her —Go fetch palm wine for your visitors. (Palm wine given. ) Then Orunmila said,

The child born where I was given spirits shall be called lawsuit because they watered it down; the child born where I was given kola shall be called counsel— after rumination;

and where I was given palm wine,

that child shall be called novelty personified—

for something new under the sun is always pre-seeded by thunder.

Alcohol may cause dissent—on account of adulteration;

Kola jibes with mastication of old counsel; but palm wine we ve never tasted before is expectation of wonder! Made Ifa for the Broad-leaved youngster of Ipapo who venerated his elder on the day they took turns carrying a load of cowrie shells of Oyo. Before you go out upon the road: two hundred long strings and one single cowrie. The elder did not sacrifice, only the younger. When they started off, elder’s load contained eight hundred long strings of cowries. The youngster bore nothing, but when he caught up: —You’re encumbered, allow me.

. . .

And the elder willingly accepted. When helpful youngster took up the load, he topped it with his single cowrie. Arrived in Oyo, the old man said,

—I’m going my ways, I'll take it now.

—You must be mistaken,

all cargo belongs to the carrier.

[ 155

labor.

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

—But I thought you were helping me out! —No, father, what I’ve got on my head is my own. —Impossible!

Result: A suit in law which took them inside Oba’s palace. To the older man: Will you state your case? —These moneys are mine;

this young fellow was only giving me a hand. To the youth: May we hear your side of the story? —I carried only what belongs to me; that’s final. —How much did you start off with, old man? —Four bags, no less, no more.

— And how much is your claim?

—Four bags and a single cowrie.

The Alafin ordered them counted:

The entire lot turned out to be eighty thousand and one extra cowrie.

Judgment: It is you, old man, who tried to cheat this youngster. I’ve won! said the young man, and started to sing: mo ba rojo I contested the case

and won it;

where there’s a path there must be a road;

hail the young strapper of Ipapo always fortunate in law;

I’ve wrapped it up, the case is mine,

all hail the victorious litigant! Which is why he who would praise Otura Meji had better be holding a cowrie; that way he'll defeat anybody who’s out to get him. We have sacrificed; Greetings for the efficacity;

May we keep going!

. . .

OTURA

MEJI

[ 157

& “We have consulted Otura Meji; may my mouth not make me enemies.” This dangerous sign of earth-as-mouth warns that human speech is treacherous, a source of dissension and loss, and a possible cause of death. Only a mad man raves on. To ask too many questions is asking for trouble. The Yoruba, surely among the most elegant of the world’s talkers, make a virtue of conveying the truth by indirection. Sacred matters

are not talked

about but, rather, learned

by osmosis. Words carry the power of the thing named. Charms are directional medicine—the substance combined with the incantation. Sounds in a certain sequence can bring the very divinities down. Some say Otura discloses Eshu-in-person, the trickster who functions (towards all points of the compass) the way speech does. Given the slightest opportunity, Eshu, like speech, makes trouble. Force of communication, and idol of the marketplace that gets things going, Eshu is always connected with the traditional means of economic exchange: cowries—words’ double. His dance wands are draped with strings of these gleaming signs of sea wealth brought to light, and simple clay cones, personal loci of his power, are given cowrie features. Labial eyes with fine rows of baby teeth

imply the sinister possibilities as well as the innocent beginnings

of speech. Dilogun is Eshu’s oracular utterance.

Eshu sizes up.

Shells are how

To speak is to begin to sort out, to divide things. Odd or even? An element of negation sneaks in at once, which is why they say Otura is the mother of lies, Eshu the father.

Things are named according to their affinities. They are the results of events that produced them, similar forces producing similar manifestations. The naming of a Yoruba person is a threefold, or perhaps a four-fold, process.! There is the name one comes into the world with, a name linking each infant to a class of beings so born: “feet-first,” “on a journey,” “the second of twins,” and so on. Then there is the name given seven, eight, or nine days after 1. See the Rev. Samuel Johnson, shops, Nigeria, 1922, Chapt. 5.

The

History

of the

Yorubas,

C.M.S.

Book-

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

birth (depending upon whether one is female, a twin, or a male child). This designation, which involves consultation of Ifa, may express the impact of the child’s birth on the family (like Ladipo, “increase of honor”), gratitude for the intercession of a certain orisha (like Ogundipe, “the god of iron consoles me with this”), or

recognition of ancestral guardian again”). The

third name

(like Babatunde, “father comes

is a praise

(oriki)

meant

to inspire one

to valor, etc. A string of these titles may be acquired during a life-

time, but usually only one of them, revelatory of character, sticks. (The fourth name, nowadays seldom remembered, is an orile (totem-place name), which links the new member of a family to an animal, a natural phenomenon, or an object associated with a tutelary orisha that once “belonged” to the family.) Thus is a person defined as an intersection of various divisions.

The night naming scene of the second part of this recitation ironically presents fatality-as-nomenclature from Orunmila’s point of view. Each designation is an elaborate quid pro quo having to do, I think, with the relation between

beginning

stage

determination

of “character.”

Orunmila’s

and free will in the

intercession

in

each

case being taken for granted if he is given what he asks for, the

way in which the family responds is constitutive. How the named one later responds to his name will influence the course of his des-

tiny. (Do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? ) To the canon of Otura (in conjunction with Obara) belong stories of the “talking skull”? whose perverse silences cause the death of telltales intoxicated with the novelty. The skull is associated with the deceased

mother,

or with

the earth itself. 3 The

voice

behaves like Eshu-Elegba. (One is reminded of the story of the gray-haired child Tages, sometimes depicted as a mere head upon the ground, who, ploughed up out of a Tarquinian field, dictated the Secret Doctrine to a group of Etruscan scribes and then sank Slowly back in.) It is interesting to note that the circumspect winner of the first contest,

Otu,

has

the

same

name

as the

collective

2. Bascom, Ifa Divination, pp. 429-433, 437-441. 3. Otura Obara is the sign of rauwolfia, from which the tranquilizer is made: given by diviner-healers to mad people, it is also a witch-repellent. See Verger, Yoruba Medicinal Leaves, 49, 150.

OTURA

MEJI

[ 159

hero of the talking-skull stories collected by Bascom—Otu priests in charge of the king’s sacrifices. Otu singular keeps his etymological cool, performs the correct rites; Otu plural are the only ones who know how to placate the mother, to send that skull back where it belongs.* Tortoise is like a many-faceted mirror reflecting aspects of the sky divinities. She, like Elegba, is a trickster—like Orunmila, a diviner; her shell (secret knowledge) was once broken into pieces like the body of Obatala. A reticent creature, she is usually called by an alternate name meaning “miser.” The god of medicine’s “slave,” tortoise is fed to Shango and, as Awotunde’s story suggests, to Olokun (the sea god) as well.5 A single sanctified word outweighs a load of profane verbiage. A single cowrie is enough to shift the balance. It looks like a tiny tortoise. Originally from the sea, it belongs to the earth. When apportioning lots, if there’s a cowrie left over, bury it. While he spoke, Awotunde held one in his mouth.

4.

Bascom, loc. cit.

5. It is interesting to note that black tortoise is a traditional oriental symbol for north, the region of night, functionally allied to the Yoruba Odi, the odu of Odu.

ojẹ

14

ofẹ,

Irete Meji

AAA

OL 6 66 ©O©O

W

AA,

A

YÁ

By riverbank endurance is rooted

Slender as a needle Grimy and frayed as clothesline Shiny as fool’s gold Full purse chinks to the ground Encumbered net slumps down, tightening the noose Two cocks young: tease and tag Two cocks old: bedraggle themselves along Bony buttocks fall with a dry thud Made Ifa for My-thoughts waterbuck, bush cow

blocked up riverrun who worshiped Our Mother of the Waters at Ido on the day he was using the tears in his eyes to hunt for the good things of life. Can he prosper when everything seems to elude him? They said, you must bring a crayfish, eight pigeons eight bags of cowries. [ 161 |

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

My-thoughts sacrificed,

They cooked the crayfish with “leaves of wealth” for him,

Cast Irete Meji and mixed the dust of the sign into the potion, saying: drink, eat. He began to grow rich; soon his compound was filled with wives, with children, and as he began to build for all of them, he sang, So the babalawo said:

Skinny as a needle,

Frayed as a clothesline,

Shiny as mica,

Purse clinks down,

Old sack slumps on the ground, Young cocks play at tag and tease, Old cocks slacken leisurely, Thud down on bony buttocks, Made Ifa for My-thoughts heavy as waterbuck, bush cow

blocked up riverrun

I worship Our Mother

profound in riches Who sought with the tears of his eyes for elusive fortune.

What about the wealth I am looking for? It was crayfish who told all good things to come in. What about the children I've been yearning for? Swarming to the net; hawl, heave, said crayfish. My slender body filled to the brim? It was crayfish told the tides to flow in. What about land? I've been wanting to build. It was crayfish closed the holes of the sieve. I cast my hopes to the neap tide, and then All the good things of life flowed in.

This is Irete Meji to which you’ve been listening. Greetings for the sacrifice in-put, out-put may we continue. . . .

. . .

IRETE

MEJI

This is the second verse of Irete Meji. Big bell with clamorous mouth made Ifa for Orunmila on the day he was going to Ife to climb the tree of wealth called Ogege.

this Orunmila

that Ogege climbing will bring riches.

— Will I be able?

—Of course, but you will have to sacrifice, because

seven warriors guard the path and you will have to overcome them all to reach Ogege. — What are the ingredients? —Meat bones, maize kernels, peeled yams,

and grass of the kind that makes good fodder. After consecrating them, he set off carrying all these items. First encounter: watchdog, who never lets anyone go by. Orunmila threw the meat bones down, and

while dog was intent upon gnawing, bypassed him. Second encounter: ram.

Orunmila threw down peeled yams and as ram started munching,

bypassed him.

Third encounter: horse.

Orunmila strewed grass on the ground and as horse browsed,

bypassed him.

Fourth encounter: cock.

Orunmila scattered the maize.

Cock did not resist the temptation.

By the time he looked up, Orunmila was already up in the tree. Cock protested in his usual way, Coquettishly shook his feathers

[ 163

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

and cried out: Orunmila’s here

Orunmila’s climbing the tree Orunmila’s sitting comfortably

O—gogege e e, O—gogege ẹ el

Got stuck in his gullet, gagged on it ever since—

O— gogege € €.

When Orunmila came down he grew rich as could have been expected. Dancing, rejoicing, praising the diviners: Big bell mouth divined for me on my way to Ife to climb that tree Watchdog won't allow it Ram keeps them at bay Horse tramples all comers Cockerel alerts the others Sops strewn on the ground,

Orunmila began to climb precarious, firmly Now be there no more worrying Riches ascend the Ogege Honor ascends the Ogege Whoever climbs the tree of wealth reaches reputation

Praise Ogege!

We have sacrificed, Greetings!

This is the third verse of Irete Meji. Kowee, kowee cried out in the forest tail feathers shaking as far as the roadside Forest is the forest of fire Grasslands the plain of the sun To the owner of the knife belongs the remainder

IRETE

MEJI

Made Ifa for Orunmila when he was chasing evasive fortune to Ido junction.

Told to sacrifice, he did,

then continued his pursuit; overshot the town. What could frantic fortune do? Jump in a pit! Gone? If antelope is what I was after,

I must be out of luck, said Orunmila.

Ooop! Down into the pit he went; bumped into antelope; neither could get out. On the fourth day Orunmila started crying for assistance; and what he said was, Is there nobody in this vicinity? Meanwhile, Banana tree is never barren

Made Ifa for a Woman who knew secrets of Earth but had no children. She was asked to procure the sash

a woman uses to attach her baby two adult hens and twenty-two bags of cowries. When she had done so, they made medicine for her and said,

Take your sacrifice down to the waterside—

not far from the pit, so it turned out, that held antelope and her pursuer.

Now it happened she had just completed her menstrual cycle. She began to pray by the waterside and Orunmila,

hearing the voice of a woman, made his predicament explicit. —How did you get in there? —Don’t ask questions, just stretch out your sash and pull. As she was dragging Orunmila out, he was trying to bring antelope with him,

I 165

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

but the leg he was gripping broke off and so he emerged holding on

to just this part. Come to think of it, he said,

What are you doing here about? —] brought my sacrifice to the waterside. —For what purpose?

—To beg the orisha for children. — Well, it would seem the object of your prayers is here waiting.

With that he plucked palm leaves, spread them upon the ground and made love to that woman. Then he went his way, she went hers,

and one month later, knew herself pregnant.

The child she bore was a boy, was beautiful,

and when they asked who the father was,

she said, I don’t know. But the day of its naming,

the question arose, how should it be called? Olomo was suggested, Olomo—whose father is not known.

Now in times gone by they used to sacrifice people to Ifa and human beings were for sale. When the boy grew up

custom required he be taken to market. On that very day, Orunmila, wishing to celebrate his anniversary, sent his household to market to buy a sacrificial slave. They had no choice, Olomo was the only one there.

IRETE

MEJI

I 167

Tomorrow I shall have him killed, said Orunmila, to placate Ifa. The young man began to sing:

Kowee cried out death in the forest,

tail feathers vibrating to the roadside, hanyin Forest is the forest of fire, hanyin

Grasslands the plain of the sun, hanyin

All else falls to the knife, hanyin

Made Ifa for Orunmila the day

he was chasing dappled skin to Ido Junction, hanyin.

Baba in pursuit, fell into the pit, hanyin. The Successor in this town has a bad name,

Silent Servant is equally wicked,

and Women’s Lib is a big confusion, hanyin.

Who can set things right with earth again? Baba’s been down there three days, rolling darkness, hanyin. Banana tree, never barren

Made Ifa for a Woman. who knew earth’s secrets

but had no children, hanyin.

Sash to the rescue! Baby-tote-rope pulled him out of the hole Pursuit of long life got him in, hanyin. Then the young man said, All you people who trade in palm products, did it never occur to you that palm oil made the child live? Taking the hint, the people went to Orunmila and told him everything the boy had said, then brought the speaker and had him repeat, line by line, exactly as before, the gist of it. Orunmila began to remember, yes, how he happened to meet a woman at such and such a place. Could this be the child of that encounter?

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

He asked the young man to be prepared for sacrifice, saying, If he’s really the product of my sperm, no knife will be able to slit his throat; but if not, the knife will go in. Well it happened the knife did slip aside so he ordered the boy released and sent for a goat to take his place. From this day forward goats have been offered to Ifa; human sacrifice is no more. Olomo was reprieved; but the mark of the knife remains on the neck of all human beings. Life line

hold on

don't cut death-restrainer

This is the sash that rescued Orunmila,

This the tie that binds and loosens the victim. Or so they say in Ijebu country

where I picked up this story. Greetings for the sacrifice. . . .

Postscript: That’s why Moslems kill rams for Tabaski

. may we survive the occasion;

Greetings!

+ Da

“We have consulted Irete Meji; may I not die suddenly.”

Irete Meji marks that stage in the organization of the world by intellect when, the primary divisions having been accomplished, symbolic behavior (here a derivative of speech) is now possible. All

IRETE

MEJI

I 16g

activity need no longer be imbedded in the literal; one thing may be substituted for another. The linkages established in the first phase, the perceived. affinities between various aspects of the universe of created things, render rituals efficacious. Irete Meji is the sign of the earth, of telluric forces sublimated to the orderly discourse of Ifa; emotionally, it signifies man’s deference to powers appearing upon the earth’s surface but contained within. An amalgam of two verbal nouns (ire, itè) whose energy descends like the downbeat of dancers’ feet, hammer regaining strength from the anvil, the word means “pressing the earth with humility, touching base.”! This odu governs the act of writing fate on the wood dust of the divining board. Just as riches are hidden in the earth, so the odu of the earth posits the materialization of

good luck. In a traditional society like that presupposed by Ifa, riches are honorable: the means to good reputation, the basis for the exercise of personal power, which, hopefully, may be extended from

generation to generation by the establishment of a numerous family. But Irete Meji is also an important chapter in the history of witches. It is the configuration under which their riches were allocated, which is to say their powers defined. Consequently, a man whose prestige brings him to public notice must be constantly on his guard. Careful to honor the sources of his being, he must walk judiciously. The combination of suffering (retributive earth—as epitomized by Babaluaye the orisha, and Oworin the odu) with earth as longevity, seasonal yield, calabash-power (Irete) produces the sign of Ogboni. This secret society is devoted to the maintenance of equilibrium between the claims of the dead and those of the living: moral dynamism realized as active justice, the sting of the scorpion.

Many are the images of fortune. As we know from Obara Meji

1. The

sign

is associated

with

the

cricket

(iré)

or aldantété,

a creature

of

the dry season proverbially associated with Egungun dancers as a diminutive version of their masquerade: “who ‘speaks’ with the voice of young palm

fronds?”

(McClelland,

op.

cit., Abraham,

op.

cit., p. 149).

According

to Mc-

Clelland’s informants, Irete Meji is known as the “death postponer,” and his mother as a wanton woman (whose name begins with Ere) who was trampled in a bog as punishment for her promiscuous birth is Emere, which means “reborn spirit,” abiku.

conduct. The place of Irete’s the wild-wood counterpart of

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Major Odu: The Next Twelve

where

fortune’s

vehicle

(Oshumare

the

rainbow

python)

lives,

prosperity is conceived as a kind of grace exhibited in dynamic movement. The primary attribute of earth is its endurance— through change. Death comes

and goes. The earth remains, trans-

forming all matter within its matrix. A fortunate man is lively, his

position shaky.

The first section of Awotunde’s recitation begins with a series of images of permanence, persistence through the process of wearing

down, various types of downward motion that situate things vis a vis the earth. Their energy is their gravity. Their grace, in this world of lies, may be deceptive. Fortune in this story is likened to the sea’s yield, and Our Lady of the Substratum is Yemoo, Yemoja

as consort of Obatala the “white” sky divinity.

The crayfish of the

sacrifice turns into the “helpful animal” of the fairy tale, the bait turned harbinger, the small bet perfectly placed on the wheel of fortune. The mood is gaily ironic: is not this all too easy? The second story is another type of fairy tale that warns the optimistic conscious mind of real resistance. Fortune here burgeons from

the

high

branches

of the

tree

of life,? inaccessible

to those

unequipped, by Ifa priests, with the correct sops for odu’s cerberus. Why the discrepancy between the seven promised perils and the four guardians who actually appear? Seven are the menacing witches,

owners

of

seven

trees;

four

the

directional

mouths

of

Flegba that do in fact require feeding if one wills the road clear. The four materializations of danger here are also avatars of the “hot” orishas.

The third story is exceedingly complex. Fortune first appears

in the guise of ere-agbonrin, literally “python-antelope”—an initial mystification if there ever was one! Both are speckled, elusive creatures, fickle, illusory, symbols par excellence of continuity and longevity! As soon as the object of Orunmila’s pursuit jumps into the pit, the ere is dropped and the creature becomes, simply, antelope; although when the boy summarizes the story in his own words, it is biri (“darkness”) that Orunmila “rolls” for three days 2. Ogege conveys the idea of teetering, being in an unstable situation. It is part of an ejaculation calling upon Mother Earth and a praise name for Waterbuck, one of her avatars.

IRETE

MEJI

[ 171

before deciding to call for help. What’s going on down there? The place to which Orunmila chases whatever-it-may-be is where the protagonist of the first story worships Yemoo: Ido, a place of coition and establishment, which is also, I think, meant to signify the world’s navel (from a shortened form of “umbilical”).

The latter meaning, apart from its connection to the sash that pulls Orunmila out, provides a connection between the second and third stories. In neighboring Dahomey the navel cord, taken to be

the residence of one’s personal fortune (Oshumare in microcosm ) is buried beneath a tree, preferably a palm.* Here the human being

is rooted, here the analogue of his lively well-being is concealed from

those

who

might

wish

him

evil.

In his rainbow

form,

the

python insures a continued connection between the two worlds of

heaven and earth and between the generations of man. A powerful

umbilical spirit who has brought wealth and prestige in one lifetime may eventually be worshiped as a clan-founder. This animating force may also be visualized as the sustainer of the calabash of existence: macrocosmically, that which is coiled beneath the world; microcosmically, the head-pad of the individual destiny one comes into the world with. The

bilical force

is buried

becomes

tree at whose

the

tree

roots, then,

this um-

of wealth—individually

and cosmically. In Yoruba mythology this python is also the urobos that produced the world-egg out of which came the primary divini-

ties—again the prototype of self-generating and self-sustaining energy. So one might sum up the first part of the story by saying that Orunmila, in pursuit of the complex of qualities represented by python, sacrifices and immediately thereafter narrows his quest to the longevity represented by antelope. What transpires in the

pit must remain the mystery as a result of which an animal is dis-

membered. Meanwhile, an opposite set of circumstances is converging upon constricted Orunmila. There is something wrong in the state

of Ido. The woman

in question has been given the name

of the

highest female title in the Ogboni society (Erelu). Why should this earth-worshiper be sterile? Later we learn from her son that two of the male officials of Ogboni in Ido are wicked and that the Iyalode 3. Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey, Evanston, Ill., 1967, pp. 250-255.

Vol.

II, Northwestern

University

Press,

172

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

is a “big confusion.” This personage, in a Yoruba town, is the leader of women vendors and traders organized to protect their economic interests. Elected on the strength of her personality, it is she who

defends their rights before the local political authorities and by inference

acts as their advocate

in the clandestine

world

of sexual

politics as well. In the series of witch-odu collected by Pierre Verger, it is the Iyalode who, under the sign of Irete Meji, distributes bird-power to the calabash-holders on the day of their initial descent to earth.* In our mythical Ido, women’s

exercised

destructively,

earth’s powers

corruptly,

powers

and

are being

it falls to

Orunmila to set things to rights—a task for which his three days’ sojourn in the pit have singularly prepared him. Erelu “delivers” him in the same way that Otu (of Otura

Meji)

unearths

tortoise

into

the

light.

The

piece

of

antelope

Orunmila brings along could be interpreted in various ways. Dismembered anatomical fragments are usually taken to be phallic symbols. He needs a hard-on for the job ahead. It is also possible that what he emerges with is a piece of himself, his umbilicallongevity. Imbued with the strength of the life-giving palm, sprung

up alongside the pit in which he was buried, Orunmila impregnates the pythoness (Ere-ikon) with palm-oil-sperm. It is this substance, transmitted to his son, that makes

the knife shy away from

Olomo,

whose spared life marks the beginning of a new dispensation. All 4. Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence . . ., pp. 148, 162, 163. 5. Olomo is also the founder of a new lineage. His descendants, ransomed through him, are omonle; their (our) good fortune is attributable to the strength of his roots—the python syndrome discussed above. His name is also associated with the tree from whose wood the bembe drum is made and with the gecko lizard (Hemitheconyx caudicinctus). This animal is classified, by the Dogon, as a piece of the sun, associated with the placenta and with the foreskin (the feminine aspect of men, which is ceremonially cut away). This lizard suggests diminution, regression, the theft of solar power, and the impurity of the earth. It stands at the head of a category of insects associated with the generative heat of the sun and with the threat of sterility. One of these insects, the cricket (see Note 1, above), is thought to be imprisoned in a certain cylinder drum, which, when beaten, animates the little creature and disperses warmth and light to the four corners of the universe—whose diverse stars and planets begin to revolve with the bodies of the red-fiber-clad dancers. Yoruba philosophy tends to assimilate the heavenly bodies to the orisha (the sun to Elegba, the moon to Obatala) or to rhythms of existence (the moon to witches; the sun to the force of heat-bringing dryness, sterility, dis-

IRETE

MEJI

[ 173

that cannot be shriveled by sun nor consumed in flame lives under the threat of the knife, humanity’s means of destruction. At this point in mythological time a symbolic human sacrifice was substituted for a real one. One’s own is not to kill. But like Aesop’s dog,

man will always wear the sign of captivity, of the rigors of a prim-

itive logic

from

which

the establishment

of the

oracle

delivered

him. The grounding of wisdom in sacred symbols meant that the fate of the earth would, had men the piety to observe it, be human

destiny’s equivalent. That which has once made a dint can never,

even though it be erased, cease to endure in memory. This is Irete’s answer to Ika Meji. Note:

The Ijebus, from whom

are authorities on human

Awotunde

says he learned this story,

sacrifice. Not only were they addicted to

the practice themselves, but they are by all accounts the descend-

ants of a sacrificial victim. Their name means “food-of-the-deep.” When the stories of Abraham-Isaac and Orunmila-Olomo are compared, as Awotunde suggests they be, one is struck at once by the shift in focus of belief. It is to the transcendent force of knife itself

(Ogun) that Orunmila must entrust, by entire subjection, his son

as

temporary

representative

of

a destructible

living

community

that includes all moving things. The hand that holds the knife is stayed at the neck as if at the barky threshold of the bole contain-

ing an equally powerful charge of divine energy. Full stop. The

black hole. A change in direction. A new discharge of old energies and the process gets going again—with a moral difference. ease, brush fire—purgative-destructive rhythms). Nor do the Yoruba partake of the rage for classification that Griaule and his associates have brilliantly documented among the Dogon. However, within the language of the odu are contained hints of associated meanings, which tease the mind like distant signals from fast-extinguishing stars. Among these are the associations of cricket, lizard, sun, fire, knife, umbilical cord, and the returning dead—all proper to the music of Irete Meji. What was wrong in Ido has to do with ignoring the claims of those buried in the ground. Orunmila eclipsed himself for three days that we might live, return again, persist (like the earth). The ramifications are endless. And the miracle of Ifa is that no matter how many distant associations are brought in to the emphatic form that has been given a conscious cultural direction, the meaning remains, enriched. For an account of these associations among the people of the upper Niger, see Marcel Griaule, “Reflexions sur les Symboles Soudanais,” Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie, XII (1952), pp. 8-30.

WISE >

(©)

©)

:

I want I want I insist on broke me

Greetings for the sacrifice!

May we survive. . . . Don’t you see the road Ifa took to become Ifa? Grab-and-sheathe was diviner to the fighting king of Owu country Take-it-easy was diviner for Ibadan He who never hears about fighting remains waiting; Stay, Don’t-be-cruel is acquainted with Ogun; So even ghosts dream of fighting; Flowering coral trees have thorns; Even waxbills, weavers.

. . .

Made Ifa for Orunmila who wanted to travel all over the world making money off fights. He was the Undefeated Champion of Ifa!

[ 175|

176

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

If he

challenges this one, beats him challenges that one, beats him But nobody pays him a thing. So Orunmila beat palm nuts to get himself defeated. Agreed! Again he went the rounds, drumming up engagements as far as Ekiti.

His first opponent was the Alara, who beat him. Eshu said, You asked for trouble, Alara,

now youre in for it! The only way out is to present

bush rat, fish, hen, and plenty of money

to the defeated champion. Then Orunmila took on Ajero and the troublesome chief of Ila at the edge of Ekiti,

then all the rulers of all market towns, And for every one of his defeats they had to pay, the victors. So Orunmila grew rich as his diviners predicted: He who sheathes his sword divines in palm-nut country; He who takes it easy divines for Ibadan;

He who hasn't listened to the news stays put; even ghosts have heard of Ogun, even the timid weaver. . . . Made Ifa for Orunmila who wanted to go on tour . the black one who knows about fighting If we beat palm nuts we'll make money even the yellow-mantled Whydah bird even the orange-cheeked waxbill even the coral blossom. . . . If we throw seedpods we re sure to have wives and children even the black one that knows the black one that knows about fighting.

. . .

OSHE

MEJI

[ 177

If we beat palm nuts all the good things in life will be ours which is why everybody began “defeating” Ifa. Greetings for the sacrifice completed!

This is the second: It’s the greedy person takes a large morsel, My eyes are inflamed, and Restless water lettuce Made Ifa for Couldn’t see, couldn’t reach

who was going to Ibadan. Can he have peace? Sacrifice! Not he. So they started worrying him all over the place. As the babalawos said: It’s the greedy person grabs the big morsel My eyes are inflamed, and Restless water lettuce Made Ifa for Dispossessed: can’t see, can’t get; if we’re to have peace, then shall we rest On that day it happened to the people of Ibadan that they can’t relax anymore. Greetings for the sacrifice,

for the possibility. + LS

“We have consulted Oshe Meji; may sudden death avoid me.” To this aspect of earth belongs all that decays, putrefies, dissolves into its constitutive elements. Traditional geomancy associates this figure with surrender, flight, and loss; and Awotunde’s recitation shows how ingeniously old persistent meanings have been, not without a certain irony, retained in the unfolding of a philosophy to cover eventualities perceived within the cultural context of the

178

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Yoruba. This very process is built into the meaning of the odu: the transvaluation

of values,

exaltation

of the loser.

The

achievement

of a new world-order presupposes the breaking of old forms (seen now as barriers), necessitates, as the early Christians knew, the conscious violations of taboos. It was on account of Oshe Meji’s

unspeakable transgression that this odu, together with Ofun Meji, was banished to the end of the line. What happened?

Consideration of two of the simplest numer-

ical facts provides a clue. The major signs might be thought of as sixteen pairs of identical twins, each of which, confronted the other, may unite to produce a column of evens (oyeku).

SS S § SS

+ + + +

§§ § § §§

= = = =

with

AS § §§ §§

For example, according to the binary method of computation applied horizontally (a standard geometric procedure), this diagram

is true. Conversely, if Oyeku is added to any one of the figures, the

result is that figure’s duplicate: preservation of identity, or stasis, or stagnation. But one may also think of the signs as eight pairs of “fraternal” twins all of which relate symmetrically to each other? Half of these pairs are even numbers, half are odd, and 1. Although Yoruba traditions recall that Ofun, being the “mother” of all the odu, was first, then demoted, I can find no mention of an original “place” for Oshe. In traditional European geomancy, the figures called “Acquisito” and “Amissio often take first and second place and, in these positions, recall some of the general meanings of Ofun and Oshe. 2. Four of these pairs (signs seven through fourteen) are geometrically

similar (or congruent). The rotation of one sign produces the other. Figures

five and six have, as I have already noted, this rotational possibility, with the addition of a common horizontal axis about which to revolve, and the numerical property of being exact opposites: even answers to odd, odd to even. The first four figures are stable: rotate them, and they remain the same. They are also internally symmetrical: fold them in half, top coincides with bottom. They also are related as logical opposites. The last two (Oshe and Ofun) are unstable (rotate them, and they form their opposites), and although they share a common horizontal axis, top coincides with bottom of the opposite figure. All other symmetries and relationships are like those of the first six figures. The pairs they resemble most, therefore, are numbers five and six (Irosun and Oworin), witches and Babaluaye. For the possibili-

ties of this kind

of “geometric”

thinking,

I am

indebted

to Robert

Jaulin,

OSHE

MEJI

[ 179

their arrangement, their “rank,” is ontologically significant." Clearly Oshe and Ofun, as even numbers, belong in the upper half of the group. If you add any even “fraternal” combination, you get a column of single marks (Ogbe). For example:

§ §§ § §§

+ + + +

§§ § §§ §

= = = =

§ § § §

If you add any odd “fraternal” combination, following the law of odds = § / evens = §§, you get either Odi or Iwori (twice each for this series) :

à (+) À §§ §§ §§ §

§ §§

§ (=) §§ §§ §

(+) y § §

Ÿ (+) À §§ § §§ §§

§ (=) §§ §§ §

(=)

À (+) § §§ §

§§ § § §§

(=)

§§ § §§

Hence validation of these resultant figures as “roots of the world.” In esoteric calculations of the dangerousness of various odu combinations, a single column is always added to the double figure produced by chance manipulation of the nuts or chain as token of Ogbe’s triumph over Oyeku.* And of course, whenever the four odds La géomancie.

Analyse

phie-Linguistique—N.S.

Formelle;

IV,

Cahiérs

Mouton,

Paris.

de l]Homme—Ethnologie-GeograFor

help

with

the

mathematics

of Ifa generally, I am indebted to my friend Tom Simpson. 3. Numerically, as figures of six units, Oshe and Ofun belong with the first six odu. Ogbe and Oyeku together add up to twelve, but individually they represent the numbers four and eight—the extreme limits of the possibilities contained within the system. Life and death: their interdependence is dramatized by the fact that only taken together is each a potential perfect six. The standard arrangement of the Ifa figures alternates pairs of sevens with pairs of fives (following the unstable [i.e., rotatable] sixes: Irosun and Oworin).

Those

figures. that

show

what

might

be

called

the

rudiments

of

some of the perfections of the set of sixes are put first—to maintain a pattern of degeneration broken only by the last two figures “in their disgrace.”

4.

Maupoil,

op.

cit.,

pp.

250-260.

Only

those

who

have

received

(I)gbadu

(see Awotunde’s recitation for Ofun Meji) may practice this “higher” calculation.

180

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

are added to any configuration, that sign becomes the reverse of

itself.

Together these simple facts express the dynamism,

self-over-

coming, and life affirmation of Ifa. One supposes that Oshe and Ofun were the first set of “fraternal” twins to unite and that they were banished for their crime against stasis to the end where, ironically, a more profound beginning occurs. Oshe’s “incest” with Ofun is paralleled in the world of the orisha by Orungan’s rape of his mother Yemoja, a conjunction of the zenith and the nadir that produced the gush of forces called Shango, Ogun, and so on. And both these acts are paralleled on the level of witches with the story of Obatala’s theft of Our Mother’s water. (The witches possessed seven rivers, the prototype of which, River itself, never runs dry. Obatala needed this water for the creation of human beings.)> As a result of this syndrome of violations, Oshun River has been associated with Oshe ever since, especially in the Dilogun system where the orisha identifications are more pointed. But there are other reaons. Oshun, it will be remembered from Awotunde’s recitation of the first odu, was the mother of Eji Ogbe; and

so, as long

as the wheel

continues

to turn,

must

she

continu-

ally be: her life as a major odu in fifteenth position limited to visiting Ofun Meji and receiving his return visit.f A note on gender: both Oshe Meji and Ofun Meji evince an alternation of odds and evens. They are the only figures so constituted and raise the ques-

tion of possible

ancient

connections

between

the odu

and

the

trigrams of the I Ching.” In the case of these two odu, at any rate,

5.

See Verger,

“Grandeur

et Décadence

. . . ,” “Osa

English of the Yemoja story, see Gleason, Orisha.

Meji."

For

a version

in

6. The sixteen major odu may be thought of as kings, residing in distinct places, who spread Ifa throughout the land/world by exchanging state visits. According to the rules of this game, which begins with Eji Ogbe, each king visited pays a return visit. But when his turn comes, he may not initiate a visit to a higher ranking oba. He must begin with the one below him in line. Thus Eji Ogbe makes fifteen calls and receives fifteen, Oshe Meji may only visit Ofun Meji, and Ofun Meji initiates no visits. See McClelland, op. cit. 7. Actually, this perfect balance or alternation of elements cannot be written as a trigram, but it can be written as the Yin-Yang symbol. The situation

existing in Oshe-Ofun is closest to those denoting running water and fire in the I Ching.

To

me,

these

figures

suggest

the

confrontation

of Yemoja

and

OSHE

MEJI

[

181

the male and female principles are so balanced, blended—passiveness suspended in the solution of activity (Ofun), and aggres-

siveness suspended in the solution of receptivity (Oshe )— that the

myths consider Oshe variously as ravisher and ravished, Ofun as mother

of the

odus

and

as sky-husband

messenger,

who

had

to provide

covering

the

earth.

By

uniting with Elegba, Oshe produced the first non-twin (Oshe-Tura), the

an

animal

substitute

to be

taken to heaven: his mortal counterpart sacrificed so that he could

remain.®

The repercussions of the cosmic events associated with Oshe Meji

were felt on earth most disastrously not as incestuous love but as

its Opposite and counterpart: fratricidal war—more as the waves of conflict that eventually overwhelmed

at the close of the nineteenth century.

particularly Yorubaland

To be most brief: the process began in the north with Moslem expansion that pushed the Fulani down upon the Hausa, which

in turn instigated a series of power struggles (dog eats dog) that

eventually broke Old Oyo (feared and despised), an empire that could never be put together again as a kingdom, much as the Oyos tried, at Ibadan, to do so. The scavengers came from the south (the sea) to take advantage of the situation with their guns and money, until, in the interest of pacification, that war-weary land became

effecively their own. Such were the wars that formed a prelude to the colonial conquest that irreparably broke up the old way of life

Orungan and, among the odu, Iwori and Odi to be a premonition of the pair Oshe-Ofun.

_ — —— _ —

§§ $ §§ §

D

_

§ Ṣ$ §§ §

(in reversed

§ §§ § §§

order),

who

seem

§§ § §§ §

8. Otura is usually shown in ninth position in European geomancy. When the Arabs developed four extra houses to accommodate the sixteen figures of geomancy, Otura became settled in the place of the Magician. Astrological associations for this figure: either Venus in Taurus, denoting (in the geomantic frame) chance, or, according to another version, Mercury in Scorpio. The astrological counterparts for Oshe and Ofun are either Gemini and Pisces, or Aquarius and Pisces. See Cheikh Hadji Khamballah, La Geomancie traditionelle, Vega, Paris, 1947; and J. C. Hébert, “Analyse Struc-

turale des Geomancies Cormoriennes, Malgaches et Africaines,” Journal de la

Séciété des Africanistes, XXI,

2 (1961 ).

182

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

and united the pieces into what has subsequently become the free Federal Republic of Nigeria. The focal point of all the internecine

wars

for sixty years was

“gunbutt”

Ibadan,®

located

between

the

Ogun and Oshun rivers, between forest and savannah (which could

be overridden by horsemen from the north), a neither-here-northere nor too-far-out military camp for displaced Oyos. So histori-

cized has Oshe Meji become that Ibadan, founded under this sign, has actually become an alternative name for the odu.’° In this recitation,

would

the war between

rather

lose, both

Ibadan

sides

being

and Ekiti is one

inevitable

that Orunmila

losers

anyhow—a

moral victory being the only hope for life. Make Ifa, don’t make

war, says Orunmila.”

Some

identifications:

The

Owu

are

traditional

enemies

of

Oyo. The three contenders after Orunmila’s sacrifice are from the Ekiti region, districts that ganged up with some other groups

against Oyo (with headquarters at Ibadan) to wage a nine-year war ended only when the British guaranteed Ekiti groups their independence (1886).

The punning

on “beat” comes right across from Yoruba

to

English. The diviner “beats” the palm nuts in his hands to determine the remainder. Ojumi pon wee means “my eyes are red”; Oju

omi is an Ifa leaf belonging to Oshe Meji. The quality of restless-

ness in this water lettuce (which, dry season or wet, clogs swamps or floats on floods) is used to make trouble for one’s enemies.!? Although the wars are over, there’s still a military government in Ibadan—the federal capital—and a great deal of restlessness. The

last time I was there a thousand sorcerers from up-country danced,

drummed, and made medicine atop the lorries that brought them down; place—in front of the governor’s residence; reason—unfair taxes. And along the road from Ibadan to the lagoon, one dare not, for the driving sons of Ogun, relax. 9. I learned about this nickname from Robert S. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, Methuen, London, 1969, p. 158. 10. See Gangan, published by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Information, Ibadan (October, 1970). II. Actually what was “made” in Ekiti was Eji Ogbe. This, according to McClelland’s sources, is where he hails from (nearer the source of the Oshe River than that of the Oshun? ). 12. Verger, Yoruba Medicinal Leaves, p. 145.

+ 16 +

AAA

©

ki

A

A

Ofun Meji

Epa! Enfold all,

Chikd's coverlet Old cloud clewed down to the corners of the sky Countenance, cosmetic Snail drum, motion of the dance A stifled cry.

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Ofun Meji—epa! Ofun Meji—epa! Greetings for the awe you stand to men! Do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? No dog greets visitors to Shotgun town Cock won’t crow in the marketplace of leopards

But no forest’s so thick He can’t enter it

Made Ifa for Orunmila who'd done everything he was told without avail, so they said to go see Odu for himself down by the riverside Sacrifice, they said, things will improve if you go, mark Ifa and build Odu.

[ 183 ]

184

1

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

So he sacrificed and got ahold of the traditional materials for strengthening. This is what they substituted for the sperm your father used in creating you, and This instead of the force your mother provided— you cannot ignore these things.

Slight as a spark a mere nit-bit no more blood than beetle-rub This is Ebora the sacrifice that buys you in the spirit that beckons you from the wood the divinity dancing beneath the hood

They showed him the calabash of chalk, saying,

this is the substitute the representing of

emission of sperm into your mother; you must not ignore it.

Slight as a spark

or the bite of the louse

|

mother who saved the life of her child divinity who can kill him Then they showed him the calabash of coal: Look, they said. ‘ it was your elder brother fetched the log to warm your mother when you were born, you must not ignore it.

Then they showed him the calabash of mud: This is the soil onto which you were born; no man lives on earth eats rat eats fish and breaks his covenant Which is why we draw lots and abide by what’s given; Which is why we do not say one thing and mean another. This is what they told Orunmila. All these things he put to use as medicine and there was an instant change for good in his life.

OFUN

MEJI

I 185

So when a person comes into existence,

those who surround him—mother, father, brothers,

he cannot live on the earth and play them false. As the babalawo said: Gone are all dogs from Guntown No cock crows in leopard’s market No forest’s so thick it cannot be penetrated Made Ifa for Orunmila | on his way to the riverside to confront Odù in person. I saw Odù My mind is calm I saw Odù Come what may,

My life goes on I saw Odu My sight’s complete. I saw Odu. Now we want to praise the second row:

The angered spirit took two, ate two; The elder distributor of gifts took three,

picked up his garment, and walked away Made Ifa for the sixteen heads of odu on the day they were coming into the world from heaven. They said, the one who is not angry will be crowned king. In the beginning it was Ofun Meji who took the lead, everybody respected him,

but later it appeared he was always angry, did all sorts of untoward things so he was taken right back. Thus the babalawo said,

Greedy ate two

Generous distributor took three,

wrapped himself in his virtue, and walked away.

186

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Ofun Meji used to be the leader but he lost his place now he stays behind

out of the traffic Thin staff took two

Distributor, after the fact,

took three, put on his robe

and quit the scene

Made Ifa for The Sixteen

on the day they were released from heaven

We don’t know,

it’s far from certain,

but reliable sources inform us

with impassioned voices: On account of his bad reputation he went straight back

behind the arras white face, black mask

Third row: now this is where we will stop and sing Dogged defender Firebrand Obstinate root within the rock Made Ifa for Meteorite, who makes war

on behalf of the stars in the heavens. You, battle-scarred general in ore, they said, Sacrifice on account of national security, for your people say war will never dare their threshold. Stolid star shone forth distinctly : I suggest you do the same, all of you, he said against the threat of invasion: two hundred bush rats two hundred dried fish two hundred chickens and two hundred cowries.

OFUN

MEJI

[ 187

The star-people sacrificed, leaves were prepared for them, and things calmed down: there was no more war. So the babalawo said,

Dogged defender, burning bright rooted in rock,

the sky above is pitted with stars,

who would dare make war on the heavens? Burning warrior

stands guard

Hen with her chicks never entered a town like an army,

nor have any dared fight with the moving stars. Goat never barged into house with a rifle butt,

nor night sky occupied by mundane forces Bright star, steadfast,

keep away war may the people of Oshogbo never be forced to writhe on the ground before conquerors. The heavens are strewn with invisible stars;

who would think to take on the orisha? Announcement: Any town that has this medicine will never experience war any more. For this reason we put some within the oba's palace; and for this reason we will dance there in midJuly when we celebrate our annual festival. (Joy in the house—O my lioness.)

Singing and dancing: Bright stars defend us May there be no more war

No more war in the heavens, No more war in New York, No more war in America;

By all the stars, vitality of the heavens,

let there be no more war

in Oshogbo

188

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve in America

And may all people dispossessed by war when they get where they are going

never have to go through all that again

As once at Oshogbo place of refuge So everywhere now and evermore.

Greetings for the sacrifice; for our survival. o, “

“We have consulted Ofun Meji—epa! Death, children of death; Life, children of life. . . .”

The sixteenth major odu, container of all mysteries, the complete calabash of Oduduwa as formulated in the language of Ifa, is all but inaccessible—placed out of the way and out of ordinary thought processes. What was lost at the “time” of Oshe Meji must be regained, but how? The redemptive process might be said to begin with the final episode in the saga of witches: Oshe Oyeku.! Odu, the female principle imagined as a container, the fourth elemental being to issue forth from the python’s egg, having grown “too old,” expresses her desire to go underground. Seated on her mysterious cylinder

box,

she

calls

her

four

advisors—Obatala,

Babaluaye,

Ogun, and Oduduwa (an active emanation of her self) —and gets them to agree to her departure by promising revelations to those of their children who come to solicit, to adore her properly in her house in the forest. This house has become the ceremonial apere-box containing a calabash (her body), which contains in turn (or is surrounded

by) the four calabashes given to her on that occasion by the four advisors, Obatala gives a calabash of chalk, Babaluaye offers his favorite

substance,

osùn.

1. This story of Oshe Oyeku dence . . ., pp. 230-251.

(red powder), is

taken

from

Ogun—charcoal

powder,

Verger’s

et

“Grandeur

Déca-

OFUN

and Oduduwa—mud.?

MEJI

[ 189

These gifts imply four roads, four corners

of the universe. They are the original four major signs. From one of them will be “born” another first principle, as once Odu from

the python’s egg. Ofun, the calabash of chalk (efun) who gives (fun) himself, produces Obatala, the white divinity as Orisa-nla, greater

than,

the beginning

and

the end, first and

tainer of them all. The egg within becomes

becomes

creativity personified.

of the orisha Obatala as Ofun.?

last, the con-

the womb,

passivity

Surely this is part of the meaning

2. “Four stages (in the alchemical process) are distinguished, characterized by the original colours mentioned in Heraclitis. . . . Later, about the fifteenth or sixteenth century (in Europe), the colours were reduced to three. . . Whereas the original tetrameria corresponded exactly to the quaternity of elements, it was now frequently stressed that although there were four elements (earth, water, fire and air) and four qualities (hot, cold, dry and moist), there were only three colours: black, white and red. . . . Blackness is the initial state, either present from the beginning as a quality of the prima materia, the chaos or massa confusa, or else produced by the separation of the elements. If the separated condition is assumed at the start . . . then a union of opposites is performed under the likeness of a union of male and female, followed by the death of the product of the union (and blackness). From this the washing either leads directly to the whitening, or else the soul released at the ‘death’ is reunited with the dead body and brings about its resurrection, or again the ‘many colours’ . . . lead to the one white colour

that contains all colours. At this point the first main

goal of the process is

reached . . . highly prized by many alchemists as if it were the ultimate goal. It is the silver or moon condition, which still has to be raised to the sun condition.” [The next stage is the red. The white is the “daybreak.”] C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1953 (second revised edition, 1968), pp. 229-232. 3. There is a method (usually credited to an Arab genius) of arranging the traditional geomantic signs so that all paired figures will add up to the sign

the Yoruba call Ofun and the Arab geomancers

cail “Judge.” In this scheme

the latter takes fifteenth and last place. There is no sixteenth. The missing sign is Ifa’s Oyeku. This absence is in accordance with two laws of the system by which geomantic figures are traditionally formed—laws that make it impossible for all sixteen figures actually to appear in any one set (the first four members of which are determined by chance, the rest by logic) and therefore necessitating at least one duplication. In this learned Arab arrangement, the duplication is the sign known in Ifa as Obara—Oshumare’s surplus of riches and, esoterically, the unstable product of a forbidden conjunction. The metaphysical implications of this setup in the context of Ifa make it seem likely that the learned order is well-known to certain babalawo, perhaps independently invented by Ifa priests of the past. I take it to be the mathematical

190

|

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

Igbadu

(igba, "calabash," and Odu)

becomes

an orisha,

the

divinity worshiped by diviners who have attained the highest degree of self-knowledge—that is, the profoundest understanding of Ifa. Only such diviners may install the terribly powerful calabash 8

6

5

Cboron R PTT nu nu li

li L

lol

|

NN

JIN

WUN |

12

IL

mi

Il

|

4

IJI

un

tow

li JIN

(+)

CH | | Wi |

WN, I

nu Hoo

2

I

2HI-j Tu Ho

II

li

TINI

| Wi |

10

loo

| | | | | |

_

Il

| | Wi | II

!

|

3

9

t

(+)

YA

Ho Il ot

| | | | | |

14

I

wy li li

ji li too

(+) I5

HI li noon li

_ 7

| 1%=—15+10r

|

| Diagram

cies

...,

For the fifteenth figure the parenthetical = the “real”

|

|

adapted

from

p. 154.

J.

C.

Hébert,

“Analyse

Structurale

meaning of the story under discussion here. Note four roads represented by the four calabashes have ucts” of the first eight signs and are the figures Irosun and Oworin. Below them are paired Ogunda before

the Judge

in

the

Arab

terminology,

des

Geoman-

in the diagram that the special status as “prodwe know as Iwori, Odi, and Otura—“witnesses”

road-openers

to Orisha

and

pre-

cursors of Orunmila in the Yoruba context. The ranking order of the first line of figures evinces an interesting “memory” of the original primacy of earth. Earth’s fate (Irete) comes first, paired with Obara. Osa is third, paired with earth’s stability as dominated by the personality of Babaluaye. Eji Ogbe and Oshe Meji are paired in fifth and sixth place, Ika and Okanran in seventh and eighth.

OFUN

MEJI

[ 191

of existence, once closed never to be reopened except under horrific circumstances, “symbol of the sky and earth in their fecund union, container of the supreme wisdom of Ifa, [the installation of which validates] an esoteric principle of universal symbiosis.”{

In the first part of the recitation Orunmila is undergoing this initiation,

and

because

it is

a moment

of illuminaton

when

all colors

confusion

to the un-

merge into white, the symbols of the orisha themselves, the direc-

tions, the elements,

shift and merge—causing

initiated eye. Thus Ogun merges into Egun-Oyeku, who fetches and

carries back and forth between the two worlds. He brings the log that will be kindled into fire to heat the crucible of being to its keen-

est intensity, and by implication also the camwood rubbed on the

pregnant woman.

For the red-rub has become

ashe, the vital prin-

ciple that sings in the blood, the coolness of dew on leaf. It has

become the spark of divinity, a particularization of all 201 divinities—the triumph of Obatala, of Ofun. From this moment on the sky also possesses authority. The war is won. To “see” Odu is to look in all directions

conception,

at once,

to look back

to grasp—from

to the moment

this new

of one’s own

perspective—the

horizontal

plane of existence, the brotherhood of all who tread the earth; below to the realm of the earth, and that of the dead who uphold the

claims of blood (again Ofun as “judge”); upward to the stars and the cosmic order exemplified above.

It is at this point, one imagines, that the old babalawos dis-

close to the initiate the and that which proceeded part of the recitation, the ets.5 Again we leave the

hidden affiliations between their wisdom forth from Babylon. For here in the third orisha appear as constellations and plandispensation of Venus and enter that of

Mars.® The medicine that makes the possessor of Igbadu invulner-

4.

Maupoil, op. cit., p. go.

5. A story of Ogun Meji in Maupoil’s book relates that from the blood of men

came the sun, from the blood of animals, the moon, from the blood of birds, the stars. In other words, the command (ashe) of man is like that of the

sun,

the animals

who

are sacrificed provide

the moon’s

light,

the contents

of Our Mothers’ calabashes provide the ashe for the hosts of orisha! This parallels and also clarifies the alchemical aspects of Awotunde’s story. (Maupoil, op. cit., p. 462.)

6. “It is worth pointing out that a remarkable change occurs during the regimen

Martis

(reign

of Mars):

whereas

in

the

regimen

Veneris

(Venus)

the

192

)

Major Odu: The Next Twelve

able is being prepared first for the orisha, and then for the town of Oshogbo;’ and the generosity of song extends itself to a prayer for this protection to cover New York, to cover all mankind. What is hot in the heavens is cool below; hot below, cool above; those who

are wise are ruled by calm. It is this peace of mind that, with the right words said over the correct leaves, will make the corner of the earth into which any one of us happened to be born secure, doubly strong.

stone, the material to be transformed, is ‘put into another vessel,’ in the regimen Martis we are told that ‘The mother, being now sealed in her infant’s belly, swells and is purified, and because of the great purity of the compound, no putridity can have place in this regimen. . . . Know that our Virgin Earth here undergoes the last degree of cultivation and prepares to receive and mature the fruit of the sun.’ It is interesting that in this regimen the maternal substance is enclosed in the belly of its own child. These are transformations that could be expressed only in terms of the operation of yin and yang. Cf. the I Ching.” C. G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, ledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970 (second edition), p. 289.

Rout-

7. The battle of Oshogbo, a place of refuge for fleeing Oyos, was decisive in the history of the last century. In 1838 (or 1839), aided by an army from Ibadan, the people of Oshogbo turned back the Moslem forces from Ilorin— proving that never would the horsemen of the north be masters over the forest lands. The battle was fought at night. The medicine was efficacious.

III Castings

Here as the chain begins to chatter, the odu thus turned up at random perforce carry a charge of intentional meaning not present in the sixteen major figures recited one after the other in traditional order. This is the contract we agreed upon: Awotunde would continue casting until we obtained sixteen discreet combinations (excluding double figures and duplicates, although we eventually decided there would be recitations for these as they came up). In practice, no client would ever sit down hour after hour, day after day, in such fashion with the babalawo. (The process, as will be seen, was almost too much for us to bear, even given the “academic” nature of the enterprise.) Should a client keep a record of consultations over the years, the likelihood of his diviner’s turning up the same sequence as ours is, it hardly need be said, infinitesimal (a probability of sixteen to the twenty-first power). What astounds me, therefore, is that the following series of odu suggests a sequence of positions built into the ancient geomantic system as developed by the Yoruba into Ifa—with all its memories, all its “novelties.” This was not a projection. I knew nothing of sequences or “houses” at the time. In short, there is a good deal of evidence to show that the oracle is talking about itself, on one level. A distrust of my own tendency to overstructure forces me to play this would-be pattern down. But clearly, Ifa knew what we were up to and responded accordingly. Whatever the sequence means; certain odu rather than others are here—including repetitions. But saying what? And to whom? Otura, Ogunda, Osa, and Ofun play especially active parts; Ogbe is predominant in the combinations; Irosun and Oyeku reiterate warnings, and so on. Two things strike me as simultaneously pos-

sible: that I was, as I at first supposed, a mere conduit; or that I was, perforce and by default of another, a client. As conduit I have

put in a few scholarly notes of the kind that have helped me to understand, albeit by approximation, what was going on. As client I have been obliged to say from time to time how certain odu grab

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Castings

me by the scruff of the mind. A friend suggested that readers new to Yoruba religions would appreciate a sense of personal involvement on the part of someone conventionally educated into their own, vastly different, tradition. I agreed. Perhaps this is the extended meaning of the sacrifice I was eventually required to make “on both sides.” Society, with some hypocrisy, inquires of anyone returning from a trip, “What was it like?” At which point arise problems squarely to be faced under Otura Ogbe (Elegba in action). Who believes that the hunter, the mariner, the addict—when,

with glint-

ing eye, he clutches you by the arm—will begin telling you the truth? Perhaps he willfully embroiders, perhaps he has no intention of lying.

In working with any system thrown open to chance, the sensa-

tion of synchronism is craved like a drug. Paradoxically, the more

one’s unconscious participates in the process, the more purpose is

perceived, the more possibilities open up for what one might call the superstitious distortion of neutral events. Chance seems to disappear. The odu as ink blots? Ifa forbid.

+ 17 +

Castings 1—K Yi

i Ofun Ogumda

§ $ §

S$ $ S$$ §

Ofun is sweet

Greetings for the sacrifice

This is Ofun Ogunda speaking:

If someone

whom we guess would marry a woman

comes up with such a toothsome loss

Well then, she will love him very much, but he must not confide in her lest it end in his destruction,

or in her damaging his life, completely, So says Ifa Don’t you see the road he’s taking?

Bitterly drawn-out ending inconclusive in the mouth of cutlass Cloying utterance never done sweetening sticky lips Baited rat-trap showing his back to the farmer Made Ifa for the Chief of Lagos early in the morning.

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Castings

He was a man with four wives.

Anytime there was no meat in the house,

this husband strode into his private room,

washed himself with a certain medicine,

became a leopard,

snuck into the bush, hunted down sufficient quarry, then returned to his room,

washed away the spots, and resumed his human identity. One day when

after a row with his wives he transformed himself as usual and stole off hunting, they went in,

dumped out the contents of his medicine pot, There, that'll fix him!

When he returned with his booty,

What? empty? Some of the mixture remained on the floor,

frantically he scoured his face with it, so that part turned human, but the rest of him,

stayed as it was,

(which is why we say of the leopard— he’s but a human being changed over) Help! Help! He turned tail and fled to bush, saying I might have known

for so the babalawos said,

Bitterly drawn-out ending inconclusive in the mouth of cutlass Cloying never done sweetening Sticky rat-trap defied the farmer, betrayed him Made Ifa for the Chief

forced to remain a wild beast on account of his sweetness

OFUN

OGUNDA

O chief, sweetness found, in the carcass of a beast;

O chief, sweetness lost, by the treachery of women.

Greetings!

Ironweed thicket does without water growing along the very edge of wetness Whoever sees a bush gleam in the distance

remember not all bitter roots harbor water

Made Ifa for Orunmila

Ifa will bathe its child seven, eight times

for

ahusband who is a diviner

Orunmila had a child. Where the consultation took place

There, Ifa said, is a child, a girl, a virgin;

if she marry a babalawo, then

there’s nothing she cannot accomplish; but if she does not, then her father

will find no place to settle down to living. So Orunmila bathed the girl seven, eight times and gave her to a diviner. She began having children, one taking after the other, dancing, rejoicing, praising the diviner: As predicted: Settling down along riverbank, what need has ironweed for water? But when you sight a thicket in the distance, that doesn’t mean you should pick up a gourd in thirsty hurry Made Ifa for Orunmila who will bathe his child seven, eight times for her husband to be a diviner. Ifa says again: The person who is consulting here— His guardian spirit has moved out; tenant of the head has evicted himself,

cut off all utilities;

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Castings

so the only thing to do is sacrifice kola with three segments, plus three cocks, three times five shillings,

and we will make.a medicine for him. He'll be given one of kola’s three eyes

to take to the farms;

there in a furrow between two shoulder ridges he must sacrifice so his head will know exactly where it is, that its owner may return to him. Greetings!

I greet you for day before yesterday is not commonly said,

being nowhere near as sweet as, I greet you for last night, again

Made Ifa for

Horse-owner tomorrow

serf of the Tuareg rough-skinned Made Ifa for Potter who works the finest clay son of Arid-land,

Ila’s king —Nothing I do is any good, everything slipshod, rough-surfaced; I’ve lost my touch, what gives? —You should,

that your head may be improved, consult Ifa. Sacrifice three cocks,

three times five shillings and a three-part kola; Sit on the path

dividing two farms and worship your head.

OFUN

OGUNDA

[ 201

So the babalawos said. Greetings, Orisha, may you live! Now that Orisha has taken the curse away, don’t let potter’s head spoil again, out there, place where

he’s getting himself together. —My head agrees, wandering luck returns to me to the heel of my palm to my fingertips.

Ofun Ogunda, Ifa said, and rested it there:

Centering.

.. .

Ofun Ogunda: fourth verse for praising. —Give me some tobacco! —Why don’t you buy your own? —There’s nobody around to mind the store; if I could find someone to take my place I wouldn't have to stick it out till evening. Made Ifa for To belong to the land means hoeing, child of the one with the voice that speaks true. Where this road appeared there was somebody— anyone with such a mark on his head wanting the good things of life— to whom Ifa said,

Become a diviner! Unless weary farmer rest at the feet of Orunmila. O yes; he sacrificed and started to study; then that thunderous King of Ara had a daughter whom he gave to hoe-man Thoughtful answer, King of Ijero, also contributed his;

visionary King of Owa, versed in languages betrothed his daughter,

.

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Castings

called Divining-tray-is-worth-beads to hoe-man also; After a time, Alara’s daughter bore him Rainfall,

Ajero’s daughter bore him Arid-land, future King of Ila, and Owa’s daughter, Divining-tray-has-it-all-over-riches, gave birth to a child known as Head-worships-secret. Whereupon Ifa said,

All three will make names for themselves in this world;

As the babalawo suggested: —Tobacco please! — Why sponge on me? —Can’t find anyone to take my place so I’ve got to keep an eye on this out-of-the-way farm stand until evening. Made Ifa for To-belong-to-the-land-means-hoeing, child of the one with the true voice. —Three Ekiti kings gave me their daughters; Divining-tray bore me Head-worships-secret and this is a fine child;

He fights for wealth of healing power; Head-worshiping-secrets is a good thing. So ends Ofun Ogunda—Greetings. \/ 9

Ofun Ogunda is considered one of the most dangerous odu. It may not be recited without atonement (made by sweetening the mouth with palm oil) and is used to test the novice diviner’s courage. Among its nicknames (besides Awotunde’s “Sweet Ofun") are “Loss then wealth,” “Ofun

tastes palm

oil,” and “Ofun

Eko.”! Why

this

last, I don’t know; but interestingly enough the man who had to keep on being a leopard is said to be the Chief of Eko (Lagos). One Should not forget the avenging role played by leopard in his cur-

rent condition.

1. Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 522.

OFUN

OGUNDA

[ 203

A man who upon generous impulse has the power to transform himself is all too easily caught off base. Unable to orient him-

self correctly, or to avoid jagged emotional behavior, he is betrayed by that aspect of reality in which he would have liked to put most confidence. Here is a clear warning of the psychic difficulties in-

volved in shifting (for the sake of spiritual sustenance) from common sense to magical thinking. From the babalawo s point of view

I suspect an additional word of caution: confidence given to a woman, no matter how devoted to Ifa, might result in a betrayal of

secrets—perhaps, unwittingly, a perverse interpretation with a well-intentioned surface! The plant ewuuro (called, on account of various affinities, “ironweed” here) is used in Yorubaland for making the memory more retentive: a necessity for both parties to our agreement. He who works choice clay (verse three) bears Obatala’s praise name. The fate of this orisha, as we have seen, is mirrored in Ofun.

Arid-land occurs in two instances here. This is an historical personage, eponymous titular head of Ila, the Orangun. Ofun was “born” in Ila-Orangun,? formerly called Ila-Odo, which

would

mean

“Tla-by-the-riverside,” a place of riparian riches, one of the unifying images that concerns itself with, among other things, the Ifa

equivalent of baptism. Ild, a real place, with tone changes becomes

ila, meaning “stripe or tribal marking—that which identifies one as a member of a group —an important association, I think, in an

odu answering to identity crises. Ogunda, it will be remembered,

was born in Oko. The one with “the voice that speaks true” is surely in this case Orisha Oko. Thus the meanings of the converging parts

are skillfully welded to form a third thrust centered upon the client's

head, which, again, is in a state of disorientation. The ancestral spirit is one part of the soul, which, like the kola of the sacrifice the

Yoruba have traditionally divided into three parts. The three wives

of the last hero

(weary

farmer

turned

peppy

babalawo)

expand

his power in three directions. The first two are climatic opposites. The third is the way he is headed.

2.

McClelland, op. cit.

ii Otura Meji

§ SS S §

§ $$ $ $

Greetings for the sacrifice: Otura Meji Big pond with thick scum on its face made Ifa for Locust/ ubiquitous Eshu on the day he was crying he had no children Big pond with the same murky surface made Ifa for Butterfly moth/ fragmented consciousness under identical circumstances. Both told to sacrifice everything they had on, plus two pigeons, two hens, two bags of cowries Only locust complied, Only locust began to multiply. . . . After some time their common mother died not too far, not too distant

as far as Oshogbo to Ede Someone sent a message: Proceed immediately to your hometown. Locust’s children accompanied him; Butterfly went alone. When it came time to carry the corpse, all locust’s children participated, wouldn’t let butterfly lay a hand on the body, not at all Because of this, butterfly inquired: If my wives had children, would I have been permitted

to touch the body?

The babalawo told him,

the materials for your sacrifice have not changed [ 205|

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Castings

But when he procrastinated further, the requirements were doubled: two sets of clothing four pigeons, four hens,

two bags of cowries in two places. Eventually butterfly complied, only to be informed: You shall have children,

but not nearly so many as those of your brother who sacrificed in the first instance:

only half, the rest are already spoken for

So the babalawo said,

Big pond with thick scum on its surface made Ifa for Locust and his flighty brother Locust sacrificed and became a swarm Butterfly eventually came round, bound to be disappointed Children, cover, shroud your mother As creepers cover over the plains Children, protect the body of your mother,

As vines creep over the plains Keep the secret, shroud your mother,

As creepers cover As pond scums over

As locusts blanket As children honor

Little flitting fragments (no wide cloth )—

that’s what we call butterfly-moth of the plains Not nearly so many sons as Eshu Not nearly so many sons as locust. Greetings for the sacrifice given, Greetings for the sacrifice received.

LU0, The punning on Eshu and est (“locust”) is essential to the meaning of this road Ifa took to Otura Meji, the first of two major odu to come up in the course of the castings. (Eshu’s ubiquitous character can go wrong on a person—producing agitated, capricious bril-

OTURA

MEJI

[ 207

liance, and the frightening indifference of the schizoid temperament.)

Otura Meji, it will be remembered,

is the basis of mantic

utterance wherein earth, the mother, speaks; and again Awotunde held a cowrie in his mouth during the recitation. To be excluded, as was butterfly, from intimate participation in the burial rites of one’s own mother is to be excluded in the most fundamental way from the human community. Because this is the second throw, one thinks naturally of I Oyeku’s

influence—and

here

it is. | | In Arabic

geomancy,

this is

the sign of a funeral procession. The second house, where the second sign “rests,” takes inventory of the client’s assets. Funerals are the occasion for spending, for the display and consumption of worldly goods. What one has reveals what one has become; what one gives as tribute to the dead is a definition of one’s status among the living. Butterfly’s assets are nil; he is excluded. There is a three-fold mother here: the source of individual being within the context of family, the earth, and igbadu—the covered cylinder containing the covered symbols of existence. The injunction is clear. Diviner’s riches are symbolized by the cowrie held in his mouth. And client’s?

tit Irete Osa

§§

$

|$ gi$

Greetings for the sacrifice!

“See conspiracy and start running”— that’s what we call Irete Osa;

do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Palm oil gleams on the surface of the water Shiny leaves on the neck of palm tree Made Ifa for Two hundred people on the face of the earth who worshiped Power in the universe. The diviners said, You mean well,

You should sacrifice Seven cocks, seven bags of cowries But the two hundred people did not sacrifice. To that power in the universe the diviners said,

Seven cocks, seven bags of cowries

Power did. Both sides met in war.

The One vanquished the two hundred,

easily, as the babalawos said, Palm oil burnishes water Bright leaves adorn slender throat of palm tree

To sacrifice is beneficial Not to sacrifice is detrimental,

Come and meet me at battle’s end

At the foot of palm tree, To sacrifice for victory is what we call Shango triumphant.

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Castings

Row two: See Running from revolt, afraid of conspiracy Made Ifa for Leap frog marked with long stripes like all members of the royal family child of chief mourner, clad in raphia, King of Oyo. Father dead, all brothers aspiring to the throne: Leap frog said, It’s mine by right Sacrifice, they told him,

one length of red cloth ten cocks, ten bags of cowries Leap frog did not sacrifice, instead on the very next day he started dancing and singing: Seven days hence Ill be crowned Oyo’s honored king. Six days before the investiture, he hopped about again. And the next day, and the next, singing joyously. Three days to go: Eshu asked the elders, kingmakers, Is the path upon the divining tray clear? Whose turn is it? —Uppermost in our minds is Leap frog; this is the path we see for him.

—But has he sacrificed?

— No, we re afraid he hasn't... . It was at this point that our client was told to sacrifice properly for he was being proposed for an important position— heaven forbid it fall into So-and-so’s hands. This odu refers to the people of New York; the orisha group there must sacrifice; somebody wants to offer them something big and they must sacrifice so it will reach them. This is I, Awotunde Aworinde,

pressing “See conspiracy, start running”

in Oshogbo, Nigeria.

When Eshu found out Leap frog had been remiss,

IRETE

OSA

it so happened this jumping-for-joy boy fell into a pit lightly covered with leaves and broke his thigh. When the day came, those in charge of the ceremony asked that Leap frog be produced for crowning. —My friend has been hospitalized for injuries. — Well then, let Fat frog be produced instead. Soon as Fat frog waddled in, they placed the leaves of authority on his head, and he croaked out greetings: eeku eekuu The people answered him: a ki ọ, a kio

At this point somebody for the first time said, “Overmuch rejoicing fractured Frog’s legs” These words found their way into people’s lives; ever since theyve been repeated; So the babalawo said,

See conspiracy, get going made Ifa for Leap frog who wanted to be titular head of Oyo kingdom. To sacrifice is beneficial, not to sacrifice is detrimental Not too far, not too distant,

don’t you see what Ifa does for anyone who worships him?

Leap frog fell into premature rejoicing;

Solfa says. . ..

|

Third row: Conspiracy takes one of two ways either high road or bush path Made Ifa for the Populace of Frog’s Market on the day they left their stalls to go hopping from hillock to hillock which happened to be the very day

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Castings

they were fated to fall into a trap set by “the people of the world” (Our Mothers ).

Off on a short trip to the end of the town,

these frogs fell into a pit

lightly covered with leaves. Impossible to escape from it. Ah! Somebody came to visit them in their distress. —Anything I can do? —Please, orisha, if you can get us out of here, we'll slaughter two hundred elephants for you,

they said. So he took his little medicine gourd, stretched it up and up until it began to rain. The pit filled up. The frogs jumped out. Next day he sent for his two hundred elephants. — Oh! Ah! But we never said we were going to slaughter two hundred elephants; all of us together can’t even rip the leg of one elephant! We said we were going to sing two hundred songs. —Two hundred songs? —That’s it; tunes not tons was what we said,

and as we sing, we'll slaughter them! — All right, laughed the orisha. Now begin: So the babalawo said, Conspiracy takes one of two alternatives bush path/ high road not both of them made Ifa for Frogs on the day they were jumping from hillock to hillock on the day they were bound to fall in a pit Owner of rain rescued us haw haw

IRETE

OSA

[ 213

Owner of rain rescued me haw haw Owner of rain rescued him haw haw

rescued child, haw, mother, haw

Owner of rain rescued frogs all, haw Owner of rain, haw haw, rescued frogs.

—Go on, don’t stop now, laughed the orisha;

. . .

this song you are singing may never be altered at all. So this is the song frogs always sing when it rains on account of their history which goes from misery to overjoyed conspiracy, on account of Shango rain’s owner, frogs’ orisha. Greetings for the sacrifice—

may we leave by one path or the other. sf2,

T'o try to get the thunder orisha to agree to a substitution for the burdensome sacrifice of two hundred items seems to be standard procedure. Maupoil says that when a client gets this sign and the diviner prescribes a sacrifice of two hundred goats, two hundred chickens, two hundred pigeons, and two hundred of whatever else Shango may ask for, the client is given three brooms and sent home. There he makes a vow to sweep Shango's shrine every day and asks the orisha for a reduction, which he usually receives.! Frogs made the mistake of trying to trick the divinity. The play on words in Yoruba is erin (“elephant”) and orin (“song”). “We see a conspiracy and run” is a pun on irete ọsa (ar (i)ọtẹ

sa). Frog is also formants.? In one divinity who rules “Pride goeth

the hero of stories for this odu by Bascom’s incase its Frog himself who is rainmaker, like the him. before a fall” is the motto in all three cases here.

The prospect of a change for the better, for power

(irete), is viti-

ated by the machinations of osa. As for Awotunde’s prophecy, not long after he “broadcast” from Oshogbo, some Orisha people in 1. Maupoil, op. cit., pp. 668-6809. 2. Bascom, Ifa Divination, pp. 404-417.

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Castings

New York tried to get some foundation money for their activities,

but failed to move the establishment—a conspiracy that takes the high road rather than the bush path. Note the hole. into which the aspirants fall. The “scene” is IIT, Iwori Meji.

TU

Oyeku Ogbe §

= -§§

ia Oyeku Ogbe we will praise now,

don’t you see the road Ifa took to this name?

Akara—bean cake—not offered to a stranger shows the master of the house to be—a miser cast Ifa for Orunmila on the day he was bound for Ikoyi. Soon as he arrived, the chief took him in,

gave him a place to relax, and instructed the household to start boiling yam. The King of Ikoyi said, Ha! Should he buy akara? Rather not. Offer him everyday eko then? O no, better give pounded yam to this important visitor. But it’s a long time preparing and Orunmila is very hungry; So while the yam is boiling, Orunmila is waiting and starving until, unable to take it any longer, he finally gives notice of his departure.

O please, the King hovered about him, begging,

Bear with me, your food will soon be ready. The delay can be accounted for .. . Since I couldn’t offer you akara, I thought pounded yam would be nicer. . . . But it was too late. His guest got up and walked out. On his way, leaving town, he stopped at a little eating house to stay his hunger;

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Castings

Then he looked back on Ikoyi and said, If this is the way your King treats me, you'll never grow bigger than you are now! Cockroach Ikoyi it still is,

a small town where the action isnt.

So the babalawo said,

Akara not offered to a stranger dubs the master of the house a miser To sacrifice is beneficial; the opposite is detrimental which is why they say No Akara? Tightfisted | Whoever finds this odu should be generous: benefit may come from a stranger oracurse.... Greetings!

Now we must praise the second row; Anticipating something? Sacrifice means eventual delivery; Otherwise, it will not come through— So says Ifa; don’t you see the road

to this denomination?

Nothing like a load of wood,

heavy only to the eye made Ifa for a Downcast group of people on the day they were crying that they had no leader. Sacrifice. Cheer up. They went to the King of Oyo and asked him to appoint someone. He said, All right, come back seven days from now. When that day came round, the diviners told both elder son and younger son of death-appoints-this-one— to sacrifice. Only junior agreed: A narrow-mouthed basket and a piece of white cloth, this the specified offering. When they got to the palace of the Alafin,

OYEKU

OGBE

they saw a huge pot covered with white cloth set out in a conspicuous place.

We have come, they said, for a report on our request. Welcome, said the King of Oyo,

Whoever can lift this thing off the ground on to his head will be crowned King of Ikoyi. Ha! said elder son, sizing it up, Why this might crush anyone who got under it, and he backed out. Then Eshu asked junior if he’d sacrificed. Yes? Well then, go ahead and lift. He did, with no trouble, up onto his head.

(It was that basket he’d given, the one that resembled pottery.) —This man shall be your leader; see, it’s heavy only to the eye, all your hands had to do was try it. So they crowned younger son King of Ikoyi . . . meaning Death has appointed this one to succeed Nothing like a load of wood, heavy only to the eye made Ifa for People crying for a leader The one who put the basket on his head should be called: Tough offshoot all agree Here is the one death himself has appointed. Now we want to praise row three— don’t you see the road Ifa’s taken? Tree stump, so tenacious of life, how robust you can be!

Made Ifa for Senior priest of the dead in Ikoyi.

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Castings

Like father, like son

Made Ifa out on the farm for Iguana child of a chief well-known in his day Would he slip into his father's sandals? Eventually; but it's a good thing you came out here for your consultation. Assured that title was his in-waiting,

Iguana sacrificed, medicinal leaves were made for him, and he remained in the country.

Sometime later,

tray broke stump rotted waterpot spilled In town they said, Iguana! he should succeed to the title. —But he’s out on the farm. —Fetch him in. So the babalawo said,

Tree stump, long-lived, corpulent. . . —Mr. Iguana, please come home, they want to give you a title. —He? Me? He went back to town and was given the rank that once belonged to his father: Honor to the disheartened, wise moderation.

Row four we now want to praise. Ifa says, whoever casts Oyeku Ogbe must sacrifice, go worship Ifa. I shall be a follower of Orunmila, may I live long!

OYEKU

OGBE

[ 219

The errand my head sent me on that’s what I’m accomplishing; the road Ifa showed me—that’s my direction! Trod the wide Orisha road for so long that I finally made it to the grove

where Oro strips leaves from a living tree.

Met a cripple along the way: can’t slap him in the face! Encountered thunder: can’t sock him in the chest! Then Orisha put his chalk-soiled hand on my head . . . made Ifa for Respectable palm tree, Orunmila’s own child Turn to Orunmila, they said,

follow him to wives, children, prosperity. — My sacrifice, please?

—Two

rats, two dried fish, two hens, four bags of cowries.

He complied; they made fresh leaves for him; and as he was going along the road he met no evil, nor did he run into any difficulty, nor did he lack anything. Dancing, rejoicing, praising the diviner: The job my head assigned me, that’s what I’m doing. The path Orisha cut out for me, that’s what I’m walking. Trod my Orisha’s road so long I finally made it to the farm despoiled by leopard Met a cripple, can’t slap him in the face;

ran up against thunder, can’t sock him in the chest; then Orisha placed his chalk-soiled hand on my head. Look at the mark of palm tree on me;

Whoever hits Oyeku, Ogbe’s anger will rebound on him; See, palm tree’s respect

is incised on my body; Whoever whips Oyeku, will feel Ogbe’s sting; with palm tree’s respect upon my body,

nobody dares strike me!

Whoever cuts this Ifa sign in, whenever he wants to go someplace, or get to sleep, this song once sung, nothing will happen to him— Greetings for the sacrifice! May we survive the occasion!

220

1

Castimgs o 2:1

This odu contrasts the long-term with the short-run: variations on the theme of postponement—intransitive holding out, transitive withholding. It also has to do with underlying reality beneath the appearances (the basket under the immense white cloth), and it treats of death in a way that is quite foreign to the Western way of looking at things. Obatala’s other side—the white side of the dark side of the mountain—is expressed here: the chameleon who eventually arrives, a fixed look at dissolution. Experience teaches, but there is a profound need for authority, for someone to take hold, for someone or something to take over. In certain situations a long wait is advisable; in others it becomes intolerable. (The host should not have made Orunmila wait; Iguana had no choice, and fortunately he’s an endurer.) Long life can be assured by following Ifa’s instructions: worship the divinity assigned to you. Life need be only apparently a struggle; if you do

the right thing, if you immerse yourself in the element, then the

yoke is easy, the victory complete.

The hidden

comes,

struggle between

I think, from

opposing

the combination

temporal

authorities

of the contending

younger

(ogbe) and elder (oyeku) brothers. The emphasis on responsibil-

ity derives, I imagine, from the place of this odu in the sequence of

unconsciously asked questions. The odu fits position four of tradi-

tional geomancy: the father’s house, patrimony, all enterprise, ancestors, end of life, what is hidden. Ifa in particular calls for piety

for the dead, attention to the ancestral guardian spirit, orisha wor-

ship, deference to established forms of behavior—in lized performance.

short, a civi-

The akara that begins the recitation is used, it may be remem-

bered, to pacify witches.

Beanfield is the location for the filming

of Odi Meji.

and

How,

when,

on what

to sit down

is crucial.

The teleological importance of this sign for the client may be gauged by the fact that it cropped up again in the fifteenth casting,

geomantically placed within the house of judgment, of final evaluation.

U

Ogbe Otura § §§

§ §

§ §

§ §

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Ogbe Otura cool customer Better known as Ogbe Alara an unconventional person soul brother the power behind the throne habeas corpus

Ocean absorbs discontinuous drizzle Lagoon absorbs the dew Pitch and roll stay the ship offshore Made Ifa for Someone anxious to dispatch Eshu:

please carry bad things from earth to heaven! please carry good things to earth from heaven!

Why am I left holding the bag? asked Diviner’s assistant,

Can't I do better than this in my life? May I survive these stormy times and see clear skies in the future! Sacrifice, the diviners said,

plenty of pigeons, plenty of chickens, plenty of money. Apprentice did as he was told, and it all worked out as suggested: Drizzle eases its way to Ocean Dew moistens surface of Lagoon Pitch and roll stay the ship offshore Made Ifa for Tote-that-bag. . . . O Eshu, now youve been fed, Go bring good things, small rain, down, Take away evil Go, fend off, Eshu.

. . .

[ 221 |

222

)

Castimgs

Now let us praise the second row;

Do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Has anyone ever carved a nightmare out of palm tree? An image with eyes and mouth we call Sigidi? All the king’s messengers carry clay men; who can put Eshus victims together again?

Made Ifa for Orunmila when he was surrounded by enemies. Sacrifice: three cocks, three bags of cowries. Then they made Ifa leaves for him, singing: Firefly

can’t burn the farmer

Ifa will close

Corn tassels like flames Corn shucks shut up Yam blossoms in profusion Yam blossoms close mouths So Orunmila’s luck turned against his enemies victorious.

the mouths of his opponents

_

do not singe the farmer mouths of his opponents don’t confuse the farmer tie up his opponents

Now we want to praise the third row. From the word go I’ve been Ifa’s follower,

Oduduwa’s own from the day I was born so clean that they said he must have been bathed inside the womb Made Ifa for Red-red camwood Orunmila’s apprentice. Can he prosper? Sacrifice plenty of camwood cool leaves in profusion

This, the medicine they made for him. Whoever studies Ifa will never die a pauper

OGBE

OTURA

Making Ifa made Camwood pupa pupo red, abundant

rere rere very red, extremely lucky. Now let us praise row four— do you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Child has a good head— Father doesn’t know it yet Made Ifa for Vagabond, a stray

Child of the King of Oyo who killed an elephant in the village of Kokobojo— so far away we'd hesitate to verify the place but those tusks must speak true . . . off we went to carry it back but when we arrived all we saw was a big gray rock who killed a bush cow somewhere else closer to home this time so we didn’t mind going but whom should we meet instead of the carcass? Iroko tree! Now I tell you... who killed an antelope—everyone knows if you wait in that watering place with a knife youre bound to be lucky well, all we saw when we got there was an anthill! Then Vagabond cried out: will somebody please stop discrediting the witness! How can I ever be believed at the rate I’m going? Sacrifice, we told you so before, a ragged cloth poverty’s garment a gourd of water and a yam (just a piece, for roasting).

I 223

224

1

Castings

They made medicine for him. now take your sacrifice into the forest There he kindled the rags of poverty and started roasting his yam. Seeing the smoke we, lost in the bush, hastened in that direction found a miserable hunter crouching by his fire greetings, hobo, please show us the way to your town if you have any, said we, for ours has been invaded by foreigners,

overcome, completely

Ah, said he, how can I go back to my place

naked as I am?

so we rummaged through our baggage and came up with

four cloths, four shirts, four pairs of trousers,

and four caps then this most peculiar man said further, Should I be walking while you are mounted? so we all got down from our horses and gave him two geldings

Now, said he, you've all got women,

whereas I’m alone.

. . . Say no more, said we, and gave

four girls

him

Let’s be off, said he, and we followed after.

On the outskirts of town he told us to wait for he wanted to announce our arrival to his father. Greetings, long life, Baba,

youll never guess what I’ve brought home with me this an entire township

of refugees who would like to be admitted. . . . (without allowing him time to finish) Don't give me that. . . . So you always say. . . . You kill something and no one can ever find it; How do you expect me to believe this cock-and-bull story? I'm taking no more chances. Don’t bring them here; go found a town of your own for them; be their king!

time

OGBE

OTURA

[ 225

You of all people are best equipped to cope with these creatures of your imagination. So Vagabond started off in another direction; when they came to a place he fancied, they settled in, built lean-tos, then regular houses. Three years later:

I wonder what ever became of that stray son of mine? When the King found the place, it was quite a town already. Heh? You should call this Oyo-Ile after its parent city. And New Oyo that place became; so the babalawos said: Son has a lucky head— Father doesn’t know it yet Made Ifa for Vagabond, stray son of the King of Old Oyo who killed an elephant, a bush cow, an antelope;

yet no one could locate any of them Singing, When you get to Oyo

wanderer, my friend, Drop by the palace of the Alafin, wanderer, my friend,

Find a stranger, invite him in You do me honor, wanderer, my friend When you get to Oyo Drop by the palace of the Alafin, wanderer, vagabond, my friend

Greetings for the sacrifice, Here’s one for the road we are on, Greetings.

sf9 The following passage from Pierre Verger's Notes seems appropriate here: At the conclusion of the important festivals in Oyo . . . offerings are brought to Eshu by Olori ẹru (literally, “slave of the four directions”; professionally, "head of the king’s messengers’) who for the occasion must be completely naked. . . .

226

| The upon clay both

Castings ilari (king’s messengers as a group) are also dependent a special type of Eshu called baba sigidi . . . a mass of in human form, a powerful talisman which works for good and evil.!

Although Eshu is the father of them all, these shigidi are legion and, their paternity often forgotten, they tend to be used for nefarious

purposes only. Shigidi arrives like a heavy living nightmare and suffocates its victim. To “carve” one of these clay images

palm tree is of course an absurdity.

from

Ifa’s

That this odu should have turned up in fifth place is not surprising. The fifth house in traditional geomancy speaks of children, of passions (including intellectual devotions and compulsions),

and “gives information

on the content

to men,

of lies and

and value of books

and

other writings.” So up pops Eshu, teacher of the art of divination Eshu

the father

disseminator

of confusion.

In

my own case, I had just finished five years’ work on a tall tale that

involved stretching my imagination to make it as true as I could; I

was preparing to learn what I could of Ifa—a turn-about process

where invention could only destroy perception, and yet where imagination again was crucial, not this time as a legitimizing factor but as a liberating one. In Ifa divination it is Irosun that sits in fifth place: note the name of the client in row two. Esoterically, the “room” in which

Irosun belongs is “witches,” and the function of the calabash of

Irosun is to guard against external enemies. Row three gains clarity through awareness of this association. It is “the others” who say one is lying; even if one is telling the truth, who is to know—except

Eshu? It occurred to me that children, like writing and other crafts

of the spirit, are defenses against “the world” in its threatening aspect; they are living truth.

It is worth observing that the three items Eshu substituted for the animals Vagabond thought he killed are all symbols or dwellings of orishas. Stone in that place is Ogun; Iroko is a sacred tree, a special kind of orisha also; anthill is already familiar as Oko. But nobody in the story seems to have been aware of this—so eager 1.

2.

Verger,

Notes

.

.

.

, pp.

115-116.

Khamballah, op. cit., pp. 71-72.

OGBE

OTURA

[ 227

were they to discredit Vagabond! Further, he gradually becomes (four hats for his four-directional heads) the messenger himself.

And he is a witness to the force of two other orishas. He is, in the

beginning, by preference a hunter.’ As first ruler of New Oyo he becomes the nickname of the odu itself, primary inhabitant, king of thunder, embodiment of truth. (Remember Alara’s role in Otura Meji.)

3. Hunters are traditional founders of cities. As devotees of Ogun, they know the way and go before.

Vi

Okanran Odi

§ SS §§ §

$$ R$ $$ $

Okanran Odi we now want to praise— We call it recurrent illness, maggots within— Don't you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Okanran din-din-din made Ifa for Blacksmith’s hammer eldest son of Ogun on the day he feared illness. Told to sacrifice above the din he did not listen The illness already had infected him Okanran, din-din-din

how may I betimes be rid? One large he-goat, one cock, eleven bags of cowries. What's that you say? I grow thin, thin, thin.

. ..

Now every morning he wakes and begins with a din-din know that I din-din make my sacrifice to. . . . His refusal’s what's been eating him ever since.

Had I only known l'd have given him every thin, thin, thin,

but I din-din-din Hammer’s deaf ear’s been bugging him Maggots multiply within Early in the morning, listen to him Okanran,

[ 229 ]

230

|

Castings

why din-din-din

I lis-in-in-in. Greetings.

. . .

Because we have to sacrifice and have no materials, because we cannot sacrifice today, we shall have to limit ourselves to two verses.

Look, here is the second row

don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Bush rat shreds grass wantonly, his path is plain

made Ifa for Death-is-compassionate-to-the-chief,

child of Right-now Spotted grass-mouse cuts grass systematically

made Ifa for Crown-walks-in-honor,

child of Punctuality

Both of them told to sacrifice at once: Death-is-compassionate-to-the-chief

is starved for money:

four pigeons, four hens, black soap,

and four bags of cowries Crown-walks-in-honor wants wives: four hens, four bags of cowries,

and the cloth he was wearing at the time Both complied; medicine was made for them: Death-is-compassionate began to be wealthy Walks-in-honor increased his family So the babalawos said: Bush rat shreds grass wantonly Spotted grass-mouse grazes neatly Made Ifa for Death-befriends-the-chief who wanted money and became wealthy Made Ifa for Crown-walks-in-honor who wanted wives and got them immediately I have never seen Ifa being so accurate Okanran Odi

O— instantaneous action

OKANRAN

ODI

[ 231

Greetings for the sacrifice; may we survive the occasion! >, de

The sixth house traditionally concerns itself with illness and adjustment to difficult circumstances generally. Oworin Meji, in sixth place, is where sits Babaluaye, patron of chronic diseases, epidemics,

and

gastrointestinal disorders.

making

a sacrifice

When,

at this crucial time,

Okanran (who multiplies rapidly) visits Odi (source of life, breath, container that may close us in) the result is frightening. Without to “instantaneous

action,”

Awotunde

simply

could not go on with the recitation of this odu. Ogun's son, hammer, whose inner anxiety compels him to drown out the very advice that might save him, is the ideal protagonist here. He seems to be suffering from a special type of mad deafness called agboya, in which the victim hears the words but pays no attention; they simply don't sink in.! Dindin(rin), which constitutes the refrain, is a word used to describe the Yoruba equivalent of a “withdrawn, suspicious and uncommunicative psychotic of a chronic schizophrenic type”? However, even those suffering from neurotic “hunter’s head” disease hear a “striking in the brain as if to say a blacksmith is striking an anvil.”* Despite repeated warnings, the compulsive smoker refused to stop smoking; but that was only a superficial symptom!

1. Leighton et al., op. cit., pp. 106 ff. 2. Raymond Prince, “Indigenous Yoruba Psychiatry,” in Magic, Healing, ed. Ari Kiev, The Free Press, New York, 1964, p. 87. 3. Ibid.

Faith

and

Vit

Ogunda Ogbe

§ § § §

§ § § = §§

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Praise "Ogunda tops Ogbe”— Don't you see the road Ifa took to this name? Thin leather stretched across the face of Strategist, Non-combatant Instigator Alarum Our Mother's festal bata exhorting Endless Honor: May honey enter in May sweetness enter in

Made Ifa for Endless Fighting Leopard’s child, foppishly attired who softly, majestically treads upon palm fronds puts down anger Made Ifa for Soothing Amure (alluring sweetness— we take it to rest the eyes on women )

Diviner for Roadside On the day he was crying he could not see the good things of life.

Amure, standing sentinel along the path,

told to sacrifice four pigeons plenty of beancake sixteen bags of cowries

[ 233 1

234

1

Castimgs

He obeyed, they made medicine for him and he began to prosper, So the babalawos said: Thin skin over drumhead Organizer of combat bata beating for Gelede exhorting Endless Honor: may honey enter in may sweetness enter in

Made Ifa for Endless Fighting Leopard's child foppishly attired gentle feet upon palm fronds put down anger Made Ifa for “dulls the sight . . . the inward pain Amure, diviner for Roadside

on the day he was crying he could not see the good things of life May I see money

May I see women I am prepared

for honey, for sweetness May I be thankful, sentinel of the wayside, praises, praises

Whoever is born with this odu—his head will prosper; I, Awotunde Aworinde, born here

will praise Ogunda Ogbe on account of my contentment. Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise the second row: We have put an end to death

made Ifa for Hammer, child of forged iron, father of Abiku

OGUNDA

OGBE

Cannot somebody put an end to this coming and going? Sacrifice, they said, a featherless hen,

a cock for the road

and three bags of cowries. He sacrificed; they concocted Ifa leaves for him and his child lived— So the babalawo said,

We have put an end to death. Hammer-head, cover the vulnerable with feathers

. . .

Now let us praise the third row: Iguana has a big mouth River divinity flaunts a fabulous tail Two snakes up by the river— a wrestling match between man and woman throwing each other down without getting overheated Made Ifa for Husband of a barren woman,

child of Senior Egungun arm-swinger

Why Told then They

who dances fiercely in the dawning circling his sword— watch out! down it comes! has she borne no children? to sacrifice a water jug an adult hen and four bags of cowries walk along the road to Oshun’s river. began having children truly distinguished sons and daughters dancing, singing, praising the diviners, So they said

[ 235

236

1

Castings

Iguana has a big mouth River spirit a fabulous tail Fan palm a marvelous belly Two snakes wrestling down by the river Made Ifa for husband of a barren woman Child of Elder Egungun arm-swinger

dancing with a down-thrust sword, gong-a-gong Sacrifice, a long-necked jar will result in children The road to Oshun is the road to follow Only brass will bring you children Mother, O Mother, glowing brass mirror,

waters will bring you children

Now let us praise the fourth row:

Destiny of long-lived silk cotton tree is red blossoming Eris luck is pliability— joy to the joiner Fig’s so plenteous death can't sap its strength nor disable its rigging.

Made Ifa for Anthill,

child of Make-a-fortress-out-of-fresh-fishfertilizer

who wanted to have a son, immediately. Sacrifice two hundred beancakes

two hundred bags of cowries

one adult chick and one white cloth. He sacrificed, they made Ifa leaves for him; soon Anthill became a father. So the babalawos said: (It takes all kinds of destinies. . . .) Ponripon abidipon Herihe abidihe Opotopiti o ku mokun oje

OGUNDA

OGBE

[ 237

Anthill wanted children,

became the owner of the ground swarming with sons and daughters clamoring wives, teeming with children

Anthill became husband, father of them all,

a mound of contentment That’s why we call Ogunda-covers-Ogbe

Bulging.

Greetings for the sacrifice; Greetings.

|

\/ 9

Amure is a plant medicinally used for the eyes and for attracting women. The diviner in the first instance is the drum that plays during Gelede ceremonies for the pacification of witches. The first client's predecessor is a Gelede dancer masquerading in women’s clothing. Honey is an oblique reference to orisha Oshun who cures the client’s wife in the second instance. This is Awotunde’s own odu, and his wife is a young woman raised in the house (convent) of Oshun

(a traditional source of babalawo’s wives, for Oshun

initi-

ates themselves possess certain “secrets”). It is interesting that Awotunde’s odu should have turned up during the chance casts, particularly in seventh place, a house traditionally associated with contracts, marriages, and associations of various sorts including

pacts with adversaries.

We had trouble making out the diviners’ names in row four,

so I have

had

to take

a guess.

In the repeat

I have

put in the

Yoruba syllables hoping they will be intelligible to somebody. The name

of the

second

diviner

in row

three,

agbon

olodu,

with

its

“fabulous tail,” is also ambiguous. I imagine a river divinity taking the form of a mer-creature,

sea monster.

But the name

also can

be translated “fan palm,” a most appropriate tree whose stem swells when it’s fifty years old (thirty feet above the ground!) then narrows and bulges again in old age—emblematic of mature preg-

238

|

Castings

nancy, just as mouth and tail “fit” the copulating serpents who follow them sequentially. Anthill is an

avatar

of orisha

Oko,

whose

connection

with

Ogun has already been discussed. Behind the scenes, throughout

the recitation,

is Oshumare:

life (the cord Ogun

duration,

attachment,

cuts), the cord buried beneath

wealth, a rope thrown to the future.

release

into

the tree of

Tit Ogbe Otura

$ §§ §

§

§ $

§

§

the second inning

Greetings for the sacrifice. Our unconventional companion,

Ogbe Alara

Ogbe Omura

and artful dodger now assumes the name Drowsy is prepared for . . . (sleeping sickness? ) (road-readiness? )

(withdrawal? ) Don't you see the way of Ifa in this instance? She refuses to eat of her husband’s labor Nor will she allow her co-wife to do so Made Ifa for Orunmila: Ifa will bypass punishment Ifa will bypass poverty will enter into prosperity and go to sleep Poverty and punishment are following me all over the place, wherever I go, said Orunmila,

Ifa, when will they cease to be my co-companions? Sacrifice: four pigeons, four hens, four bags of

cowries

the cloth you are wearing the cap on your head As he did so, poverty and punishment retreated. Now what? | asked Orunmila. Go into the house to meet your luck, said the babalawo. He entered, slept soundly and awoke an honorable, wealthy man. So the babalawo said, She refused to eat of her husband’s labor nor will she allow her co-wife to do so

[ 239 1

240

1

He will bypass He will bypass and go to sleep.

Castings

that wife/that punishment/suffering poverty/what’s done is done Renowned in his township He thought a while then decided to withdraw to the privacy of his good fortune and go to sleep. .. .

Turn in Tune out

Dodge punishment, poverty

Shed your old clothes

Turn in

Tune out

Enter the house

Where fortune coils Turn in Tune out

Sleep well Sleep tight

Give your wife the slip There’s always your mother Dodge punishment, poverty Shed your old clothes Greetings for the sacrifice

station identification goodnight ese

This was our first repeat. We had reached the point of initiatory death and regeneration, the place of restorative hibernation. Puns on "mother," "wife," and “punishment” are built into the language, as is the pun on "what's done is done" and "poverty." It was at this point (repetition always implying organization) that I began to sense a direction the casts were taking, so I asked Awotunde if he would mind giving me an extra verse for Otura Meji as well. When this major odu appeared on the second throw it never occurred to me that there should be additional recitations

OGBE

OTURA

[ 241

for the paired signs. So we went on to the third throw. I then realized that just as there would be significant repetitions of the combinations, so major signs turning up within the sequence we were establishing. (under Ifa's control) would have a certain thrust not to be found in a formal recitation of the established order of paired signs. Awotunde agreed and recited the story of butterfly versus locust that now appears in second place. That the whole question of repetition should have arisen in the eighth house (twins according to Ifa; divorce, death, renewal, and a new departure according to traditional geomancy ) is itself of interest.

1x

Odi Osa

§§ § § §

§ §§ §§ §

Greetings for the sacrifice.

Reticent Osa is what we call it. Reticent Osa, flight confronts an obstacle, J, Awotunde Aworinde, am praising now;

Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Guided missile hits the ground, bumps stoutly along made Ifa for Green fruit-pigeon, considering war on bird-of-prey’s town made Ifa for Black-shouldered kite, planning invasion of timid feeder’s compound These enemies were advised to sacrifice three male stones—hardest on the ground and thirty-three bags of cowries. Only Green fruit pigeon did as he was told. Soon after, they met in battle. Green fruit pigeon started beating Black-shouldered kite, had him up against the wall, then Black-shouldered kite turned around and Green fruit pigeon began this song: I have beaten fleeing-from-the-enemy Tattle-tail tells all Kite makes right

but magic stones don’t miss the mark

Chatter-chatter words in flight Green fruit pigeon defeated kite Chatter-chatter words in flight Green fruit pigeon defeated kite He’s been singing so ever since: Greetings for the sacrifice. [ 243 |

244

1

Castings

Second row: Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Enter by the front door, exit through the back Made Ifa for Orunmila, planning to abduct Ogun’s woman called Aro, cymbal sound, lament, talkative

He wanted to know if his project would be successful. Sacrifice: two hens, two pigeons, twenty-two bags of cowries and certain leaves Afterwards, they brought the feathers of Blue touraco and of Woodcock, easily duped also talkative and prepared medicine with them. Now I’m off to Aro!

Since Ogun wasn’t in, Come on, let’s go, said Orunmila;

But my husband, strong as he is, what will he do without me? No problem, said Orunmila. While they were hastening along,

Ogun came home to find she was gone. Ah, he said, and sang a sad song:

O Aro, could nothing detain you? Cymbal sound, why didn’t you stop them? O Aro, could you not have delayed them Till I got home?

Sorrow, sorrow, Aro.

. . .

No orisha elopes with the wife of Ogun! Cymbals, stop them!

At this, Orunmila was unable to take one step further; so he began to apply the medicine, saying: Blue touraco, carry us home Blue touraco, carry us home How can someone go on a journey without returning? Blue touraco, carry us home! So the babalawo said,

Enter by the front door Exit through the rear Made Ifa for Orunmila Abductor of Ogun’s woman

O Aro, stop them, stop them, Blue touraco, carry us home

ODI

OSA

[ 245

And Blue touraco carried them through the air. But when they were almost home, Ogun sang his dirge once more: O Aro, why can’t you detain them Hold on, cymbal sound, don’t let go

Orunmila, unable to move, once more took the Ifa leaves from his

Blue touraco, carry us home No one journeys, without returning Blue touraco, carry us home And Blue touraco did so.

pocket:

Aro started bearing children for Orunmila

dancing, singing:

So the babalawo said,

Come in through the front,

Go out the back door Made Ifa for Orunmila

Intent on abducting Aro. To sacrifice is beneficial,

To refuse is detrimental;

Any wife babalawo takes Is his for good

Grab hold whole Grab hold whole Without recourse No ebb, no flow So the diviner Takes a wife Grab hold whole Blue touraco Greetings. . . .

}, “9

Awotunde went on to say that this odu tells how Orunmila came into the world, but that when a person reaches this part he cant say more until he kills a goat (in this case at the client’s expense )

246

|

Castings

and consecrates it with shea butter. At the time, I was irritated by

the request, for I was on a very tight budget. Foolishly (as I now see it) I did not comply, and so I can only wonder at the references to the front and the back door in that instance. Odi is natural delivery, Osa is the escape hatch; Odi can close up, Osa can get in anyhow, and out—as a bird pecks from within the egg. Orunmila’s abduction of Ogun’s woman reminds me of the theft of ashe, of the simultaneous appropriation by male intellect of magic and mantic power. But beyond this I cannot go. In this story, Ogun’s medicine is strong, but bird-power and leaf-power combined are stronger; he is forced to let go. The rhythm of forward/ pull back; on-rush/ frozen-in-one’s tracks strikes an in-

ner chord; and so does the idea that the journey towards higher or occult knowledge (more generally the journey out—traditional motion of the ninth geomantic house) involves both theft (the part of fire) and running away from home. The dirge is guilt-sung and is the same as the charm holding the fugitives back.

x

Otura Osa

ṣẹ

MA

§ §

§ §

Greetings for the sacrifice; praise Otura Osa, Don't you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Onlooker awakes,

Curious, who accepts no authority, Uninitiated mumbles, jealous of babalawo unaware that a certain power to whom the diviner is devoted can inconvenience more than any worldly owner Made Ifa for Black kite (cluster of unriddled palm nuts) who was treating Chief Goodmorning for suspected sterility. Kite soon got to the bottom of that man’s trouble: children you shall have if you sacrifice two pigeons, two hens, twenty-two sixpence Goodmorning complied. Soon after, all his wives were pregnant, started having children, dancing the dance of the newborn baby, swaying, singing,

Had it not been for Black Kite— Secret gets to the bottom— We would not be dancing the dance of the newborn baby Which song attracted the whole wide world’s attention. —Say, Chief Goodmorning, owner of deep-dyed wickedness,

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isn’t Black Kite perching on your women? Don't you hear that song they're singing? Wake up, foolish greeting!

( The black-feathered diviner was summoned. )

—You, bird of ill omen,

are you not making love to each of these women?

—0 no! — We think you're lying; tomorrow you11 have to subject yourself to an ordeal. The next day they met and informed Black Kite: —Trial postponed; report in seven days (which is why he happened to consult Ifa with regard to his possible acquittal). Onlooker awakes said,

Sacrifice and provide gray parrot’s red tail feather a calabash of water and seven shillings.

On the seventh day they took an identical red feather, piled lots of wood on top of it, poured petrol over all, and said —Now Black Kite, out from under go get the feather without harming yourself to prove your innocence—

With which they threw on a match. There was an explosion of thick smoke. Eshu whispered, Black Kite, have you sacrificed or not?

—O yes. — Well, go on! So Black Kite took off,

glided about the fire, sheered off,

dove a second time, hovered round;

the third time rose and plummeted straight into the smoke.

At which point Eshu poured the water from the gourd on the blaze to increase the smudge so Black Kite was able to slip the red feather

OTURA

OSA

(he'd tucked away somewhere ) into his mouth.

Then he shot up from the smoke and everyone shouted: Ah, look, he’s taken it out! And Black Kite dove, soared, hovered,

floated around the fire twice with the red tail feather stuck in his beak

—Haw

haw, everybody, see how clean am I,

completely exonerated kite! And down below they were cheering him on,

—Greetings, O kite, for your avoidance of danger;

Greetings for your immunity to fire! Then he began to dance, to sing, praising. So the babalawos said,

Onlooker wakes up accepting no authority

Uninitiated mumbles,

jealous of those with secrets, doesn’t know diviner’s master can cause more pain

than any worldly keeper Made Ifa for Black Kite (hovers round the fire)

whom Chief Goodmorning (owner of wickedness )

consulted on account of no children. Lament of the women turned to joyful song: If it hadn’t been for Black Kite (secret always gets to the bottom) wed not be performing dance-of-the-newborn-baby;

Secret survived ordeal for wrongdoing Black Kite survived trial by fire Avoidance of danger continues to hover Diviner is always exonerated Black Kite gets away

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and stays away

with honor.

This song has been singing along ever since—

Greetings for the sacrifice, for the hope of our survival.

9. Ca

This odu is riddled with puns, some of which have been worked into the translation by apposition. If this tenth position does indeed speak of one's relation to authority generally, then the superdiviner’s praise name, “uninitiated mumbles . . .” speaks directly to the person who receives the message on the chin for which it was intended. Elegba performs his magic on Osa’s home ground. The gap between onlooker and hovering kite (who circles above bush fires to this day) is closed by the antithetical leap into absolute submission. Only to the initiated consciousness is such a smokescreen, such a smothering vindication, honorable.

xt Obara Ogbe

§ S § §

§ Ṣ$Ṣ$ § §

Now let us praise Obara Ogbe; don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Madman dances off-beat; Madman dances with no drum at all;

Retarded child

perseveres in expressing a private joy;

King’s wife sprouts a haughty neck Made Ifa for Courageous post (aspiring from a supportive position) to see if he might ascend his late father’s throne— become king of massive bush-cow country even though the honor had passed over him. A-firm-stand-means-valor told to sacrifice two cow-tail switches two hens and twenty-two sixpence He sacrificed and finally tray broke forked peg slipped platform gave way water leaked from the pot embroidered gown disintegrated Post-is-valor won by lot They summoned him, enthroned him gave him the cow-tail switch, saying Greet the people! [ 251|

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Everybody in the world began to pay him homage, hastened to serve him,

and he was dancing, singing, praising the diviners: Madman dances off-beat; Madman dances with no drum at all;

Retarded child

perseveres in expressing a private joy

King’s wife sprouts a haughty neck Made Ifa for Courageous post (reliable supporting role ) Child of massive bush cow who used to be who wanted to become Chief of Ado-Ekiti If I become King of Ado-Ekiti tomorrow People will prostrate greet me, greet me And I will shake my cow-tail switch in benediction. Is Ifa always sound in its predictions? Obara Bogbe—talisman of kingship Obara Bogbe came to pass exactly as depicted.

Greetings for the sacrifice, begun and completed.

Now let us praise the second row: Painted image has no eyes for weeping made Ifa for Honor-is-worthy-of-service, child of lamentation;

Shigidi cannot swivel its neck made Ifa for Bright plumage, shaking with power, child of red camwood;

Conjurer’s child pierced the palm tree through made Ifa for the Child of My Mother; Eye entered the bone, made itself at home

OBARA

OGBE

made Ifa for Concoction, child of Eshu:

These four were wont to divine for the chief early in the morning, but one day he stopped calling them. From then on, everything he tried to do— nothing panned out nothing came through Told to go back to those four weird sisters. When he reached the place,

they made medicine for him; displaying all the sacrificial items used, they swore that everything happening to him will be good We who used to divine for the king have returned to work! And they sang this song: Painted image has no eyes for weeping made Ifa for Honor-is-worthy-of-service, child of lamentation Shigidi can’t turn its head at all made Ifa for Bright plumage, shaking with power, child of camwood Peckerwood pierced the palm tree through made Ifa for Thriving medicine ball child of My Mother Eye enters the bone, makes itself at home made Ifa for Eshu’s own brew

Bright plumage, shaking with power Ifa eats sacrifice, benefits donor

If we sacrifice rat, may we have good fortune

Bright plumage, shaking with power Ifa eats sacrifice, benefits donor

If we sacrifice fish, may we have good fortune

Ifa eats sacrifice, benefits donor Bright plumage, shaking with power

If we sacrifice cash, may we have good fortune,

If we sacrifice cloth, if we sacrifice kola

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Ifa eats sacrifice, benefits donor

Bright plumage, sacrifice pigeon May we be shaking with power Good fortune, sacrifice bush meat

To the donor, Ifa proposes Sacrifice water, Bright plumage Shaking with power, Now bestows Good fortune, sacrifice oil,

Bright plumage benefits donor.

. . .

When we reach the States—yonder—we will praise the rest of this odu;

for these are the ones we cannot touch without sacrifice;

Greetings.

\/

Row one:

compare

this with Iguana’s story (Oyeku

Ogbe,

Row

3,

p. 217). Here are the same images implying dissolution of an authority figure, the same vindication of the persevering will—solid insistence cooperating with change through the course of time. The

diviners’ names cast an ambiguous light on the process of selfstress, a kind of countercommentary on the tendency of all men to persist in their private illusions of joy, of grandeur. To possess the emblems of authority bestows it. One is justified in insisting upon one’s inheritance. Although men mav be mad, the preserva-

tion of even that pattern can be considered, ironically, as an af-

firmative process.

Row two: Macbeth’s aberrant aspirations abetted by witches? The translation of the refrain, séréküsen, as “bright plumage, shak-

ing with power,” is quite frankly an educated guess. John says these

syllables are often used as a refrain in folktale recitations. Further hints as to the relation between Our Mother and Ifa may be picked up in the course of this recitation, but the subject is dark, and terribly dangerous. Note the connections, hidden in the four witches’ praise names, between these birds of the night and various “hot” orisha. Aro, it will be remembered

from

ations—with with Ogun.

with dirge songs

women,

with magic,

Odi Osa, is rich in associ-

and clappers,

i Ogbe Irosun

§ § $E.

S$

§ § Ṣ

$

Now praise Ogbe 'rosun— We call it Ogbe sees, Ogbe contributes Camwood, Don't you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Small town made Ifa for tall, tall Camwood

on the day he was stricken with a troublesome ailment: Sitting by the hearthside, desolate as an abandoned village, wondering, will he ever be able to get up,

he’s rubbed himself with oil till his skin gleams rosy in the firelight.

Told to sacrifice one cock, seven male stones, seven bags of cowries,

he complied and recovered, back on his feet, never sick again: So the babalawos told me. Small town made Ifa for gawky Camwood on the day he was stricken with adolescent skin Wondering when he'll get back on his feet: Camwood,

get up, don’t lie down,

We always meet, we always greet Camwood upright, vertical, standing straight, so, Up with Camwood! Greetings!

Now let us praise the second row: Whatever may be happening to goat, sheep is unaware of it [ 255 1

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Made Ifa for Orunmila on his way to divine at the house of Olokun in Ilesha. How will it go? Will any good come of my visit? Warned to sacrifice, Secret complied, and went off to sea priest’s compound. As soon as Orunmila arrived, he began treatment and soon the priest had many wives, and the wives had children, and the children didn’t die,

So he went back home. A year or so later, the doctor returned for a visit. At the sight of him everyone cried, Ha! Here comes our good diviner! Orunmila replied, as the old saying goes, When sheep’s away, goat may play made Ifa for Secret on his way to the house of the priest of the distant sea in Ilesha. .. . And the people started chanting: O Orunmila, I see no kola, no kola for Ifa, I see no kola,

all kola must be consumed by the sea for I see no kola for Ifa. . . . And Orunmila forgave them, for they were as grateful to him as they were able to be. . . . I, Awotunde, see no goat, and am therefore unable to continue.

Greetings for sacrificewe ought to have given.

Now let us praise row three:

Ogbe sees Camwood (who spends lavishly ) Don't you see this road of Ifa? One clack—Bell gong’s diviner—made Ifa for Him One whack—Rattle’s diviner—made Ifa for Him

. . .

OGBE

IROSUN

[ 257

Stealthily I carried, shhhhh there, quietly my sacrifice, Camwood’s diviner, made Ifa for Him

All three at once on the day all complained of having no children. Would it be possible? probable? likely? Sacrifice, they said, sixteen pigeons and sixteen bags of cowries. Gong sacrificed one pigeon, one chicken, one sixpence and had only one little clapper; Rattle: the same amount with the same result; But Camwood completed the requirements and had sixteen So when Gong-gong wakes up he says, Only one, one antidote And when Rattle wakes up he says,

offspring;

Cautious, cautious one, cautiously

But when Camwood comes to, he soughs

Shhhhh, my little ones, little ones,

green leaves sprouting, opening, fluttering, slight sound, slight sound, hush-a-bye babies

That’s what Camwood always used to say, and whenever, in those bygone times, the babalawos wanted to leave the house, they used to press camwood, meaning, the yellowish dust of the Irosun tree that we sprinkle upon the divining board

(for it too speaks, Gong-gong wakes Rattle wakes up: Camwood soughs

whispering, whispering ) up: One, one antidote Cautious one, cautiously in the morning breeze:

Hush my little ones, stealthily, stealthily, slight sound, leaflets, sixteen, sixteen Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings!

jẹ It is remarkable that this odu should have turned up in the twelfth throw, for Oturupon Meji, being eyeless, shares the same house as Irosun without knowing it, according to Maupoil’s informants. Of

258

1

Castimgs

Camwood's complaint in row one John said, "He's not supposed to have relaked that much, to have got in that situation; he should have taken better care of himself." Of the third row, I say, again it has been pointed out, silence is the better way. Awotunde's mixed feelings are apparent in the second row. This is the place of various

illnesses, constrictions, hang-ups, institutional pressures, strictures.

jii Irete Meji

§

§ §§ §

§

§ S$$ §

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Praise Irete Meji! Do you see how Ifa came to be so named? Kill the vulture, sacrifice to Ifa—

diviner for the King of Ara’s people To kill Ground Hornbill is difficult— diviner in Ijero country To kill the Allied Hornbill youve got to sacrifice to Ogun for a knife bold as the European’s— Ifa’s representative where fish are plentiful Bushfire, Killer of the plain divines in bushfowl territory In ostrich country, water suffices, water suffices

no need for iron. . .. Cudgels are useful for breaking down old walls Made Ifa for Long-lived, top-heavy, well-renowned Waterbuck They have builded him a death-house in this world They have builded him a death-house in the other Say, said Waterbuck, Will I not soon die? Sacrifice, said the diviners, a glob of earth, one cudgel, one ram, and seven bags of cowries. When he had done so, they digged him a pit,

took palm leaves and raised him a thatched hut over it;

Go in, they said. Then they pulled that house down over his head bathed him with Ifa leaves,

killed the ram, spilled its blood over his head

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And his heavenly house caved in condemned, unfit for occupancy So the babalawos said Kill the vulture, sacrifice to Ifa

diviner for members of our community

To kill Ground Hornbill isn’t easy diviner for the place they murder travelers To kill the Allied Hornbill better sacrifice to Ogun for knife bold as the European diviner where fish are plentiful Killer of the plain diviner in bushfowl territory In ostrich country, water suffices, water suffices no need for weaponry. . . . Cudgels useful for demolition Made Ifa for tottering Waterbuck assigned a house of death on earth relocated to a high-rise equivalent We've destroyed that house of yours in heaven we shall not come again Beautiful blueprint boss in heaven

- erase those gray hairs on his head

Diviner’s house collapsing in heaven now he won't move before he’s ready Diviner’s house collapsing in heaven now he'll hold out until the end pounding, resounding Ifa And so it happened when they built that collapsible death-house for Waterbuck on earth, its heavenly counterpart toppled down without a tenant. Greetings for the sacrifice; may we also survive the occasion.

< The client's praise names, Ogegege and Laigbd, are used at the be-

ginning of greetings to Waterbuck, who has already occurred as a client in Irete Meji (Row one). The big body on thin legs is em-

IRETE

MEJI

[ 261

blematically significant, as is the watery element he prefers. Ogege,

it will be remembered, is the way the “tree of wealth” is described in row three of Irete Meji as initially recited—meaning something like “enormous, heavily laden, top-heavy, would topple were it not firmly rooted”—-an invocation of Mother Earth when there’s a need for solidity. The beautiful list of diviners as hunters in which their prey is related to terrain reminds us that Irete Meji is related to Ogun Meji as anvil to hammer, and that this is the odu in which an animal’s death was first substituted for a human’s. (John says that water suffices to kill the ostrich because while that long-necked creature is bent over drinking, the hunter can easily sneak up on him.) From habitat to house is a natural step to take. The client must be detached and relocated. Such a "death-house" is in fact built, says John, for a wealthy man—a chief or a priest. Customary burial in Yorubaland is in a trench dug under the floor of a man’s own house. Everything on earth, as the babalawo constantly remind us, has its counterpart in heaven—which is why Ifa's emblems convey spiritual truth, which is why the correct medicine (based on analogy, or “correspondence” ) is effective, why substitutional sacrifices work. This is the "place" of Otura, of the cardinal points of severance and return; direction stabilized, therefore, two

words become two worlds. In the Arabic geomantic system, the thirteenth house is that of House personified, also Mother, and the past generally. The ramifications of this situation are remarkable in their coincidental complexity! This is the second and last major odu to occur in this series of castings. Otura Meji (in Oyeku/ funeral’s place) was of course the other!

XIV

Obara Irete

§

ge

‘

১

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Obara Irete; don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called?

I looked ahead of the world—

saw reason, intelligence;

I looked behind—trouble;

So I gathered my gown about me and fled, madly, as one pursued... . Made Ifa for Orunmila on the day Death chose to round up all the divinities in one vehicle

Orunmila wondered: Will I not also be taken away? Told to sacrifice a cock, aram, and seven bags of cowries,

after which, they concocted a medicine

called Erunyantefe. Burn the evil-smelling bark, completely, Sasswood stinks to high heaven;

Smoke the rats out, carbonize trouble; I have become thick as earth in dry season Closed sod, I have become Orisha’s farmer, Tiller of the dry season; Let black wings pass over me! And death could not kill Orunmila;

He lived on to old age;

So the babalawos said: I looked into the future— reason, intelligence;

Behind me—trouble;

[ 263 ]

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So I got myself together and fled, madly, as one pursued. . .. Made Ifa for Orunmila on the day death sent the van for all divinities But I am under the king of orisha's protection, and shall not die again,

Said Orunmila; Greetimgs for the sacrifice, for the probability of our survival.

Row two: Don’t you see the road Ifa took to come by here? It’s the Stubborn bullet breaks hoe’s teeth Shadow stares at the ground fixedly, like a vision Butcher carries sword on his head

unsheathed Made Ifa for Orunmila when official sources informed him the divinities were making war

in his domain; Can he cope with that menace?

Sacrifice! What shall I bring? Three cocks, thirty-three bags of cowries (and one black ram).

Then they made Ifa leaves for him, and the action stopped short of his house, sparing Orunmila, who was dancing, singing, praising the babalawo, saying, Stubborn bullet breaks hoe’s teeth,

Shadow stares at the ground, Butcher bears sword on his head Made Ifa for Orunmila when The orisha were warring in his domain: Black ram, scare them away, Fireleaf is not easy to hold:

OBARA

IRETE

[ 265

(burn quickly, dispatch evil) Earth spirits warring in my domain; Black ram, charge them;

Ghost children won't

be pinned down easily;

No one can touch Egungun;

Can’t hold fireleaf either—burn them;

Black ram scare—fight them; (guard the periphery) Get rid of angry divinities! And this evil stopped short of Orunmila’s place and menaced him no more: Greetings!

“e9, I have worked into the chants some additional material given me by Awotunde (not recorded on the tape) and documented in Verger's paper on medicinal leaves. Note the double-bladed relation here between Orunmila and the other divinities: he insists on remaining outside the fray. Traditionally this fourteenth position indicates the future (house of the magician). The charm used in row one is directed against death as an ally of witches. In row two witch-power and the dead are Orunmila’s allies against a host of chthonic divinities. The direction is defensive: holding out against, surviving the worst possible attacks on one’s reason. Note Obatala’s role as protector in the first instance, Shango’s in the second.

KU

Oyeku Ogbe

§

$$

S

R

§

$$

S

$$

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now praise Oyeku Ogbe Do you see the road that goes to this name? Dusty tutor assigned to teach our child to walk imparts a swagger

Made Ifa for Orunmila on his way to save the apprentice stranded in Ebb-tide town This novice, every day of his life is plagued by unwelcome visitors: all the bad things of the world drop in, antelope horn, serpent’s fang,

slit in the underlip curses Is this not leading me to my death? Sacrifice plenty of beans, they told him, start worshiping Ifa in earnest, and provide for people outside— alms-feast; throw a party! Apprentice worshiper did as he was told. Now as Orunmila was going along his way,

he met up with some of these curses.

Where are you bound? To bagman’s house. Well, I want you to know that apprentice is my child. You must never go there again! And those curses retreated. So the babalawo said: Dusty ground, commissioned to teach our child to walk, instilled a swagger [ 267 ]

268

J

Castings

Made Ifa for Orunmila on his way to rescue

novice from curses; Ifa, please defend me, Don’t let me be robbed (of my sleep my tranquility) Don’t let Ifa save Don’t let Don’t let

thieves steal me, me Ifa save me Ifa, them break, them enter,

Don’t let them drain me Novice of Ebb-tide town (famished famished ) Save me Ifa save me. That’s how Orunmila happened to begin watching over all apprentices With the result that evil things usually stay away from places where orisha are worshiped. Greetings for the sacrifice, for the possibility of our survival. ® CS

This road is a fine example of the subtlety of Ifa's psychology. The mechanism of curses and the mental disturbances allied to the projection and reception of evil will have been described, in brief,

with great sensitivity, by Raymond Prince! It is important for us

to realize that curses, although not hypostatized in a lively way by our culture, do exist residually in our mental makeup, making it possible for these frightening images, alive in the Yoruba imagination, to pinpoint our own sufferings in this direction. Apprentice is the person who carries the bag for his master. Although only the diviner’s bag is specified here, I think a more gen-

eral meaning is intended. Consider the final words of the recitation.

There is evidence in Bascom’s collection of odu to substantiate a view that Oyeku Ogbe relates to servants of orisha and, more

broadly, to all those who have embarked on a course of spiritual 1.

Prince, “Curse, Invocation

and

Mental

Health

. . . ,” passim.

OYEKU

OGBE

[ 269

training—all novices in the life of the spirit. They, like the child of the diviner’s name, are learning to walk. The ground beneath them is unsure, so as compensation they develop the slow shuffling swagger of kings. But dust is life, the teacher—that’s how it is.

The susceptible apprentice in this instance comes from a town whose name can mean either ebb tide or famine—both conveying

a sense of abandonment, of deprivation. Emotionally we are in the oral phase—linked to the mechanism of mouthed curses, to the appearance of hallucinations, to early feelings of persecution. Note apprentice’s course of treatment: beans to placate witches, sorcerers and a gift of food to people “outside.” On one level he is being encouraged to develop generous impulses towards the world as an antidote to the persecution feelings. Again (as in Okeyu Ogbe previ-

ously) the confidence inspired by authority is needed; it is given here as an experience of the living power of divinity.

(Remember

Osa Meji and the discussion of Obatala foods and public feasting as a means of turning curses into blessings.) In showing the transformation from frightened arrogance to confident humility this road shifts the consciousness of the listener so that one suddenly sees the ordinary dust of experience as the sacred dust upon the

divining tray. I take the repetition of this figure at this point—indicative of judgment, the balancing of forces relating the individual to his environment?—as

an insistence upon

the perilous condition

of any-

one who turns off the main cultural highway onto a hidden road, a shadowy path. Along such a

spiritual detour hostile feelings and

hostile forces, not readily distinguishable, threaten to extinguish

the clear light of consciousness, which once so clearly beckoned towards its absolute destination. One thinks of the tragic difference

between the trusting self-assertion of early childhood and the frailty of the withdrawn ego in old age.

2.

Khamballah, op. cit., p. 76.

xvi

Ogunda Irosun

§ § 57. SS

§ § E$ $$

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now let us praise Ogunda Irosun, do you see the road Ifa took to this quality? Brimming is the pregnancy of water Stirring-stick the throat of lively counsel He who farms on the riverbank will reap benefit of fish Made Ifa for Senior Hunter,

son of a numerous family, who was sulking, sib, sib, sib Told to sacrifice: when you get up in the morning, go about saluting everybody in this way you'll outlive the competition. Hunter complied: as soon as he awoke he went about greeting young and old, male and female going from door to door “I hope youre not too warm” “I hope nothing is the matter with you” And before long, when all his senior kinsmen died,

Hunter was appointed head of household— So the babalawo said: Water brimming pregnancy Stirring-stick counseling Riverbank farming fishcrop Made Ifa for Senior hunter consumed with sibling rivalry Cheer up [ 271 |

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we have entrusted the entire family

To you, at last, we have confided

management of the household

Ingratiating greeter,

as ye sow, shall ye reap

Greetings!

It is character, character that persists

upon entering the world, from long ago becomes a habit Made Ifa for Six elders on their way to a house where there was poverty of wit and plenty of ill-humor. These six, everything they did became confused.

Cannot this obfuscation clear up

and all things turn out sensibly? Told to sacrifice six kola nuts, six malaguetta peppers, six bags of cowries six pigeons and six chickens These last to be given to the people of the under-earth. They sacrificed, put a few grains of pepper upon their offering and the remainder upon the grave. At daybreak they ate malaguetta pepper and directly Everything began to turn out visibly, So the babalawo said,

It is character, character that clings Made Ifa for Six elders on their way To make the best of a bad situation O King of Ado O place of the sacred palm tree I have received authority I stopped by the house of Egungun-ogun to receive power

command authority Place of origin, O king of sweetness,

OGUNDA

IROSUN

[

273

Stopping by the house of the captive dead, I have received authority. And so it happen that everything the six elders did was beneficial. Greetings for the sacrifice, for survival. “>,

I find this one extremely difficult to interpret below the surface level of “you get what you give.” Again the thrust seems to be right relations with other people—family in row one, a process extended in the second instance to people of the earth, the dead, in order to achieve the grace of authority. In the first case I detect an irony: Hunter is told to generate good feeling, but behind his well-wishing lurks the power of an implied negative suggestion (I hope you haven't got a fever!). The six elders seem to be diviners, but they might also be members of Ogboni whose adjudicative role in this world of unreason

and strife (the sadness of Ogunda

Irosun)

re-

quires the dead’s wisdom and support. The pepper alerts the dead,

clears the heads of the elders, and effects the transformation of vegetative ashe into ruling power. Egungun-ogun, an appropriate

ghost for this odu, is a special spirit captured from the enemy. This sixteenth cast marks the end that is a new beginning, House per se as place of in-dwelling, container, carapace of privacy.

+ 18 ¢

Castings XVII—XXY

xvü

Ofun Oyeku

§ § § §

§§ § §§ §

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Now we are going to praise Ofun Oyeku— We call it Ofun-Tena, meaning Ofun presses the road, dints, prints, meaning Ofun is divining As for the road, don’t you see how Ifa came to be so-called? Ofun immensely robed—like the back of a mountain Made Ifa for Elderly worshiper— Living in suffering and poverty she took up her hoe and went to gather root and leaf of wild lettuce Am I going to an auspicious place? Yes, it will be: sacrifice

one cutlass, two pigeons

twenty-two sixpence

Having done so, she set off for the farms.

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When she came to the place where she’d planned to gather firewood she saw a dried stump. Good, I might as well stop, uproot and chop, right now. Pulling it out of the soft soil,

Ha! too big a cavity beneath,

let me take a closer look,

ah—full of money! Elderly worshiper began to bail it out, forgot about the errand she’d been on, and turned home, prosperous. From that moment, everything worked out,

according to the babalawo, Ofun immensely robed light thrown over dark on the other side of the mountain Made Ifa for Elderly worshiper who took up her hoe in desperation encountered fortune this side of her destination, and turned, immensely, back home. From the house of Ofun I extracted riches before I got where I was going Wealth unbeknownst beneath a stump before I knew what I was doing From the house of Ofun I shall carry home travel to awful, travel to all-full Everything gained in place of loss travel to awful, to all-full

Who knows of Ifa, knows not of Ofa travel to one or the other Empty is full where fortune is found

travel to hole, travel to mound

Pull out while the going’s good, traveler! Second road: don’t you see how Ifa came to be so-called? It was the Lord of Heaven

OFUN

OYEKU

laid the hand of darkness on blue touraco It was the Lord of Heaven laid the drizzly-grizzly hand on leopard’s back (light rain on the shimmering surface of the pond) He gave the calabash of mud to python Egret carried, egret carried the calabash of chalk. River runs beyond the precincts of the palace made Ifa for The one who awakens to press the road (the carver, the tool of his craftsmanship ) child of the high king On the day it became apparent to him that nothing he did came to any good What could he do so that all roads might regain clarity of direction? What could he do that his art attain clean lines of the master carver? Sacrifice: two chickens, twenty-two sixpence, plenty of money against confusion. He sacrificed; they made Ifa leaves for him; As a result of which his work thereafter was good. So the babalawo said: It was the Lord of Heaven laid the hand of blackness on

blue touraco It was the Lord of Heaven laid the wiri-wiri hand on leopard gave the calabash of mud to python Egret, egret carried the calabash of chalk River runs

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Castimgs

beyond the precincts of the palace Made Ifa for

Awaken, go forth,

press dust on the divining board, mark the road, incise the craft child of the king of wisdom

Good child, road-finder, master of visibility,

Ofun opened the way for fullness to follow pattern of intelligence how-to-go-about-it

Look at Awakener's children,

so many set forth Look at Roadmaster's children! And so it happened that everything the embroiderer embroidered was good; greetimgsl

[ENCORE]

Ofun Oyeku the leaves of which we made for Gleason Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be called Ifa? Ofun immensely robed, like back of the mountain,

Made Ifa for an Old worshiper in desperation, poverty went to pluck such-and-such belonging to the wicked people of the world, dark side of witches. The first time she did naught, but the second they told her to produce nine malaguetta peppers

nine kola nuts

twenty-two sixpence

OFUN

OYEKU

í 279

Having sacrificed on her behalf they procured Ofia “never-used-for-cooking” and with this they compounded “take-your-hand-off” together with wood dust from the divining board— “mixed-powder-and-leaves” they called it. She was told to sift the medicine with water bathe in the filtered solution praying for all things she wanted from life,

praying for the way of her intentions.

After she had done so,

she started for the farms

became prosperous, before

she arrived at her destination Upon her return, she continued to prosper May she thrive May she get on in the world May her head be good May things look up May others speak well of her May she be blessed with many gifts May her children not die May she not suffer adversity May there be no obstacles along her way So the babalawo said, greetings.

+ Having made an agreement with Awotunde that we would go on 'asting until we had produced sixteen discreet minor odu, it did not xccur to me when we reached Ogunda Irosun that we had com-

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pleted some sort of cycle. But when we came to Ofun Oyeku, I was

aware that we had gone into another gear. The moment he cast the

figure, Awotunde

said it was speaking directly to me. After the

recitation I was told he said he would go tinued casting (the we met he brought

to get together into the forest following three the leaves (the

the materials for sacrifice, and for the proper leaves. We conin this series). The next time sacrificial materials having al-

ready been dispatched to his house) and, after a résumé of the first row of Ofun Oyeku, he went on to the incantation I have appended here as “encore.” Generically this is the place for it, but this is not

where it belongs chronologically, or psychologically. The day we

began chanting for the leaves, our first new cast was Ofun Osa, and

at that time I noted the following in my journal:

“A sense of chan-

nels opening up. . . . Having made the sacrifice required by Ofun Oyeku, we recited the leaf part, the prayer, and thereafter immediately came up with Ofun Osa, speaking of Oya.

As for the second instance:

time Awotunde confirming,

substituted the word “road”

as it were,

. . .”

note that for the first and only

Ifa’s intention

(ona)

at this point

for “row,” thus to suggest

con-

nections between the art of divination and other arts—between the

word

“road” and

the word

“craftsmanship,” between

the stage of

the carver’s work that is done with an incising knife (elaboration, detail work, clarification) and embroidering (with thread, with

words as well). This I take to be the developmental phase of divi-

nation in which what has already been incised upon the mind is recalled and applied. Both Obatala and Ogun have a part to play in the creative process. Obatala’s generosity was felt everywhere

in the house where our recording sessions were held, “the house of Ofun” whose ruling priestess is an artist. Obatala’s creative energy is beautifully expressed in the image of the diviner’s name (Row one): robing the dark side of the mountain, conceiving it as brilliant whiteness

(of which

the synecdoche is heron carrying

his calabash of chalk). Ogun, on the other hand, bears down, drives

hard, grooves. Ogun makes things explicit.

Note that the sacrificial ingredients were changed, in acting

out, from

orisha’s cutlass

and

two pigeons

to nine peppers,

nine

kolas. Those numbers read true in any culture. The “hands-off” herb relates to the “hands-on” imagery in Road two. Compare the

OFUN

OYEKU

[ 28:

images of Ofun Meji and those of Oyeku Ogbe (Row four) with equivalents in Ofun Oyeku here (Row two)—Obatala’s dark, devouring side, his passivity, white entropy. The river named Ona flows through Egba country near Abeokuta. And as it flows past the palace it reminds us that natural courses of things are also related to Ifa’s roads, to directions from starting points, generically— as well as to craftsmanship,

embroidery, patterns of sound in time,

word-roads towards meanings, recitations.

xvi

Okanran Iwori

Greetings for the sacrifice! Now let us praise Okanran Iwori—

We call it recurrent conking of your engine an intermittent knocking in the head tuning out

refusal to listen to what’s said Don't you see the road to this designation? One creak, one creeeeeeeek,

Made Ifa for Cracked coconut, crying in the wind, Eeeek, eeeeeek,

feed my head!

Sacrifice, Coco, they said,

But he went right on, waking or sleeping, creaky,

unhinged, Crying, Feeeeed my head, feeeeeed my head. What's all this banging about? Is he deaf? Can’t they make Ifa for this old nut so Ifa’s firstborn,

his own praise-name,

won t die of what ails him? Except they feed his head, his head. . . . Well then, they prepared the necessary ingredients, brought kola, chickens, pigeons, compounded Ifa leaves for him, cut incisions in his scalp,

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1

Castimgs told him not to be so hardheaded, to sacrifice, to listen

to what he himself and the babalawo said, One creak, feed your head, Conk, bonk, banging in the wind, Sacrifice is beneficial.

Stand beneath, can’t you hear?

Way up there, even in his sleep,

Coconut'’s still crying, Creak, creak, Knock, knock,

Who's there? I need to feed

my head!

Greetings!

Second row: Don’t you see the road Ifa took to this one? Tree root wrapped in ground fog Made Ifa for Honor-befits-him

when he was so foolish

as to push too far with Eshu. Sworn friends, they were, this Honor-befits and Eshu,

Each bound to give the other everything: — Just ask for it! —1I want that. —It’s yours! —l’ve not eaten. —Go ahead! —O no, you've just begun. —I insist!

Now one day Honor-befits dropped in on Eshu who had just finished bathing, had put on a beautiful robe,

OKANRAN

IWORI

was seated in splendor, completely at ease.

O Eshu, he said, Greetings for our friendship,

Everything you have upon you, around you, Pil take it. Ah! Since they cannot refuse each other anything, Eshu had to give Honor-befits everything. — Now how can I get back at him? Soon thereafter tray broke, Heavy stone shifted its position. Who will be installed chief? Why, Honor-befits! On the day of his installation, Honor-befits was escorted to the palace; he was robed,

he was crowned, was just settling himself upon the throne,

when Eshu appeared at a distance. Drawing closer, Greetings my friend, Everything that’s yours, including your chieftaincy, your throne, your women, may I have the honor of relieving you of them? Ah! Honor-befits, the chief, looked up at the ceiling, not knowing what to do, actually there was nothing, so He unrobed, got down from the throne,

renounced his women and children,

stood stripped of everything except his variegated underclothing. Now, said Eshu, place your hands on the ground, and proceed to the bush. As Honor-befits crouched over, touched the ground,

he became an antelope. I might have known,

for so the babalawo said, Look out,

Tree root wrapped in ground fog Made Ifa for Foolish

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Castimgs

Honor-befits-him who pushed Eshu too far. O Honor be— (subject to ) fits,

not that you offended anyone, it’s just that you put your friendship with Eshu to the test,

so you got yourself a spotted chin Instantaneous intermittent

blotching the underwear he’s had on him that’s what antelope’s dressed in to this day Greetings!

LU2 Embedded in the opening words of both rows is the word egôn,

which

means

“intermittent

madness,

proneness

to psychotic

epi-

sodes.” With different tone-sequences the word can mean “uncleared ground,” “contempt.” It is also an old-fashioned word for “bloodbrother friendship,” of the type Honor-befits shares with Eshu. Note the similarity of symptoms: hammerhead in Okanran Odi and coconut in Okanran Iwori: a disoriented mind whose guardian spirit needs to be fed and who refuses to acknowledge its condition. To perverse deafness! is here added a personality disorientation known as arankan—“hardheadedness.”? Such disorders befit the instability previously discussed in connection with Okanran Meji—a susceptibility to possession that, in a bad head, can 1.

See discussion of Okanran Odi, p. 231.

2. Leighton et al., pp. 106 ff.

OKANRAN

IWORI

I 287

lead to delusions of various sorts, a lack of correct self-appraisal. When we came to the diviner's name in Row two (tripping in the fog over roots you can t see), John said, "What seems to be going on is this: you have to get yourself together because what youre about to get into will cause some severe physical strain." Note that the word agbọn, with differing tones, is also embedded

in both rows.

Agbonrin

“antelope.” Agbon means mila, with longevity, and gation of the underwear quality. Here it might be —the visual counterpart will be remembered,

(literally, “spotted

chin”)

means

“coconut.” Both are associated with Orunwith looking before you leap. The varieHonor-befits is left with is an important thought of as instantaneous intermittency of the way Okanran does things. Iwori, it

is often

associated

with

getting yourself into

a hole, with unreasoning, abortive acts of aggression to which cer-

tain wild animals are prone.

Crt?

XIX Ogunda Irosun

§

Once more to praise Ogunda Irosun—Do you see the road Ifa traveled? . ..

Expecting, expecting until my ear deafened by silence

dwindled to a hairpin sprouted like a seed yam

I craned my neck until

I looked like gray heron

And the stalk stretching up to peek into the house

worried itself through the window fell into the soup pot and accompanied yam to the stomach

Made Ifa for One who shall (Though regular as the moon she never became full

Will it grab hold?

Will she have a child?

Postponed indulgence fondle the baby tomorrow the tide flowed out completely ) Sacrifice: giant pouched-rat one outer garment parrot’s red tail feather hedgehog

Place these things upon the altar of Obatala

and your pregnancy will grow

She said, So

the babalawo told me:

[ 289 ]

290 | Waiting, expecting

until my ear

Craning, stretching

until my neck Stalk stretched up saw into the house of soup

Made Ifa for your child until Droopy-eyed seamstress with twelve hundred sew me a garment Vigilant vuz-peg barbed protections Mild character with white orisha let pregnancy grow trailing tendril Hedgehog, bind Palm frond, unfold

Hedgehog, let my

Castings any minute

dwindled off long, thin

heroined to take a look

fell into the pot

yammering

Put off cuddling tomorrow awaiting commissions

needles and pins to protect my baby with fourteen hundred keep away evil ally yourself Unimpeded gourd on the ground as sash’s wound me to my child Spiky leaf catch hold pregnancy grow

And soon she was having children regularly, greetings!

XX

Osa Iwori

§ § §§ §§

§§ §

Greetings Osa Iwori

calls for praising Do you see the road Ifa took to be named Osa—looking in looking out—Iwori who made Ifa for Black sprite of the house of Orunmila on the day they told him Sacrifice, if you want to stay alive in this world,

stop coming and going going and coming. . .. What should I bring to stay put? Pigeons, a fine cock and seven bags of cowries;

then pluck the leaves of that stubborn plant whose ash is used for dyeing— that should hold you! Black sprite complied;

mordant medicine made for him prevented him from dying; so the babalawo said,

Osa—looking in on Iwori—looking out for Black sprite who kept alternating between this world and the other [ 291 ]

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Castings

Lord of heaven, close the door,

we shall not come again, I’ve got hold of stubborn shrub

chaw stick, caustic, anthelmintic Lord of heaven, close the door,

I shall not die again!

Now shall we praise the second row? As today is, tomorrow is not usually— which is why the babalawo consults Ifa regularly Made Ifa for Osa, whose father owned twenty slaves, Made Ifa for Iwori, whose father held thirty bondsmen,

meaning Osa did him homage. Both were crying they had no luck, saw no good in the future. That will change, sacrifice for prosperity

for money, for children, for everything

Eight pigeons, eight hens, eight bags of cowries. Both sacrificed, were given leaves,

enabling them to accumulate riches

As the babalawo said, We

consult Ifa every market week for as today, tomorrow’s not, usually, and who's to say the sons of secrets shall not prosper? Osa sees money Iwori enriches who's to say sons of secrets shall keep needing keep needing? Greetings!

2cki

Ofun Osa

55. § S §

465 § $$ §

Greetings for the sacrifice!

Let us now praise Ofun Osa, we call it “Ofun applies medicine” white magic don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? It is faded bleached completely white drip drop, drip drop Made Ifa for Black ant palm-pest

who s been stinging the bottoms of those trees for nothing— that’s to say, been carrying on with a lot of women and not one knocked up, not one of them.

Sacrifice, evil weevil, they said,

youve a sick dick, and youd better give two bowls of pounded yam two pots of soup twenty-two bags of cowries. So he sacrificed. Then they took moniseseki

(“is restricted to snippets of” )

leaves from a burry bush

Ground them,

fried them with bush rat,

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and asked his wife to eat. You too,

Listen,

formicator, dig in;

for no reason may you nibble at the base of any more palm trees, Either this or no kids: get it? So he and his wife got together, within the month Ms. Ant was pregnant, Immense orisha found her tiny womb and placed a dab of yam on each of her nascent children When the time came she gave birth to two hundred shiny black antlets, each with a bit of a blanch on the place where orisha’s yammy finger touched him. Can my sacrifice have been that satisfactory? O yes, the babalawo said Tainted white, drip drop, drop drip made Ifa for Black ant, the

palm-bottom pincher crying he had no children palimpsest palm-pest to sacrifice is beneficial palm-pest palimpsest refusal's likely detrimental not too far, not too distant, come see me in the midst of children bush rat never comes on without any children wouldn’t do wouldn’t do bush rat’s crawling with children!

OFUN

OSA

Now when Black ant became a father, he said my pincher

and moniseseki’s are like brothers

my wife can have children

like the others and these children will cling today and tomorrow bound to her back wherever she goes like sticky leaf of tenacious burr my pincher got power! Once they've stuck out on the road burrs never defect They go where youre going cling to your clothing follow you home Won't leave the pilgrim waking or sleeping till he reaches Ife Who follows the crowd never slips off alone on the road to Ife now I’ve got hold of the stickiest pricker world’s ever known my wife can have children like other women and carry them home Sang Black ant when his wife began producing children none aborted, not one died in infancy because everything sacrificed that day, including the cloth covering her body, was made use of. When the sacrifice was done,

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she was told to put that cloth back on, and wear it into the bush.

When she got home, all the burrs that had clung,

were picked off. Then they took a rough bristle grass they call “bird gum, and the seeds thereof, took “is restricted to snippets of” leaves also,

together with “turn back traveler from Ife” (don’t accompany the dead to heaven)

ground these and fried them with bush rat. When her period was done like yesterday she ate the soup

like today

(tomorrow is not usually so)

And when it was dusk she met with her husband and became pregnant.

Black ant’s song (reprise ) to a different rhythm

look at my pincher one wife’s sufficient sticky leaf snippets

say bear children

like other women burrs won’t desert, so

bound be her children pilgrims to Ife clinging together waking or sleeping burden of burdock cannot be shaken now I’ve procured the leaves of retention new brambles burgeon

hold fast and journey

Ofun

on the back of my woman! apply power that I may engender

a son

OFUN Help her. Together She tome

body change astravelersso child to mother

OSA

yesterday, today, tomorrow burrs to clothing along the road

[ 297

Greetings!

Now we shall explain what it is we call Oya;

Now we shall praise Oya, praise the second row of Ofun Osa which Orunmila says is called Very white (swept clean ) meaning, Ifa, I say, Let her rip! Hai! lo ya! twist, tear!

They ask, Where? Tore up the place of our comrade Alara, child of established wealth tore his house to shreds as he sat comfortably swept up his money, all his clothes, everything so that his people wept.

What sort of a thing is this? we looked around, nothing to be seen, aha! What sort of invisible housecleaning? Orunmila says it’s Very white, Ifa, I say, Let her rip. Hai! They ask, where now?

This time it cleaned King Ajero out peppery-tempered fellow moneybags’ child son of palm-oil slick on the surface of the water— turned that household into confusion— What sort of thing can it be— flailing the air with its cow-tail switch massive, massively? The whole wide world grew conscious of its strength— heaving things up, stacking them every-which way—

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and everybody was afraid of being ground up in this terrible mortar. Meanwhile, whatever it was, took off.

Orunmila said, for the third time,

It’s Very white! Understand? Ifa, I say, Let her rip! Hai! Where? Any new reports? Rising hot air mass sucking in its gut Cold front shifting westward above Ekiti Spiral, Slope Confrontation certain above Ila,

Hold on, here she comes

Down on the town of Chairman Orangun! Ha! that one, master of tongues,

crownbirds strut in his courtyard,

fed by inherited servants Ha! this thing forcibly thrust its way through the wall, sounding its own drum, stomping majestically, whisk, swish, thump! All the hangers-on who'd been sitting round open-eyed were blinded. Heh! what sort of a switch is this? What's really going on? good evening ladies and gentlemen those on the farms can’t get in touch with their home folks those in the compounds all rushing out to the plots colliding with farmers returning hurriedly . . . crash! . . . crosscurrents . . . can you hear me? can you hear me? has been declared a state of emergency What's that? the end of the world? aha! Orunmila said

quietly, and this time there were some who listened Itis Very white meaning...

OFUN

OSA

Ifa, I say, let her rip! Hail! Velocity?

(unknown) Direction?

heading for young diviner’s house, youd better warn him Greetings, apprentice of Orunmila, something is coming, and when it arrives

itll bring you good fortune if you sacrifice in the nick of time two kola nuts four sixpence touch each eye (my sight, don’t go) snails, shea butter

palm oil, plenty of money put those shades upon Ifa’s shrine let them sing praises on your behalf for whenever whatever this thing is arrives it'll bring you good fortune Diviner’s apprentice did everything he was told, atonement completed, someone suggested: now have your wife prepare food for everyone so they'll stay on Good! as they were sitting leisurely around Something tore, hai, ai, ai!

Burst in, struck the ground with a roar. .. . Just then Eshu appeared: tell me in a thrice which of you did/ did not sacrifice? The babalawo answered with a single voice: Akapo put himself on the right road.

Mmmn,, is that so, what did he provide? snails, shea butter, money, oil,

and he touched his eyes with

four sixpence, two kola,

then set his sights upon Ifa Fine! Now that Something tore into the house,

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paralyzing everyone with fright, save Eshu, who gallantly stepped forward: Ha! Hai! I greet you for arriving, Oya, I greet you for the turbulence of your stride! Then he offered her sixteen snails a bow] of shea butter and a flask of palm oil all of which she swallowed in one gulp whereupon with bulging eyes and a walloping sound she began to vomit What was she throwing up? Great witch’s riches! Everything collected from Alara, Ajero, and Orangun spewed forth upon Akapos floor and he became wealthy at once. What shall we call her? Can we not keep her? Please don’t go! All those things swept into my household,

might you not give the like to others?

I might, I will if they realize

She that stove in Alara’s house and captured his goods She that drove into Ajero’s house and took what she could She that tore into Orangun’s shook him up sucked him dry blinded eyes She am I who came down now

OFUN

OSA

and T'II never depart

your house, Akapo, if you know how to take care of me

Feed me right and you'll become richest man in the world For I am Oya! Who knows how to calm me down knows how to prosper!

Heu! said Akapo, apprentice diviner,

So what wrecks your household

makes it thrive? The babalawo knew it all the time:

Orunmila says, Very white Clears the air Let her rip! say I Ha! Hai! what sort of a thing tore in, tore out,

blasted the house of Alara, moneybags’ child I say, where’s she headed now?

to destroy the house of Ajero, peppery-tempered well-oiled Orunmila says, annihilator, where’s she headed now? still in Ekiti, Orangun’s compound speaker of languages keeper of crownbirds I say, watch out Akapo, you've but two alternatives: two thousand waiting to put you down

two thousand charms for avoiding death Sacrifice! How? Cover your eyes with four sixpence, two kola;

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Castings snails, shea butter, palm oil

will calm her down

On the dusty road of divining board Eshu appeared, Who didn’t? who did?

Akapo’s all right; go ahead

He offered her food to calm her down made her feel at home and she vomited

Aftermath of the storm upon the floor riches, treasures

kings’ winnowings Know that I am known as Oya

travel to storeroom travel to hovel travel to Ifa often You who know how to feed what tore one man’s oil is another's poison travel to Ifa often

Will see the blessings of Oya!

On that day when Oya blew into the world, she exaggerated. Tor means the top of a mountain, tornado means Oya— the explanation has been given. Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings! $, “~

This odu was thrown, as I explained earlier, directly after the recitation for the leaves of Ofun Oyeku. The motivation of both diviner and client, our joint concentration, was at its high point, and it so happened that Ifa produced for us a masterpiece of articulate energy. The first part is a combination of ribald humor, verbal incantation, and meditative impulse. For me, this last spoke of the impact of experience on the soul: output of love and energy, input of sensuous experience, which together persist, burrlike, as memo-

OFUN

OSA

[ 303

ries. To visit Yorubaland is to feel such residual vitality in everything.

The second part is an extraordinary mixture of drama, story, comment, and song. Whether Ifa came on especially strong for me

at this point I don’t know, but working up that tornado was sheer

joy. My

admiration

for Ifa-Awotunde’s

artistry knows

no bounds

when the people themselves begin to behave like a storm, rushing out from

the compounds,

in from

the farms

like converging

air

masses—the intertropical front, when Yoruba weather indeed turns around and produces Oya.

Looking back over this odu as a whole, the travel-road imagery seems especially important. Ofun conveys a sense of destiny and

character,

which

is why,

I suppose,

even

in

the

second

part,

one hears a snatch of what I’ve come to Ofun Oyeku this song was worked right ply recalled; so I have summarized it as frain is an Ifa adaptation of a standard

call “Ofun’s theme song.” In into the plot; here it is sim“travel to Ifa often.” The reYoruba proverb, which runs

“Those who

[a town

know

Ifa, don’t know

but Ifa is sought after in Ofa.” to a state of bondage,

Ofa

not far from Ilorin],

(Tone and vowel changes link Ofa

also, I think,

to arrows

as lots, as well as to

loss.) The meaning of Ofun’s theme song also involves the notion

of specific alternatives,’ taboos, the relation between character and

direction, between knowledge and chance (even/odd). As for the medicines employed, it seems that not only did black ant have a problem, so did his wife; hence the repetition of the story from two points of view, hence the inclusion of more leaves in Ms. Ant’s soup. The bush rat’s name in Yoruba (emon) chimes with the name for children (omen) and with the first syllable of the most important leaf (mon). Before we recited the

second part we performed the ritual described in the recitation, so

that Oya would not blind us, annihilate us (or perhaps, like Medusa,

her Greek counterpart, turn us to stone). Note she is calmed with

Obatala’s neutralizing witch-food. Indeed a similar story is told of Our Mother vomiting riches. Nor can Odu (igbadu) stand to have

people look at her. Ofun Osa was the last of the official castings. We had reached 1. See Ogbe Ofun, p. 321.

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our predetermined destination and, for whatever it’s worth, twenty-

one throws were required. The four odu that follow were bonuses

containing material of special interest to me at the would like to thank Awotunde now, as I probably did then, for the “overtime.” At this stage a good deal of developed, mainly over the vexing question of a goat

time, and I not properly tension had that, under

advisement, I refused to buy. I’m sorry now that I didn’t. I had no

right to more recitations, and yet I thought Awotunde the greedy one. True, it would have helped if hed had a sense of humor, a graceful instead of an offensive way of going about asking; but in situations of this sort why shouldn't he, with very little worldly experience, tend to panic? I, with very little otherworldly experience, was also beginning to panic. It seemed, at the time, impossible to stop going along the road that Ifa was clearly warning me to get off. In short, the situation had intensified and could only be resolved by sacrifice. Since the sequence of the odu is no longer of any objective importance, I have not presented them in the order in which they were recorded. The two that were given in response to my desire to hear more about Oya follow directly upon Ofun Osa to form a little hagiographa of the storm. The final two were not cast by Awotunde, although he recited them. They are Ifa’s mirror held up to the nature of the far-flung inquirer.

XX11

Osa Ogunda

§

Wi

$$

IN

Greetings! Now we want to praise Osa Ogunda, we call it Osa-Ogun-can-fight (hunter's magic ) wherein's an egplanation of the birth of Oya Eeeee, don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Plopped off onto the ground that's what we call "round and bald" moon-fruit fighting-venus Made Ifa for Head of the hunting fraternity southeast of here, where the Ijaws live On the day he set forth to seek a wife who would burn brightly for him. If you're on the lookout, sacrifice, they said, yams that sprout a small pot of guinea-corn wine four hens, four pigeons, and four bags of cowries Furthermore, they said, bone yams and “stay long” after effects are good for your head. Sacrifice completed, he went on his evening hunt;

stayed out all night, but saw nothing;

just lay there on his platform, waiting.

Dawn came, and he decided to wait

just a little longer until it was light enough

[ 305 1

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1

Castings

to make his way back easily. All of a sudden he saw a bush cow approaching. She looked to the right She looked to the left saw nobody, strode along the path majestically.

When she came to the base of a termite mound,

to his great surprise she began to remove

her own skin. arm strips

leg strips and the hide of the head He watched her make a bundle of all this and stuff it inside the anthill. She looked to the right She looked to the left saw nobody and changed herself into a beautiful woman. Up on his lookout the hunter just sat there, watching.

When she was dressed, this beautiful woman went back to the base of the termite hill,

took up her container of locust-bean seeds (What sort of a thing is this? )

and proceeded towards the market. He waited until she was out of sight, and then slipped down from his perch,

snuck over to the place where she’d hidden her skin,

took up the bundle and made off home with it. Then he went to market to buy locust-seed spice. Iru, three-shillings’ worth please, he said to the woman, I can't pay you now,

but I’m sure you won’t mind stopping by on your way home to collect the money. When it was evening, she strolled down the street

OSA

OGUNDA

where the chief hunter lived, Iru, iru, did anyone here buy iru from me in the market? He came to the door and said it was he. I've come to collect my money. Very well, but won’t you come in for a moment? Have something to eat before your journey? And he offered her some of the yam and the drink he had sacrificed to Ifa. Having eaten the yam and drunk some wine she felt very tired and sleepy. . . . By the time she woke up it was dark enough for her to leave without comment. When she got to the place she had hidden her skins, she found them gone. Ai! Ai! What sort of a thing is this?

I looked to the left I looked to the right saw no one who can have taken them? Must have been the man who bought my locust seeds fly whisk, fly whisk what sort of a thing is this? without paying. Better go back and have a word with him! When she reached his house she pleaded with him to return those things he had removed from such-and-such a location. —I didn’t see anything of yours. —Please, I beg of you,

[ 307

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|

Castings

have pity on me, I implore you! —Marry me!

—Anything! I will, but you must promise me

to observe my taboos. wouldn't do wouldn't do Never mention where you found nor what you took from me to your other wives!

—lIs that all? Well then,

I promise.

So that was it. Time flowed on,

carrying them with it.

She had her first child, her second, three, four,

and then one day Hunter saw his red beans ripening on the farm and asked his wives to come pick them. Now his senior wives had never stopped asking him where he'd picked up this woman. No relatives had come, not one, not once to visit her,

nor had she been sent for.

What sort of a thing is this?

He persistently refused to tell them. However, one evening they plied him with food, they plied him with wine until he was no longer able to contain himself. — Master, esteemed husband, father of the household,

OSA

OGUNDA

you oweittous....

It's only proper we should know the kind of character with whom we must associate ourselves. Were from good families, but whatever she is we ought to knowit. . . . Don’t you think it about time you told us?

—Can’t you leave that poor woman alone?

What’s she to you? (he roared in his drunkenness ) Washn' she that bushhh cow,

that big buffalo of a girl I saw taking her clothes off out in the woods that day I bought iru from her and she came to collect my money? That’s why I married her— I wanted someone to shine for me,

someone to talk to; what do you skinny women know of the wonders of the forest? Why shouldn’t a hunter marry an animal? Now, does that satisfy you? Get off my back, I’m tired. —E-heh (they said) It’s a good thing you told us now, isn’t it? When the time was ripe for harvesting beans, Hunter went out to spend the night on the farms;

the women, he said, were to join him early the following morning. As soon as the senior wives arose,

they stopped by their junior’s door, — All set? — Not quite. (for she was busy with her children) — Hurry up.

[ 309

sio

Ì

Castings

Sunup already and it’s going to be a scorcher. —Please be patient,

I'll be ready in a minute. —Reddy, Reddy, come when youre ready, We'll go on ahead, Take your own time, Reddy,

Just keep on munching, Your hide’s in safekeeping up in the rafters,

So count yourself lucky, Red woman! Ai! Ai! Her stomach hit her back with the suddenness of it. As soon as they’d gone, she sent her children out of the house,

snatched up a bag made of giant pouched-rat and went to fetch water.

Then she climbed up to the storage bin,

seized the bundle that contained her skin and began to soak it, pulling it on, bit by bit, over the calf over the thigh over the arm

Then she jumped down and ran through the town,

without touching or harming anyone, straight to the farms. Running into the first wife, killed her,

Running into the second wife,

killed her, also the third,

Then she saw her children coming along. Seeing the bush cow, they began to run. —Please don’t, see—

(pulling the hide away from her cheek )

OSA

OGUNDA

I'm your mother. — No youre not, youre a buffalo, leave us alone; won t you please go back to the forest. —Of course. It must be so. I'm going. But first—

(she broke off a little piece of horn from her head)

let me give you this. Whenever you want me to do something for you, just ask this. Call it properly, call it Oya, for that is my name and I'll always answer to it. Should anyone act with malice towards you, just let me know; should you want anything— money, wives, children, just call on me, call Oya, Oya—farewell|! So saying, she pulled the hide back over her face

and set off in the direction of her husband.

He saw her coming—that buffalo in the distance— instinctively he knew: Ai! Ai! My wives have ruined my life! She'd have killed him at once, but he started singing: Noble buffalo, nothing stops you,

you make your own road through the thicket. No undergrowth

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Castings

too dense for you, fighter. Please don’t kill the hunter,

just for the sake of killing, it was he who fed you bone yam,

it was he who gave you guinea-corn wine, please spare the hunter who hosted you,

liberated bush cow, bulldozer,

fighter. And she was moved to pity. This day Ill be gone for good, but I’ve left a phone with my children. You too can call, if you need you know how for Iam This sound—Oya!

This form—bush cow! This force. .. . And she vanished, which is why the babalawo call this odu Osa ’Gun le ja,

meaning this medicine can fight, child of bush cow, of Oya,

Buffalo-leaf-be-victorious,

here is the explanation,

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings! $ ẹ,b

This tale, in revealing the maternal warmth of Oya, also discloses a vulnerability unstressed in those sections of the Shango cycle where her fury is paramount and she behaves as his alter ego. Hunter here is an all-too-human representative of Ogun or Oshosi (his brother)

to whom,

according

to the myths,

time married. This is her Hathor aspect.

she was

at one

OSA

OGUNDA

[ 313

The nickname of the odu means “he used magic drugs to achieve his purpose” as well as “Osa Ogun can fight.” Buffalo leaf is a medicine listed for this odu in Verger’s catalogue. Medicines of various sorts are put into horns and worn by hunters or placed in convenient spots in the forest. Besides buffalo horns, other sacred symbols of Oya worked into the story are locust-bean pods (which sound like the wind when you shake them) and the black cow-tail

switch. Any fly whisk, used as an emblem of authority, is called

iru, whose homophones include the name of the spice made from locust-bean seeds and “kind of,” as in “what sort of a thing is this?” —Oya’s theme song. Maroon is Oya’s special color, the color of red beans and of her “hide” (her complexion, when she turns into a woman). Another set of homophones important in the story is Egun meaning “seed (or bone) yams,” which are not ordinarily eaten but are used as sacrifices to the head, and ẹ̀gùn meaning “hunter's lookout platform.” The opening lines associate Oya with Venus and the moon, later developments with Orisha Oko

(termite mound/anthill)

and

with Our Mother. The symmetry of the story is delightful—carried out in simple details—for example: his lookout platform and the attic storage platform where her skin is hidden. The protagonists each have vantage points which the rest of the world lacks. Indiscretion (especially in the form of indiscreet curiosity) and bean fields are associated with Odi Meji—the root of the world having to do with witchcraft and maternity.

Xxiii

Otura Ogbe

NI

5 §

NEṢ :$

It is Ifa where Shango was going to marry Oya We will praise here the time he was told to sacrifice so

no one, not even death, shall sunder

Don't you see the road Ifa took to Otura Oriko, meaning head’s refusal? If the breast is full, I can relieve it;

Palm wine? I can make it flow;

Wherever was swelling, will gush freely; Whatever pressure’s needed, I can bring it to bear;

Fluttering? I can hold it down; Even cloth, if you want your length flat and pleasing Just call upon me to weave it;

Made Ifa for Shango, child of the flaming brand On the day he was going to marry Oya. Sacrifice, they said, May you and Oya never be torn from each other, May you live long together. But Shango refused.

After a while he fell ill and died;

Oya began weeping. Everyone gathered to console her: Haven't you shed enough tears now?

But one who understood: Let her alone, What will be will be, what’s done is done,

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Castings

It was Eshu who put the jinx on them So the babalawo said: Close up, let flow Rise up, beat down, Smooth over, flatten out

Made Ifa for Shango Burning to marry Oya. Sacrifice, may you live forever; Sacrifice, may she stay faithful; Let it be, let it be Eshu begrudged Eshu obstructed Eshu the marriage breaker Oya the would-be river Broke up.

Greetings. Row two. Marrying Oya, marrying for the second time means trouble. Don’t you see the road Ifa took to this wedding? Iron staff of authority Worries gathering along the horizon swarming upon goat’s head Messenger takes it up, strikes him on the noggin again and again He won't give in goat’s refusal is head’s refusal Otura Oriko do you see?.. . Like scorpion stings with a flame Made Ifa for the Mighty chief superbly unafraid of darkness for when he goes outside a match strikes automatically Beware of quarreling with him When tree got nasty,

OTURA

OGBE

down it fell into water Incensed, water carried it away Made Ifa for Shango on the day he was going to marry Oya. Sacrifice for the marriage they said, not for now but for later in case you add another Nonsense! Oya's daughter moved in

to help her run the household—

no problera But three years later Oshun became a widowed woman whom one takes in if one is a younger brother

You can’t fool me, said the senior wife,

she’s a bride like any other and there was trouble. At once they began to quarrel, and from then on there was continual fighting, every hour, every minute I told you so, the babalawo said, Strike the stubborn goat on the head, he'll come back for more Worries gathering piling up on his cumulonimbus Gong-gong gone on for too long watch out for scorpion! Made Ifa for the Great one Unafraid of darkness Downed, the tree shrieked

into the water Outraged element carried it away On the day he was going to marry Oya.

Oshun, he said, was inherited from his brother “I'd have climbed up and gone to Tapa, but Oya wouldn’t allow it”

[ 317

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1

Castimgs

The son of Tapa looks for quarrels with a cudgel Leaning on two spears, harangues as he will A Tapa corpse isn't easy to bury

To fast like those people takes willpower!

Whoever would make a winding-sheet for a Tapa must take up an embroidery hook and go off in search of honey Cotton’s a-plenty, and anyone can sew it,

‘Honeycombs are rare, and honeyspun’s still scarcer Oya became a river in the place called Ira Oshun became a river—but where she starts is secret Sudden blow, lean and stubborn

went up to the sky and became a big rumble; That’s how the quarrel between Oya and Oshun turned both of them into rivers and their husband into thunder This is the explanation given; greetings! ® 699

Here is the Oya generally associated with Shango—the jealous senior wife, the romantic widow who kills herself, the passionate elemental force—here the Niger River rather than the windstorm, although she is, of course, both. Shango, in one of his most aggressive aspects, is called King of Tapa (in modern parlance, Nupe). Some say his mother was a Nupe from the north; Oya’s origins most certainly point in this direction. These praises of the Tapa people, applied to Shango who incorporates all their virtues (augmentations of his great power) are traditional. Awotunde does not go into the second half of the story, the grand finale of the fight between the two women, but lets the words of traditional praises evoke it. Eshu might be said to be the real protagonist in both instances; stubborn pride and jealousy give him an opening—but never have

these been seen in such giant proportions!

Ogbe Ofun

x

§§

Ṣ

§

Greetings! Now we shall praise Ogbe ’Fun.

The person who cast this Ifa should make a genuine, complete sacrifice, for someone says he is going to do something for the client; she should sacrifice a black cloth quickly so

that whatever it is will come true. Yes? Don’t you see the road Ifa took to be so-called? Palm nuts create

Palm nuts destroy Eshu breaks Eshu throws away Something that’s lost can’t be seen irretrievably Gone with the wind Made Ifa for Obatala on the day he was going to war accompanied by a would-be servant previous loser who'd promised to be his interpreter.

Sacrifice, they said, the black cloth you are wearing and ten bags of cowries. ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, and yet I cannot part withal . . . so, despite the medicine they made for him, he lost his sole supporter when he got to the place of war [ 319 |

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|

Castings

his hands were not strong enough to contain the assault; therefore

Obatala was defeated. Ah! So the babalawos said, Palm nuts: born

Palm nuts: perish Eshu smashes and gets rid Something: lost Something: hid

Forever on the back of the wind Made Ifa for Orisha when

He wouldn’t give up his black content: It was only too obvious

He carried his loss with him,

Meaning, Obatala was sick in the head,

Which is why black cloth was required of him In the first place:

Lost because he refused to give: Eh, eh, eh, Do you see the road

Ifa followed here? Greetings! Ogbe fun fun ni ni ni

Ogbe is terribly white pure drowsiness, certainly is Made Ifa for Mushroom with a crown on his head. —I'm off to the farms. —Sacrifice (they said) your cap and seven bags of cowries. —What? That’s mainly me, all I’ve got to show for myself, Sorry. ... Then some sickness in that head of his began consuming him, ate away until

OGBE

OFUN

[ 321

he simply sank into the ground, mumbling rheumily, So the babalawo said,

How partial to whiteness slumbering is Made Ifa for Mushroom on his way out. . .. Which is why the people began to say: Mushroom’s buggy, that’s why the insects are killing him, driving him under, doing him in. Despite his crown swelled head He just can’t seem to get off the ground— Riddle me that one! edible fungus

This is the explanation;

Greetings for the sacrifice, Greetings!

ef2, This time I impetuously did something I shouldn’t have which got me into/ permitted me to discover—trouble! I said, I wonder what would happen if I threw the opele myself? Oddly, Awotunde did not object (and he is the sort of person who makes his reservations plain). When Ogbe Ofun came up he was immediately thrown into consternation.

The black cloth flashed into his mind first. In what sense should he interpret the odu—bad or good? His first reaction was positive in the sense that he thought I had been promised something, which, if I didn’t sacrifice properly, might be withheld. But he wasn’t sure, and so for the first and only time he presented Ifa with a choice between specific alternatives. He would throw the chain twice—first for yes, second for no (or negative, bad),

and

the higher-ranking sign would prevail. The second cast in fact outranked the first,1 and he urged me to give a black cloth to someone 1. When casting for specific alternatives, certain signs are considered final when they appear in first place, thus precluding a second throw, automatically

322

1

Castings

when I got back to the States.

J had just bought a black stole with

some embroidery on it from Atanda.? Would that be appropriate?

Yes, it would. To whom? My first thought, and such intuitions in such cases are surely the right ones, was to give that cloth to my mother-in-law, which I subsequently did. May she, unknowing, always tolerant of my eccentricities, forgive me! These decisions somehow cleared away the underbrush, and we went on to row two in which the heart of the matter was disclosed. What was really wrong can be detected by reading the

parable—if one knows that an ologbe is a deceased person who has

given his drowsy soul to one or more of his descendants to serve as guardian ancestral spirit, ruler of the head, and therefore custodian of his inheritor’s moral condition, psychic health, and ability to fulfill personal destiny. What was going on, apparently, was this: My youngest son and I share an Ogbe-soul. That common

soul had become emotionally upset not only because of what had

been happening to me but because in one sense this child had come with me to Oshogbo— and in another he had not. As a consequence there was a wobbling of heads on both sides of the Atlantic. Mutual mental balance could be righted by a two-part ritual. I was to give a feast (sara)? of “small” foods for small children—first then and and there, and subsequently upon returning home. Neither ingredients nor guests on the Oshogbo side were a problem. There were plenty of children living right in the house. We

got

together

beans,

cooked

maize,

bananas,

and

other

treats,

then went around calling Ẹ wa ba sara (“come to the party”). What

a pleasant way to sacrifice! On the New York City side I got together outranking any subsequent odu. There is some local and even individual variation in the identification of these final figures. Our first throw in this case was not a standard final figure but, according to one of Bascom’s informants, it does qualify for this role. The second throw produced a figure that

is generally considered final. Local variations also occur in the pecking order of the major odu (which always outrank “combinations” or mixed numbers ). Bascom’s informants, as a group, put Obara Meji and Okanran Meji before Irosun Meji and Oworin Meji, Irete before Otura, and both of

these ahead of Oturupon and Ika. Awotunde

and the Oshogbo diviners follow

the standard order, the same as recorded by Maupoil in Dahomey. 2. Awotunde’s friend. See p. 2. 3. Sara is a Hausa word meaning “feast.” It is a type of sacrifice prescribed for Moslem or Christian clients.

commonly

OGBE

OFUN

[ 323

the ingredients in the Puerto Rican market, did the cooking, and then invited the first young friends encountered in the park to come home for a spur-of-the-moment “African party” with our kids. The son whose head was in question and I did our thing (as the babalawo said) in the kitchen first, then walked down the hall calling E wa ba sara. Everybody enjoyed tasting the food, nobody asked any questions, and the evening went happily by. But the diagnosis continued to haunt me. How could the babalawo possibly have known (for we never discussed our personal lives at that time) anything about the one child who happens to have the same astrological sign as mine—the child on whose behalf the river had “spoken” to me the previous time in Oshogbo, the child who had by chance accompanied me to the first Yoruba ceremonies I ever attended, years before in Brazil? Nor could Awotunde possibly have known that this was the one child whom as an infant I had to leave for long periods of time with an older woman so I could continue working. I have always felt those months must have been harder on him than either of us will ever know, hard on

both of us, and hard enough to make that common ancestor of ours grow angry and confused, seemingly forever! But of all these things Ifa was, in Ifa’s way, aware, and provided us both with a model for understanding our joint-selves. It’s too late to go back, to strap that baby to my back and take him right into the classroom, but at least we are now conspirators against a certain obscurity, and that does us both good. Graceful, sociable, explosive, stubborn child of Oshun, whatever is eating your mushroom is eating mine first— or something like that! So the babalawo said, so. . . .

XXU

Obara Osa

§§ § § §

§ §§ §§

§§

Greetings for the sacrifice.

It is Obara Osa

we wish to praise here Obara Osa kele—energetic Obara Osa koko—frenetic

On-the-go Made Ifa for Guinea fowl child of farm-scavenger Told to sacrifice three cocks

three bags of cowries So the babalawos said Hectic old folks running ’round Compulsive behavior

Made Ifa for Guinea fowl

in a flurry Told him to sacrifice in a hurry With a wild look he did so thoroughly Worried. We've never seen this land before Made Ifa for Odd ball bouncing along the road who kept spinning around without making much headway We walked and we walked,

finally caught up in the afternoon,

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Castings

Asked him to sacrifice because he wanted to know if this journey in the end would be worth the struggle If you sacrifice, yes, old top, we told him;

So he took time-out; they gave him a powder;

Sayeth the babalawo: Only now I’ve discovered this country Made Ifa for Tireless walker not until afternoon not until now

Scatterbrained traveler have you seen have you got to Wherever youre going— this land, finally this elusive country? Greetings for the sacrifice

offered accepted May we outstride our giddiness! > 9.9

This devastating Ifa-graph (or Ifa-gram) was taken, shortly before my departure, by the senior diviner of Oshogbo. I had reached a point where I thought I should have a regular consultation (which had nothing to do with the recording project) with an older person whose psychic neutrality was unquestioned. The result was an astonishing likeness, a verbal caricature that I include here in final praise of Ifa’s astuteness and unfailing sense of humor. It is a strange commentary on the state of the world that someone should sell odu like onions. I often think back on that night when there was a banging-on the outer door. What Awotunde didn’t realize at the time was that, being still part of the tradition that nourished him, he might be able to make a name for himself in America, but he would not be able to make an appreciable amount of money. The elders, duly informed of the project, insisted that

OBARA

OSA

[ 327

he divide the stipend among members of the Ifa community. I think he now understands that the wealth of the Western world does not reward spiritual artistry. But what I didn’t realize at the time was that having bought the onions, I should have to peel them, one by one, until my eyes. . . Well, its not the voyage out that’s hard—however short of the destination one may have arrived—but the return, with the tide pulling against the oars. The energetic compulsiveness that enables an American woman to get things done, to live her own and her family’s life, to write, is not a recognizable virtue on the other side. Guinea fowl scurried to find, to sacrifice, to find. But that’s not the

way. Instead, one must take a long-necked jar and go to the hidden source of the river where the water slowly seeps up from below. Arriving finally, as we Westerners almost inevitably arrive, at my own distraction of mind, Ifa said—and it was no surprise—that I'd had enough. So one by one they were led back into the cave, where by flickering firelight the images danced upon the walls, upon the page rolled into the typewriter. It was not easy to get readjusted to civilian life. This is not the kind of experience one can write off. Getting those burrs. to stick is no problem—it’s detaching them once theyre on. Scraps of thought, which refuse to lose their indigo dye, cling here and there to the grit of the road, to the cobblestones, to the asphalt highway.

IV Ifa Chants

Before I left Oshogbo, I was invited to the Ifa cult-house to record a praising of Ifa by the entire community of babalawo and future initiates. The celebration was held in a rectangular building with one side open to the air, like a cloister. The, very old men were seated on mats along the solid wall. The gong players, perhaps five or six of them, were arranged in front of the shrine at the end

opposite the entrance. I sat on a bench in front of the low wall. Behind me I was conscious of children who had come to listen and add their excited voices to the chorus.

[ 331 |

Ifa Chants—English Version Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader: Chorus:

Homage to the rain, homage to the rain Correct homage. Arriving at the farm, we always pay homage to the rain; Ifa, I offer homage, humility’s offering Correct homage. Arriving at the farm, we always pay homage to the rain; Wizard of the house, homage; Witch of the house, homage Correct homage. Arriving at the farm, we always pay homage to the rain; To first creation, homage, to the creator

Correct homage. Arriving at the farm, we always pay homage to the rain; I shall not fail to strike the gong, the right beat, unaltered A wealthy person’s to be honored, striking iron, I shall not falter;

I shall dance gracefully, with dignity At Ifa’s festival I shall dance gracefully; See how palm fruits cluster, heavily together

As arich man’s fortified, so palm fruits cluster;

Head that holds divinity won't spoil

Rich man’s fortified as palm fruits cluster;

Good fortune is master of suffering

Traveler, rest a while at our house—

Leader:

good fortune is master of suffering; Owner of the road, which road? Road to utmost importance

Chorus:

Road to utmost importance, the diviner sees it, owns it;

Ifa accepts what we have done Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: We'll dance, jouncing baby in right arm Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: With left hand lift him to piggyback position Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: Rejoice O, Rejoice O Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: Here! with arms stretched, accept babies Leader:

[ 333|

334

Ifa Chants

1

Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader:

Chorus:

Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader:

Chorus:

Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader: Chorus:

Rejoice! Rejoice with arms partially extended Rejoice! Rejoice with small steps, shuffling Rejoice! Rejoice dances with head erect, like wild animal's Rejoice! Rejoice dances with tail thrust out, like wild animal's Rejoice!

Our chorus responds to matters of importance Come, speak, the invisible is with us;

It’s

ahome I want, of utmost importance

Come, speak, the invisible is with us;

Wives I would have, of utmost importance Come, speak, the invisible is with us;

Mighty warrior, mighty warrior

Great anthill is a mighty warrior; Rain quenches fire like a mighty warrior Great anthill is a mightier warrior; Owner of the load, come, carry it

Before nightfall, come, carry it! Homage to the rain, homage to the rain Correct homage. Quickly, to the farm, there pay homage; From modest hamlet of Iresi comes Ifa Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: Dancers, extend your arms for children Chorus: Rejoice! Leader: Chorus: Leader:

Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Quickly, while the occasion offers

Rejoice! Ifa accepts what we have done Rejoice!

Accepts our joy, accepts our dancing

Rejoice!

Ifa Chants—Yoruba Version Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader:

Chorus:

Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader:

Chorus:

Leader:

Chorus:

Leader: Chorus: Leader:

Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader:

a juba 0jo, a juba òjò

ee iba rere, b'á d’6ko, a si má júbà òjò

ifa mo juba re, irélé mo juba re ee iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba òjò oso ile mo juba re, ajẹ ile mo júbà re ee iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba ojo akoda mo juba re, aséda mo júbà re o iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba òjo ng ko ni sailu, ng ko ni s’ailu olowo ni mba, se ng 6 ni sailu ma jo wuké wüké, ma jo wükéwüké bare ba dare ifa o, ma jo wukéwuké l'a b’ope lùjù, l'a b’ope lùjù olowo di janjan, l'a b'ọpẹ lùjù ori oloriṣa, ko ni ṣori egbe o olowo di janjan, l'a b’ope lùjù ire loga ìyà ire l'ògá iya ẹ̀rò yale wa o, ire loga ìyà ọlénà ona, oléna oran ona Oran awo loye o, ọlọnà ona ifa gba yi ti a ṣe àríyá a o f'ọtun gbọmo jo àríyá a o fòsì gbọmọ pon àríyá àríyá o, àríyá o àríyá

ẹ yá tẹwọ ẹ gb'ọmọ

àríyá àríyá ṣ'ọwọ bembe Leader: Chorus: àríyá Leader: àríyá ṣ'ẹsẹ bọnbọ Chorus: àríyá Leader: àríyá f'ori j'ẹranko Chorus: àríyá Chorus:

1335 1

Ifa Chants

336 1 Leader: Chorus: Leader: Chorus: Leader:

ariya f'iru jeranko ariya ariya ṣ'oju kokoro ariya elégbé oran, elegbe oran

Chorus:

oran awo l'o ye o, elégbẹ̀ oran

Leader: Chorus: Leader:

ẹlẹrù wa gbe o, ẹlérù wa gbe o odìdẹ̀ t'alẹ t'alẹ o, ẹlérù wa gbe o

ile lo wu mi mo wi o elégbẹ̀ ọran Chorus: ọran awo lo ye o, elégbẹ̀ oran Leader: aya lo wu mí mo wi o, elégbé ẹ̀ràn Chorus: ọran awo lo ye o, elegbe ọran Leader: òlégùngùnmàrẹ̀, dl6gungunmareé Chorus: ọganrara dl6gungunmareé Leader: eji lo pana ina kuo, òlégùngùnmàrẹ̀ Chorus: ọganrara dl6gungunmareé Leader:

Chorus: Leader: Chorus:

Leader: Chorus:

ajúbà ojo, ajúbà ojo ìbà rere, b'a d'oko, a si má júbà òjò n ile onírẹ̀sì n ifa àríyá

ẹ yá tewọ ẹ gbọmọ

àríyá ifa gbàyí t'a sẹ Chorus: àríyá Leader: ifa gb'ayò o gba'jô Chorus: àríyá Leader:

+ Bibliography " Suggested Further Reading on Ifa: Bascom, William, Ifa Divination, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1969. Maupoil, Bernard, La Géomancie a lAncienne Côte des Esclaves, Travaux et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie, XLII, 1943.

McClelland, E. M., “The Significance of Number in the Odu of Ifa,” in

“Two Studies of Yoruba Divination,” Africa, XXXVI (1966). Prince, Raymond, Ifa, Yoruba Divination and Sacrifice, Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, 1963. Verger, Pierre Fatumbi, “Grandeur et Décadence du Culte de Iydmi Osoronga,” Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XXXV, 1 (1965). on Geomancy:

Caslant, E. Traite Elementaire de Geomancie, Vega, Paris, 1935. Fahd, Toufic, La Divination Arabe, Brille, Leiden, 1966. Hébert, J. C., “Analyse Structurale des Géomancies Comoriennes, Malgaches et Africaines,” Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XXI, 2 (1961). Jaulin, Robert, La Géomancie. Analyse Formelle, Cahiers de (Homme

—Ethnologie-Géographie-Linguistique—N.S. IV, Mouton, Paris, 1966.

Khamballah,

Cheikh

Hadji,

La

Geomancie

Traditionelle,

Vega,

Paris,

1947. on Yoruba Religion:

Beier, Ulli,

A Year of Sacred Festivals, a publication of Nigeria Maga-

zine, 1959. Gleason, Judith, Orisha: The Gods of Yorubaland, Atheneum, New York,

1971.

Idowu, E. Bolaji, Olodumare, 1963.

God in Yoruba Belief, Praeger, New York,

Soyinka, Wole, "The Fourth Stage; Through the Mysteries of Ogun to

[ 337 1

338 ]

BIBLIOGBAPHY

the Origin of Yoruba Tragedy, in The Moralitu of Art (Essays Presented to G. Wilson Knight), ed. D. W. Jefferson, Routledge, London, 1969. Thompson,

Robert Farris, Black Gods

and Kings, Occasional Papers

of

the Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology, University of California at Los Angeles, No. 2, 1971.

Verger, Pierre Fatumbi, Notes sur le Culte des Orisa et Vodun a Bahia la Baie de Tous les Saints, au Brésil et à l'Ancienne Côte des Esclaves en Afrique, Memoires de l’Institut Français d’Afrique Noire, LI

(1957).

This book was set on the linotype in Primer. The display face is Latin Bold. The composition is by American Book Stratford Press, Cornwall, N.Y. The printing and binding is by Colonial Press, Clinton, Mass. The paper is Nashoba Antique supplied by Colonial Press. Designed by Jacqueline Schuman.

DANIEL JAFFE

Judith Gleason was born in 1929 in Pasadena. She received a B.A. in history from

Radecliffe College, her M.A.in English and

a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University. Long a student of the Yoruba, she is the author of Agôtime:

Her Legend, This Africa, and Orisha, the Gods of Yorubaland. She is married, has five children, and is presently living in Rome.

Awotunde Aworinde, an Ifa priest, lives

in Oshogbo, Nigeria. He has been ritually involved in the cult since he was seven, and has “stood Ifa” with important divin-

ers throughout western Nigeria.

John Olaniyi Orundipe has been lecturing

on the life and language of the Yoruba at the Olatunji Center for African Culture

in Harlem since 1968.

Grossman Publishers 625 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10022

Jacket designed by Jacqueline Schuman Printed in U.S.A.

Praise for Judith Gleason’s Agôtime: Her Legend “Here is a work so original and special that it inaugurates its own genre...a tapestry of fact and legend...a strange and powerful book which re-creates both the reality and the surrounding mythological and spiritual aura of 19th-century Dahomey and Brazil... Agôtime

is history, odyssey, and myth.... Judith Gleason’s great achievement

lies in telling a story that is both fabulous and true.” —David Rosenthal, The Nation

“Exceedingly valuable... probably the best description of the Mid-

dle Passage (the Africa-America section of the slaving route) ever written.... Mrs. Gleason has been diligent and imaginative, and has a firm grasp on both the cults of West Africa and Negro life in old

Brazil.”

—James Pope-Hennessy, The New York Times Book Review

_ “This book is many in one, a historical novel, an African folk legend combined with a tale of the occult, and a learned treatise of African

folk lore, complete with a glossary....A rare find.”

—Augusta Gottlieb, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

SBN 670-59065-7