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—"hexa-
grams 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 Awo-
tunde 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 informa-
tive 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 de-
finitive; 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: 72-90356
Printed in U.S.A.

The photographs on pages 21, 83, 193, 329 are reprinted

from the Occasional Papers of the UCLA Museum of
Cultural History, No. II, 1971, Black Gods and Kings:
Yoruba Art at UCLA, by Robert 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 sound,
once having begun,
may we continue to hear one another.
 & 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 101
8. Okanran Meji III
9. Ogunda Meji 123
10. Osa Meji 131
11. Ika Meji 139
12. Oturupon Meji 145
13. Otura Meji I51
14. Irete Meji 161
15. Oshe Meji 175
16. Ofun Meji 183
 Contents

JII
Castings
17. i-XVi 197
18. xvii—xxv 275

IV
Ifa Chants
Ifa Chants —English Version 333
Ifa Chants —Yoruba Version 335
BIBLIOGRAPHY 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) and aw (as in fog, which would be spelled fog in
Yoruba). S is pronounced sh; it is a separate 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, 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 Wenger’s house in Oshogbo where Id arrived, unan-
nounced, on a quixotic pilgrimage to the holy places 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 Awo-
tunde, 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 enter-
tained. 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 col-
laborate 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, accom-
panied 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 cast-
ings, 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 the night we played back the first tape. Was the
recording clear? And, since Ifa has a special way of saying things,
would a genuine communication unroll itself upon the flat thread
stretched across 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 Afri-
can 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 with-
out 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 pro-
fessed, 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 be-
fore 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 inter-
cultural 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 intel-
lectual 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 AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS [ 5

privacy as obsolete as the racist xenophobia that for so long 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 trans-
lator’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 ex-
perience, 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 in-
dorsements 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 diffi-
cult art of divination tended, for obvious reasons, to fall into dis-
use, 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 of Ifa aptitude and protection of Ọrunmila, the
oracular divinity. Half-chick, part-time, the consolation 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 collec-
tion 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 medici-
nal 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. Thomp-
son) has boosted me here on top of the wall that separates eager-
ness from understanding.
For the authenticity of the “virtual” content I take full respon-
sibility. I have tried to put down what Awotunde communicated as
honestly as I could, in my own vocabulary rather than in pseudo-
Yoruba 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. When-
ever 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 that look tedious written down, with a few allusions
referring the reader back to the beginning: “So the diviner
said. . . .” At these points I often varied the phraseology some-
what, not only because 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 commit-
ting 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 transla-
tion, 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 recita-
tion) and, with John’s help, to do some justice to that incompa-
rable 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, conversation-
ally, 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 “con-
vert” 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 alien-
ate, don’t read them.
Begging the nagging question of my own relation to the ma-
terial, at one point I asked John to write down how he felt about
the experience. What follows is his version of the paradis perdu.
As a child seeking education . . . there is the road to
school.
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 vir-
tually 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 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 Chris-
tian faith—so you know the rest! Yet, as a boy, I happened to
know of something more than the Christian religion offers. It
was before Christianity. 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 home-
land 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 wis-
dom—-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, degenera-
tion 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, where Ifa (a man’s cult), once
introduced, became the paramount teacher. As the strength of the
traditional divinities (orisa) wanes, 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 individ-
uals, 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, inter-
related, 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 Yor-
uba’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 sur-
1. Toufic Fahd, La Divination Arabe, Brille, Leiden, 1966, Part II, Chapt. 1
(passim).
 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 (it-
self 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 synop-
sis; 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 com-
bination 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 ($ ), the convex pieces
by a double symbol ($$).
12 | A Recitation of Ifa

4. Odi Meji
§ §
§§ $5
§§ = §§
§ §
9. Ogunda Meji 8. Okonron Meji

W im
§ §§ 8

§§ $$ § = §
14. Irete Meji 13. Otura Meji
§; 8 S $
à $s Yi Yi
§ :$ Y$ §

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 vari-
ous 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 DOES IFA WORK? [ 13

3. Iwori Meji 2. Oyeku Meji 1. Eji Ogbe

§§ $$ SS $$ S §
Wa $$
§§
WN $$
§§
"
§ $
7. Obara Meji 6 Ọwọrin Meji 5. Irosun Meji

NI WI. W
$ $ SS S$

§§ $$ § $ §§ $$
12. Oturupọn Meji II. Ika Meji 10. Ọsa Meji
§§ Ṣ$Ṣ$ SS S$$ LL S$$
y ri à À
SS S$$ SS $$ $S $
16. Ofun Meji 15. Ose Meji
§§ S$$ §
; $ §§ $$
§§ $$ ; $
§ $ SS $$

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. De-
ception (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 improvisation on
the binary theme, gained enormous currency in the medieval
Islamic world. Probably transmitted by Arab scholars at Gondé-
Shapour and Baghdad in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., geo-
mancy 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 re-
finements of the systems numerical properties. In Europe the
secret science was consciously correlated with astrology and al-
chemy. From the first of these sisters it had already, from antiquity,
absorbed the notion of “houses,” and from the second it borrowed
a psychic daring along with a nomenclature into which to tease
Arabic-terminology-in-translation away from culturally restricted
meanings.
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 re-
ceivers. 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 deriva-
tion of tabular readings in specific cases, have been ingeniously
retained by the Yoruba diviners. They are symbols of cosmic or-
ganization (roughly: life, death, impetus, and containment).
No one knows how or when the Yoruba acquired the geo-
mantic rudiments from which Ifa developed. Popular migration-
myths 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 edu-
cated 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 con-
tinuous 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-person-
alities. 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 pre-
vent 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 indi-
vidual fate at the time of birth, and often to other divinities as
well—placatory offerings to witches. Eshu takes the prescribed sac-
rifices 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 are imbalances, which energies must be
released by what means to right them? All these are not equivalent
to changing fate.
For each of the 256 signs-in-combination there are, in prin-
ciple, 16 “rows” of discourse—each of which contains a case in
the common law 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 considera-
tion, casts and inscribes the resulting double figure, then begins
to recite the first row that comes to mind, then another—until,
when the shoe fits, the patient puts it on.
Ideally, the sign that comes 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 nega-
tive quality of life means different things in different perspectives,
18 | A Recitation of Ifa

so the courses of action to be undertaken differ accordingly. Be-

ginning 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 re-
cite 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 excep-
tional 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 super-
structure 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 mag-
ical 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 precip-
itated it). Discouraged by the seemingly unavoidable cumbersome-
ness in translation of this elegant little phrase, I sent John Ogun-
dipe an SOS. Upon which he came up with the following comment:

In every Yoruba religion there is a special greeting used exclu-

sively 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 grace-

ful 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, occa-
sionally, “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 person-
age is Orunmila himself.) Some, notably Bascom and his inform-
ants, 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 sacri-
fice 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 , convex pieces by the
symbol © .

1231
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 [ 25

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.
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 wake to greet you in the morning,

Ifa, I wake to greet you in my regalia,
Ifa, I wake to greet you with the entire army,
Ifa, I wake to greet you with my six titles, six retainers.
With my good character I greet
him most worthy of honor;
I greet the divinity of the white cloth,
I greet the master of the sacrificial knife,
I greet house where I live,
I greet road
 EJI OGBE [ 27
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,
28 1 Major Odu: The First Four

Can't top me;

Sacrifice, they said.
Wherever I turn, wherever I twist. . . .
Stealthily outruns death. . . .
Made Ifa for Fly—
On top of the world I'll alight with sticky feet,
Sacrifice, 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 [ 31

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,
32 | Major Odu: The First Four

Ponderous encounter with the comfortably robed

who steadily, steadily weathers his troubles

may we not die a sudden death

may our feet be placed correctly
may we find our way
through 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 [ 33

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
34 1 Major Odu: The First Four
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 [ 35

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?
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 af-
firmed 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 an-
cestors. 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, rele-

2. The invocations, as opposed to the epigraphs, are traditional. My source

for them was Bernard Maupoil, La Géomancie à l’Ancienne Côte des Es-
claves, 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, Travaux
et Mémoires de l’Institut d’Ethnologie, XLII (1943), p. 450.
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 by an aggressive younger brother while his
senior (Obatala) slept drunkenly.$ Legends 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, the sixteenth odu,
share the same fate, partake of the same mystery.
These two divinities have, of course, other roles to play 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 as Egun, as ancestral
guardian spirits.
Oyeku’s way is called “crooked,” meaning both devious and

5. Ibid., pp. 560-561.

6. For an extended treatment of this story in English see Judith Gleason,
Orisha: The Gods of Yorubaland, Atheneum, New York, 1971.
 EJI OGBE [ 39

circular. Obatala's way is a purified version of this, being digres-

sive, 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 ac-
cess 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 of life in man, however, that which animates him, is
manifested as breath. Eji Ogbe, speaking of all three moments 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 experi-
ence. 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 (to-
gether 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 ambi-
guity 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 correspond-
ing 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 “in the be-

ginning” as the first verse of the first major odu?:
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 involv-
ing 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 gen-
erate new psychic energy which, in freeing the individual ego from
“check,” at the same time recharges all the potentially opposing
9. Awotunde did not observe this precedent.
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 trans-
ference 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 chil-
dren. 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 des-
tiny, 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 Para-
noid 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 some-
where read that Oshun, mother of Orunmila, was not the river but a famous
witch of that name. Both identifications are simultaneously possible. Oshun
has a right to certain “secrets.” One of her daughters is the proper wife for
a babalawo.
 EJI OGBE [ 43

oracle. Coal is after all black; but 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 pal-
ace, so that he may, if he chooses, sacrifice them in the same man-
ner, 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 mes-
senger 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 per-
son; 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. Thus Oshe Tura, when pressed, comes up with an
animal.
The narrative at this point turns to reflect once more upon
Odu, Orunmila’s mother/wife who, aging, performed at his insist-
ence 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 con-
sort, 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 con-
cludes 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 fin-
ished 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 has rotted away
May come along now.
Hid-in-the-hinterland built the place
where shimmering fish scales shield the heat
You who have promises to keep
come along, it’s time to 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-are-
ready
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 [ 49
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,
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 [ 51
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?
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 the head of mimosa tree:

Albizza has two thousand humiliators,
Albizza, which alternative?
Albizza has two 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-with-
red;
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 [ 55

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
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 de-
stroyer, 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 imper-
sonated 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 as-
sociation 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 gov-
ernment?—all remind the listener of Oyeku’s and Obatala’s desti-
nies, of the human condition generally, of the situation of the re-
incarnate human soul.
The recitation of Oyeku Meji given here is a remarkable con-
tinuum, 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 unspeak-
able 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 of Egba Traditional Authorities,”
Africa, XXII (1952).
3. Bascom, Ifa Divination, Chapt. 10.
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 they
are, so that we unknowingly break them.
Oyeku, speaking of witches, speaks of insanity. (Oyeku Ose
is the sign governing madmen.) The dissolution of the mind un-
der stress, particularly under stress of obscure guilt feelings, fear
of betwitchment, is no less within Oyeku’s province than dissolu-
tion 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 are, in
Yoruba, a synthesis of sound and kinetic vision:

Esinkanrin aboran edidi lorun a difa fun baba

A faala we mo Lese iwèrèrè iwèrèrè o hanyin.

Proper avoidances might have prevented, and proper sacri-

fices, chants, and medicines may cure such 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 Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence du Culte d’iyémi
Osoronga,’ Journal de la Société des Africanistes, XXXV, 1 (1965), p. 145.
5. T. Adeoye Lambo in Leighton, Lambo, Hughes, Leighton, Murphy, and
Maclin, Psychiatric Disorder Among the Yoruba, Cornell University Press,
Ithaca, New York, 1963, p. 104.
6. Maupoil, op. cit., pp. 549-550.
 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 ver-
sion 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 of how verb tenses can be shifted to show,
with remarkable succinctness, swift passage of time and moral
consequence, further illustrated by Awotunde’s warning 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 thunder-
struck 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, be-
hind 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 en-
emy, measures his words, or keeps proportion in the form of a tit for
a tat—thrust and parry, words matched with deeds. “Fetch and
carry, a more esoteric name for Oyeku Meji, points to a second
7. Bascom, Ifa Divination, pp. 246-249.
8. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 100.
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 un-
seen), 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 indis-
pensable 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
cowries,
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.
 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 crea-
tively 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 sym-
bols 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 con-
tained 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 worship-
ers. 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 (para-
digms 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 Yoruba metaphysics of accommodation and resolution
could only come after the passage of the gods 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 aggres-
sion 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 Earth-
tortoise (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, Rout-
ledge, 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 to-
day 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 under-
stand the process of sublimation by which impetus becomes pro-
ductive—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 undiffer-
entiated 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 subsequent are

haunted by the shadow of sterility.

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-mar-
row-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 associ-
ated 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 vul-
gar level as Hyena or Jackal) into which Ogo, for his crimes, was

4. Bascom, Ifa Divination, p. 289.

5. McClelland, op. cit.
6. Lydia Cabrera, Anag6, Vocabulario Lucumi, Miami, 1970, Coleccién del
Chihereka, p. 176.
7. Genevieve Calame-Griaule, Dictionnaire Dogon, Librarie C. Klincksieck,
Paris, 1968, pp. 209-210.
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 en-
nobled on the banks of the upper Senegal were planted between the
Volta and the lower Niger wherever the fertility of the soil per-
mitted—long before the triumphal entry of the yam into the for-
ested 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 dur-
ing 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 situ-
ation 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 imag-
inable.
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 Cultural History,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959, p. 245 (and passim).
9. Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, Le Renard Pále, Travaux et
Memoires de l'Institut d'Ethnologie, LXXII (1965), pp. 211-216.
10. Mary Alicia Owen, ed., Voodoo Tales, G. P. Putnam, New York, 1893,
Chapt. 12.
 IWORI MEJI [ 71

who would 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 con-
cluding 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 ori-
fices are active symbols in their own right, for we are dealing here
not only with the human sexual act but with the formation of liv-
ing 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 un-
der 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 the ground, outside of
town. The Yoruba word for geomancy is wiwo 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 going
Cast Ifa for Gong sounds gong-sound
on the day he set off
for Sough-sayer’s house
to see things.
Now Sough-sayer was sobbing he had no children, hanyin

[ 73 |
74 1 Major Odu: The First Four
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 I 75

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
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 knowl-
edge, 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 de-
fine a completed space—the outness of in. Under her aegis, hole
becomes pot, a self-contained container with ambivalent propensi-
ties 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 di-
vided 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 trans-
lates 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. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 460.
4. 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.
Awotunde’s recitation takes the form of a black-humorous
saga of the stubborn questioner’s quest. 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 a different set of tones he would be a bellows, or bellows
maker. Elewi is, clearly, a descendant 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 practic-
ing 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
another sort. What do the children his fertile wife produces have
to do with him? They are but counterparts of the immortality he
wants. Here 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), and Eshu, here doing his horny old
man’s swastika dance.’

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 a rapid count by twos
of random lines is made, a remainder 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 com-
pleted. Why this traditional Ifa-perversity? Awotunde’s recitation
contains the kernel of an explanation.
Sough-sayer is so infuriated by the logical—which he consid-
ers 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 num-
bers 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 tire-
less womb transformed into an enclosure within which sits the
container of existence, which in turn stores four calabashes con-
taining symbols of the first four odu—-primary symbols of divine
(the “other” ) reality.
The four stages of containment (within, within, 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 transi-
tional 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 reci-
tation 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 of sacramental
fruit. But they are still shadows of the final thing: the palm of
life, which provides everything one needs, most importantly the
counters of Ifa divination. Now we may sit down at the base of
that tree and feast, defy death, defy disease, sing the song of re-
versal of all ills that were not meant to be. Greetings.
 ITI
Major Odu:
The Next Twelve
 & 5 ojẹ.

Irosun Weji
A

| TO ©
| JLTOTO
AA,

AAA
7

mms 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,
You don’t have to strike twice with this cutlass,
cast Ifa for destitute Eko-seller
told her to sacrifice—become rich before dimity
told her to sacrifice okra, oranges, cold water
and 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 stand-
ard, 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, con-
tains the immanent possibility of reversal, of refutation.
The perilousness of this condition, of our situation as we at-
tempt 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 sym-
metry are the more dangerous for concealing or deflecting atten-
tion 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 fires at the end of the dry
season.) As the front moves down towards 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 MEJI [ 89
§ §§
Jrosun | 180 degrees, you get Oworin 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 im-
perative 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 him-
self 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 etymo-
logical company with tree, bird, fire, and dreams—signs of its affili-
ation 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 a thing as spiritual malaria, then the Irosun personality
suffers from it, chronically. However, as always, 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, Dictionary of Modern Yoruba, University of London Press,
1958, p. 316.
3. Some Nigerian Woods, published by the Federal Ministry of Information,
Lagos, 1962, p. 44. Dust upon which signs have been written is imbued with
their force and may also be “medicinally” employed.
4. Abraham, loc. cit.
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 ingredients is a favorite food of Shango’s; its seeds imply
prolixity. Expansion, extension of the self, can counterbalance self-
absorbed depression. The oba’s parallel case (deftly anticipated in
the midst of Eko-seller’s story) suggests affliction as the product
of faulty self-evaluation. Note that he is the King of Oyo who
5. Maupoil, op. cit., p. 469.
6. 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 au-
thority (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 some-
one who, ironically, can embody no more and no less than the com-
bined 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
A

COL 17
COL 17
LA A;

AAA
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 |
94 1 Major Odu: The Next Twelve
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 [ 95

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.
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 provoca-
teur 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 divi-
sion 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 claustro-
phobic 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 pre-
pared 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 es-
tablished 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, re-
minds 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 con-
centrations are found in the persons of kings and priests, who “rep-
resent” 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 bril-
liance 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, University of California at Los Angeles, No. 2
(1971) (passim).
 OWORIN MEJI [ 99

smolders longer, will burn on beneath his chthonic ant-heap time

out of mind—long after all other fires are put out, long after the
very seas have dried. This is why the final chorus takes the form
it does; as the diviner says, this, lest we forget the primacy of earth,
is the meaning of Oworin Meji."

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 re-
jected 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|
102 | 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 dare not go.

Water-carriers on their way to the river,
O Orunmila, how can I go with them?
I must take care of my father’s kind
bind them together
my father’s velvet |
hands spinning in unison, gbogbogbo
104 | 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 [ 105
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.
106 | 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 [ 107
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.
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. Accord-
ing 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 be-
half 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 The Yoruba word for civilization, it will be re-
membered, 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 Tradi-
tional 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 in-
tensity 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, slave-
of-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 | 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 [ 115
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.
II61 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 aspira-
tion 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 transcen-
dence.
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 At-
lantic, Shango in some places (Recife, for example, or Trinidad)

1. This is not to say that all orisha-worship does not involve the release of
repressed emotion, that of Obatala in an especially subtle way. See Lambo,
op. Cit.
118 | 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 astrol-
ogy 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 Ofun, although in differ-
ent positions, share the same rank—an anomaly 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 to reason; and Okanran Meji, the will to
transcendence, the way of orisha worship as a religion of posses-
sion. In the shell system of divination (hereafter called Dilogun),?
these signs actually take reversed places: eight is one and one is
eight; the extreme, the mean; the trough, the crest of the wave.

2. Sociohistorical conditions are 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 Accultura-
tion 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 Egyp-
tians embalmed within the body. Take heart, take courage; hearts
ardor is loyalty. The verb ron describes the effect of fire as fed by
wind: something “caught” fire, the conflagration “spread.” Intransi-
tively it means “to bask,” the reflexive validation seen in the Ifa
images of the fly on the brass tray, and the promoted slave seem-
ing 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 divin-
ity. Shango’s divided personality is full of conceits of validation
through opposition and consummation. Outraged dispenser of jus-
tice in a thunderbolt, he annihilates the liar because he could
never, until the end, accept the truth about himself. As a divinity
he permits his priests to exercise a certain tyranny over those whom
human society will accept as legitimate victims of his wrath, be-
cause 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 me-
teorological 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 the horns of the sacrificial animal,
4. E. Bolaji Idowu, Olodumare, Praeger, New York, 1963, p. 170.
5. In Brazil he is most often linked with the solstitial saint, John the Baptist.
The identification is, of course, equally apt.
120 | 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 vio-
lent 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 per-
sonality as expressive of reversal, inversion. The humorous tale
of Cock-a-doodle conceals a dangerous bit of sorcery, the mecha-
nism 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 con-
tainers 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 con-
sultations 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 tem-
pered by the calm virtue implicit in water. This control is symbol-
ized by the alternately-strung red and white beads all devotees of
the thunder orisha wear to commemorate the time Obatala was dis-
honored 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) according to
Maupoil’s informants, is “the first word.” “Word” here (oron)
means “affair” (“to do” or “to be done”), also “trouble,” which brings
us back to Eji Ogbe (“mine is important, mine is important,” the
cry of the gray heron) whose triumph over stagnation must be an-
nounced again and 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 Divine King,” African Arts/
Arts d'Afrique, III, 3 (Spring, 1970) (passim).
9. This odu provides another interesting parallel between the cosmic world-
view 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 ]
124 | 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 of odu action in which
the original conflicts between earth and sky, female and male, fire
and water are brought into sharper focus as a struggle between
witchcraft and Ifa functions, as the wresting of mantic power from
earth, from women. Osa is the sign of the crescent moon, Ose of
the decrescent. And between these two, from the tenth to the fif-
teenth 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 Mer-
cury, 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 earth-
surface. 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 divina-

tion will be discussed below. Suffice it to say here that Ogunda is
related to Irete as hammer to anvil, as sacrificial knife to victim,
as road to forest.
The cycle that Ogunda begins consists of six signs that look
back to Obara and Okanran 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; for-
ward 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, destina-
tion, 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 hemi-
sphere—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 be-
fore,” 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 di-

1. 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 to-
gether. 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 a while, but Ogun is famous for striking at once
while his iron is hot. Like Prometheus, this 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 pre-
scribed 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 in-
timate 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 the avatars of Ogun is the sacred python whom certain women
dedicated to his worship must carry around their necks as they wander
about—mute pythonic witnesses to their lord’s conquest on behalf of the
world order represented by Ifa.
128 | 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 display-
ing 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, herb-
alist, 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 ejacula-
tion 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 em-
blem is made of hoes beaten together by certain blacksmiths to
form a staff suggesting both phallic and quadrate aspects of fer-
tility and integration. It is said that Ogunda Meji was born when
the god of iron, on a visit to Oko, ravished a woman with such
violence that he broke her." (It was Eshu who put her together
again—Eshu the mercurial amalgamator. )

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 be-
tween 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 MEJI [ 129

Akoko (Newboldia Laevis), the philosophical tree against

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” (ako-lo-Oko), among others. The hero-diviner goes to
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, reintro-
duced here in another mode? Suppose the invader in this case to
have been a geomantic system of divination from “the east.” Sup-
pose another system of divination (by shells), as well as the medi-
cine 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 tell-
ing 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 your-
self 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 ]
132 | 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.
134 | 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 [ 135
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 am I, Laisi, child of Osa Meji
May no mother of ours. . . .
May we be. . ..
May 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!
136 | 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 vari-
ous hysterias brought about by neglect or inadvertent incitement
of that most dreaded anger.’ The Gelede masquerades of the far-
southwestern 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, al-
ways 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 Men-
tal 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 Yor-
uba: 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 gain-
ing 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 bean-
cake 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 be turned
into “blessing” under the following circumstances. When the psy-
chotic patient arrives he is immediately put on a special diet that
4. Before I had studied any Ifa verses on the subject, this truth was her-
alded by a student, Margaret Wellington, who pointed to a piece in the
Museum of Natural History marked “Obatala” and said, “Look, Jung’s 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.
138 | 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 of merely hearing of a pact, we were
compelled to make one.
The cutlass of the final song belonged to Obatala who gave it
to Orunmila out of gratitude for the calming of witches with hos-
pitable beancake. It is used, alternately 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, Orisha’s cutlass rings out danger, rings
in healing, rings in calm strong enough to control bad magic all
over the land.

6. Raymond Prince, “Curse, Invocation and Mental Health among the Yor-
uba,” Canadian Psychiatric Journal, 2 (1960), pp. 65-79.
7. Verger, “Grandeur et Décadence . . . ,” p. 225.
 + 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
140 | 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 [ 141

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
142 | 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 grip iniquity
Aka leaves 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 I 143

divining board. However, were they not erased, no new signs could
appear; Ika, therefore, insures sequence, a clean slate.

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. Hypoc-
risy 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 se-
quence 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 re-
duced to rigid reiteration of protective formulas—brilliantly con-
veyed 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 meaning-
less. 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 el-
lipses in the translation. Fair enough, let the secret kernel rest; we
were fortunate in having been permitted a glimpse of the integu-
ment. What follows must therefore be regarded as even more con-
jectural 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 un-
grateful 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 fash-
ioned into one of their vessels of transformation. If these associa-
tions 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 wor-
shiper. 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).
148 | 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 guard-
ian 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 cham-
ber 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 re-
calls 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 or-
der 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 coin-
cides 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 divi-
nation, 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 con-
trol 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 [ 149

entered Libra? According to Maupoil, the first scapegoat was of-

fered under Irete Meji, sign of the earth’s fate. But in Oturupon
Meji Maupoil stumbled upon a most extraordinary myth: Orun-
mila, beset with melancholia, consulted Ifa for himself. 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 his own, Eshu took
he-goat’s indestructible head and placed it in a jar turned upside
down upon his shoulders. And worn by Eshu, that jar was discov-
ered to contain the sun. (To the king of death Orunmila’s mother
gave a ripe fruit; this became his head. )°
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 of the four directions is congruent
with his.? Odi-Ogunda (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
place, “witches’ room,” with Irosun, which is in twelfth place in the original
geomantic system. In astrology, as in geomancy, this position connotes en-
emies, the self mobilized to meet all the confining factors of existence, the
threat of death, psychic disintegration, the intractable animality loose in
150 Ì Major Odu: The Next Twelve

one might say, where Ogun had first been, his successor emerged
—weightless, numberless, humorous, particular, personal-imper-
sonal, 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 ubiq-
uitous 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 Iro-
sun turns blind; instead of touching your eyelids with chalk, listening to
Oturupon you close them.
 eje 13 pa

Otura Meji
PA

©O©O©
©©O©
AAA—
VVV

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]
152 | 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 [ 153

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.
154 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 [ 155

descendant of Oduduwa's fourth son.

—Our king is grieved because his wife cannot accomplish her
labor.
—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.
156 | 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 indi-
rection. 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 incan-
tation. 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. Shells are how
Eshu sizes up.
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 three-
fold, 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, The History of the Yorubas, C.M.S. Book-
shops, Nigeria, 1922, Chapt. 5.
158 | 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 (like Babatunde, “father comes
again”). The third name 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 per-
son defined as an intersection of various divisions.

The night naming scene of the second part of this recitation ironi-
cally 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 determination and free will in the
beginning stage of “character.” Orunmila’s 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 associ-
ated 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 win-
ner 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 etymolog-
ical 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 ap-
portioning 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
A

6 66
©O©O
OL
AA,

AAA
W
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 |
162 | 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 [ 163

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
164 | 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 I 165

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,
166 ] 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?
168 1 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 in-
tellect when, the primary divisions having been accomplished, sym-
bolic 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 uni-
verse 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 defer-
ence 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 ex-
ercise of personal power, which, hopefully, may be extended from
generation to generation by the establishment of a numerous fam-
ily. But Irete Meji is also an important chapter in the history of
witches. It is the configuration under which their riches were allo-
cated, 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 mainte-
nance 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 conduct. The place of Irete’s
birth is Emere, which means “reborn spirit,” the wild-wood counterpart of
abiku.
170 | 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, ante-
lope; 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 life-
time may eventually be worshiped as a clan-founder. This animat-
ing 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 tree at whose roots, then, this um-
bilical force is buried becomes the tree 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 en-
ergy. 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, Vol. II, Northwestern University Press,
Evanston, Ill., 1967, pp. 250-255.
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 in-
ference 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, dis-
tributes bird-power to the calabash-holders on the day of their initial
descent to earth.* In our mythical Ido, women’s powers are being
exercised destructively, earth’s powers corruptly, and 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. Dis-
membered 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 umbilical-
longevity. 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 substi-
tuted 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 Awotunde says he learned this story,
are authorities on human 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 com-
pared, 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 him-
self 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 with
the other, may unite to produce a column of evens (oyeku).

SS + §§ = AS
S + § = §
§ + § = §§
SS + §§ = §§
For example, according to the binary method of computation ap-
plied 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 al-
though 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 col-
umn 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 Formelle; Cahiérs de l]Homme—Ethnologie-Geogra-

phie-Linguistique—N.S. IV, Mouton, Paris. For 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 rep-
resent the numbers four and eight—the extreme limits of the possibilities
contained within the system. Life and death: their interdependence is dram-
atized 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” calcu-
lation.
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 asso-
ciated 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 Meji." For a version in

English of the Yemoja story, see Gleason, Orisha.
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—passive-

ness 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 covering the earth. By
uniting with Elegba, Oshe produced the first non-twin (Oshe-Tura),
the messenger, who had to provide 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 particularly
as the waves of conflict that eventually overwhelmed Yorubaland
at the close of the nineteenth century.
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 (in reversed order), who seem
to be a premonition of the pair Oshe-Ofun.

_ — §§ § § §§
—— $ D _ Ṣ$ §§ §
_ — §§ §§ § §§
§ § §§ §
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. Astrolog-
ical 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 Geo-
mancie 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-nor-
there 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, the war between Ibadan and Ekiti is one that Orunmila
would rather lose, both sides being inevitable 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 deter-
mine 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 +

Ofun Meji

©
A

AAA
A

ki

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 mid-
July
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 re-
gained, 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. (red powder), Ogun—charcoal powder,

1. This story of Oshe Oyeku is taken from Verger’s “Grandeur et Déca-

dence . . ., pp. 230-251.
 OFUN MEJI [ 189

and Oduduwa—mud.? 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 last, the con-
tainer of them all. The egg within becomes the womb, passivity
becomes creativity personified. Surely this is part of the meaning
of the orisha Obatala as Ofun.?
2. “Four stages (in the alchemical process) are distinguished, characterized
by the original colours mentioned in Heraclitis. . . . Later, about the fif-
teenth 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 (sec-
ond 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 neces-
sitating at least one duplication. In this learned Arab arrangement, the dupli-
cation is the sign known in Ifa as Obara—Oshumare’s surplus of riches and,
esoterically, the unstable product of a forbidden conjunction. The meta-
physical implications of this setup in the context of Ifa make it seem likely
that the learned order is well-known to certain babalawo, perhaps independ-
ently 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 de-
gree of self-knowledge—that is, the profoundest understanding of
Ifa. Only such diviners may install the terribly powerful calabash
8 6 5 4 3 2 I

Cboron
R PTT
nu nu mi
IJI un
| CH II
2HI-j Tu Ho
li lol IL Il tow Il li TINI
li | | | | | | |
NN WUN Wi Wi Wi
L | | | |
12 II 10 9
JIN li
! (+)
WN,
I
nu
Hoo (+) Ho
tIl
JIN loo YA ot
| | | |
_ | |
| | | |
| |
14 I
wy ji
li (+) li
li too
I5
HI
_ li
noon
li
7 | For the fifteenth figure
1%=—15+10r | | the parenthetical = the “real”
| |
Diagram adapted from J. C. Hébert, “Analyse Structurale des Geoman-
cies ..., p. 154.

meaning of the story under discussion here. Note in the diagram that the
four roads represented by the four calabashes have special status as “prod-
ucts” of the first eight signs and are the figures we know as Iwori, Odi,
Irosun and Oworin. Below them are paired Ogunda and Otura—“witnesses”
before the Judge in the Arab terminology, 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 initia-

tion, and because it is a moment of illuminaton when all colors
merge into white, the symbols of the orisha themselves, the direc-
tions, the elements, shift and merge—causing confusion to the un-
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 divini-
ties—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 at once, to look back to the moment of one’s own
conception, to grasp—from this new 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 hidden affiliations between their wisdom
and that which proceeded forth from Babylon. For here in the third
part of the recitation, the orisha appear as constellations and plan-
ets.5 Again we leave the dispensation 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. (Mau-
poil, op. cit., p. 462.)
6. “It is worth pointing out that a remarkable change occurs during the regi-
men 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 in-
fant’s belly, swells and is purified, and because of the great purity of the com-
pound, 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, Rout-
ledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970 (second edition), p. 289.
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 ran-
dom 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 con-
tinue casting until we obtained sixteen discreet combinations (ex-
cluding double figures and duplicates, although we eventually de-
cided 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 se-
quence 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 re-
sponded 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

[ 195]
196 | Castings

me by the scruff of the mind. A friend suggested that readers new

to Yoruba religions would appreciate a sense of personal involve-
ment on the part of someone conventionally educated into their
own, vastly different, tradition. I agreed. Perhaps this is the ex-
tended 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 inten-
tion 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 dis-
appear. 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.

[ 197 1
198 | 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 [ 199

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;
200 | 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,
202 | 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 trans-

form 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 com-
mon 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 per-
sonage, 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 unify-
ing 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|
206 | 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 mean-

ing 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 tempera-

ment.) 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 sec-
ond 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 cov-
ered 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.

[ 209 1
210 | 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 [ 211

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
212 | 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 the hero of stories for this odu by Bascom’s in-
formants.? In one case its Frog himself who is rainmaker, like the
divinity who rules him.
“Pride goeth 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.
214 | 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;

[ 215 1
216 | 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 I 217

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.
218 | 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 even-
tually arrives, a fixed look at dissolution.
Experience teaches, but there is a profound need for author-
ity, for someone to take hold, for someone or something to take
over. In certain situations a long wait is advisable; in others it be-
comes 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 struggle between opposing temporal authorities
comes, I think, from the combination 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, an-
cestors, 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 short, a civi-
lized performance.
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. How, when, and 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 evalu-
ation.
 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 the mouths of his opponents
Corn tassels like flames do not singe the farmer
Corn shucks shut up mouths of his opponents
Yam blossoms in profusion don’t confuse the farmer
Yam blossoms close mouths _ tie up his opponents
So Orunmila’s luck turned
against his enemies
victorious.

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 I 223

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).
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
him
four girls
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
time
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!
 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 . . . offer-
ings are brought to Eshu by Olori ẹru (literally, “slave of the
four directions”; professionally, "head of the king’s messen-
gers’) who for the occasion must be completely naked. . . .
226 | Castings

The ilari (king’s messengers as a group) are also dependent

upon a special type of Eshu called baba sigidi . . . a mass of
clay in human form, a powerful talisman which works for
both 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 suf-
focates its victim. To “carve” one of these clay images from Ifa’s
palm tree is of course an absurdity.
That this odu should have turned up in fifth place is not sur-
prising. The fifth house in traditional geomancy speaks of children,
of passions (including intellectual devotions and compulsions),
and “gives information on the content and value of books and
other writings.” So up pops Eshu, teacher of the art of divination
to men, Eshu the father of lies and 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 imag-
ination 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 as-
pect; 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 dwell-
ings 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. Verger, Notes . . . , pp. 115-116.

2. 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 ad-
justment to difficult circumstances generally. Oworin Meji, in sixth
place, is where sits Babaluaye, patron of chronic diseases, epi-
demics, and gastrointestinal disorders. 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
making a sacrifice to “instantaneous action,” Awotunde simply
could not go on with the recitation of this odu. Ogun's son, ham-
mer, 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 sim-
ply 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 schizo-
phrenic 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, Faith and
Healing, ed. Ari Kiev, The Free Press, New York, 1964, p. 87.
3. Ibid.
 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 [ 235

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
who dances fiercely in the dawning
circling his sword—
watch out!
down it comes!
Why has she borne no children?
Told to sacrifice a water jug
an adult hen
and four bags of cowries
then walk along the road to Oshun’s river.
They began having children
truly distinguished sons and daughters
dancing, singing, praising the diviners,
So they said
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-fish-
fertilizer
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: duration, attachment, release into
life (the cord Ogun cuts), the cord buried beneath the tree of
wealth, a rope thrown to the future.
 Tit
Ogbe Otura

$ §
§§ $
§ §
§ §
the second inning

Greetings for the sacrifice. Our unconventional companion,

Ogbe Alara and artful dodger
now assumes the name
Ogbe Omura 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 Castings

He will bypass that wife/that punishment/suffering

He will bypass poverty/what’s done is done
and go to sleep. 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
Give your wife the slip
There’s always your mother
Turn in
Tune out
Dodge punishment, poverty
Shed your old clothes
Sleep well
Sleep tight
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 real-
ized that just as there would be significant repetitions of the com-
binations, 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 accord-
ing 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
pocket:
Blue touraco, carry us home
No one journeys, without returning
Blue touraco, carry us home
And Blue touraco did so.
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,

[ 247 1
248 1 Castimgs

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 [ 249
(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
250 | Castings

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 in-
deed speak of one's relation to authority generally, then the super-
diviner’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 submis-
sion. 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|
252 | Castings

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 [ 253

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
254 | Castings

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 au-
thority 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 self-
stress, 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 ter-
ribly 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 Odi Osa, is rich in associ-
ations—with women, with magic, with dirge songs and clappers,
with Ogun.
 i
Ogbe Irosun

§ §
§ §
$E. Ṣ
S$ $

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
256 | Castings

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
offspring;
So when Gong-gong wakes up he says,
Only one, one antidote
And when Rattle wakes up he says,
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, whispering, whispering )
Gong-gong wakes up: One, one antidote
Rattle wakes up: Cautious one, cautiously
Camwood soughs 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

[ 259 1
260 | Castings

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 re-
mind us, has its counterpart in heaven—which is why Ifa's em-
blems convey spiritual truth, which is why the correct medicine
(based on analogy, or “correspondence” ) is effective, why substitu-
tional 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 remark-
able 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 ]
264 1 Castimgs

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 Verg-
er's paper on medicinal leaves. Note the double-bladed relation
here between Orunmila and the other divinities: he insists on re-
maining 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 thieves steal me,
Ifa save me Ifa save me Ifa,
Don’t let them break,
Don’t let 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 imagina-
tion, to pinpoint our own sufferings in this direction.
Apprentice is the person who carries the bag for his master. Al-
though 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, sorcer-
ers 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 trans-
formation 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 en-
vironment?—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. E$
SS $$

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 |
272 | Castings

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 rela-
tions 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.

[ 275 ]
276 | Castings

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 des-
tination, 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 [ 277

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
278 1 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-
280 | Castings

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 to get together the materials for sacrifice, and
he said he would go into the forest for the proper leaves. We con-
tinued casting (the following three in this series). The next time
we met he brought the leaves (the 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 immedi-
ately came up with Ofun Osa, speaking of Oya. . . .”
As for the second instance: note that for the first and only
time Awotunde substituted the word “road” (ona) for “row,” thus
confirming, as it were, Ifa’s intention at this point 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 en-
ergy 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, de-
vouring 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 re-
lated 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,

[ 283 1
284 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 [ 285
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
286 | 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 “blood-
brother 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 dis-
orientation known as arankan—“hardheadedness.”? Such disorders
befit the instability previously discussed in connection with Okan-
ran 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 em-
bedded in both rows. Agbonrin (literally, “spotted chin”) means
“antelope.” Agbon means “coconut.” Both are associated with Orun-
mila, with longevity, and with looking before you leap. The varie-
gation of the underwear Honor-befits is left with is an important
quality. Here it might be thought of as instantaneous intermittency
—the visual counterpart of the way Okanran does things. Iwori, it
will be remembered, is often associated with getting yourself into
a hole, with unreasoning, abortive acts of aggression to which cer-
tain wild animals are prone.
 XIX
Ogunda Irosun

Crt?
Once more to praise Ogunda Irosun—Do you see the road Ifa
traveled? . ..
Expecting, expecting
until my ear dwindled to a hairpin
deafened by silence sprouted like a seed yam

I craned my neck until I looked like gray heron

And the stalk worried itself

stretching up through the window
to peek into the house fell into the soup pot
and accompanied yam
to the stomach

Made Ifa for Postponed indulgence

One who shall fondle the baby tomorrow

(Though regular as the moon the tide flowed out

she never became full completely )

Will it grab hold?

Will she have a child? 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 | Castings

Waiting, expecting any minute

until my ear dwindled off
Craning, stretching long, thin
until my neck heroined
Stalk stretched up to take a look
saw into the house fell into the pot
of soup yammering
Made Ifa for Put off cuddling
your child until tomorrow

Droopy-eyed seamstress awaiting commissions

with twelve hundred needles and pins
sew me a garment to protect my baby
Vigilant vuz-peg with fourteen hundred
barbed protections keep away evil
Mild character ally yourself
with white orisha Unimpeded
let pregnancy grow gourd on the ground
trailing tendril as sash’s wound
Hedgehog, bind me to my child
Palm frond, unfold Spiky leaf catch hold
Hedgehog, let my 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 ]
292 1 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. 465
§ §
S $$
§ §

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,

[ 293 1
294 | Castings

and asked his wife to eat.

You too,
formicator,
dig in;
Listen,
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 [ 295

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,
296 | Castings

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
on the back of my woman!
Ofun apply power that I may engender a son
 OFUN OSA [ 297
Help her. body change yesterday, today, tomorrow
Together astravelersso burrs to clothing
She tome child to mother along the road 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—
298 | Castings

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 [ 299

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,
300 | Castings

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 [ 301

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;
302 | 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 reci-
tation for the leaves of Ofun Oyeku. The motivation of both di-
viner 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 in-
cantation, 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 every-

thing.
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 imag-
ery 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 call “Ofun’s theme song.” In
Ofun Oyeku this song was worked right into the plot; here it is sim-
ply recalled; so I have summarized it as “travel to Ifa often.” The re-
frain is an Ifa adaptation of a standard Yoruba proverb, which runs
“Those who know Ifa, don’t know Ofa [a town not far from Ilorin],
but Ifa is sought after in Ofa.” (Tone and vowel changes link Ofa
to a state of bondage, 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 syl-
lable 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.

304 | Castings

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 time, and I
would like to thank Awotunde now, as I probably did not properly
then, for the “overtime.” At this stage a good deal of tension had
developed, mainly over the vexing question of a goat 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 ex-
perience, 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 re-
solved 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
306 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 [ 307

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,
308 | 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 [ 309

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.
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 [ 311

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
312 | 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, she was at one
time married. This is her Hathor aspect.
 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 look-
out 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. Indis-
cretion (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,

[ 315 ]
316 | 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 [ 317

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”
318 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 aggres-
sive 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 (augmenta-
tions of his great power) are traditional. Awotunde does not go
into the second half of the story, the grand finale of the fight be-
tween 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 |
320 | 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 some-
thing, 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 out-
ranked 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 dis-
closed. 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 cus-
todian of his inheritor’s moral condition, psychic health, and abil-
ity 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 varia-
tion 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 inform-
ants, 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 commonly
prescribed for Moslem or Christian clients.
 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 baba-
lawo 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 per-
sonal 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 Awo-
tunde 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,

[ 325|
326 1 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 some-
one 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 re-
adjusted 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 cobble-
stones, 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. Be-
hind 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: Homage to the rain, homage to the rain

Chorus: Correct homage. Arriving at the farm,
we always pay homage to the rain;
Leader: Ifa, I offer homage, humility’s offering
Chorus: Correct homage. Arriving at the farm,
we always pay homage to the rain;
Leader: Wizard of the house, homage; Witch of the house, homage
Chorus: Correct homage. Arriving at the farm,
we always pay homage to the rain;
Leader: To first creation, homage, to the creator
Chorus: Correct homage. Arriving at the farm,
we always pay homage to the rain;
Leader: I shall not fail to strike the gong,
the right beat, unaltered
Chorus: A wealthy person’s to be honored,
striking iron, I shall not falter;
Leader: I shall dance gracefully, with dignity
Chorus: At Ifa’s festival I shall dance gracefully;
Leader: See how palm fruits cluster, heavily together
Chorus: As arich man’s fortified, so palm fruits cluster;
Leader: Head that holds divinity won't spoil
Chorus: Rich man’s fortified as palm fruits cluster;
Leader: Good fortune is master of suffering
Chorus: Traveler, rest a while at our house—
good fortune is master of suffering;
Leader: Owner of the road, which road? Road to utmost importance
Chorus: Road to utmost importance, the diviner sees it, owns it;
Leader: 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

[ 333|
334 1 Ifa Chants

Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Rejoice with arms partially extended
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Rejoice with small steps, shuffling
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Rejoice dances with head erect, like wild animal's
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Rejoice dances with tail thrust out, like wild animal's
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Our chorus responds to matters of importance
Chorus: Come, speak, the invisible is with us;
Leader: It’s ahome I want, of utmost importance
Chorus: Come, speak, the invisible is with us;
Leader: Wives I would have, of utmost importance
Chorus: Come, speak, the invisible is with us;
Leader: Mighty warrior, mighty warrior
Chorus: Great anthill is a mighty warrior;
Leader: Rain quenches fire like a mighty warrior
Chorus: Great anthill is a mightier warrior;
Leader: Owner of the load, come, carry it
Chorus: Before nightfall, come, carry it!
Leader: Homage to the rain, homage to the rain
Chorus: Correct homage. Quickly, to the farm, there pay homage;
Leader: From modest hamlet of Iresi comes Ifa
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Dancers, extend your arms for children
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Quickly, while the occasion offers
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Ifa accepts what we have done
Chorus: Rejoice!
Leader: Accepts our joy, accepts our dancing
Chorus: Rejoice!
 Ifa Chants—Yoruba Version

Leader: a juba 0jo, a juba òjò

Chorus: ee iba rere, b'á d’6ko, a si má júbà òjò
Leader: ifa mo juba re, irélé mo juba re
Chorus: ee iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba òjò
Leader: oso ile mo juba re, ajẹ ile mo júbà re
Chorus: ee iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba ojo
Leader: akoda mo juba re, aséda mo júbà re o
Chorus: iba rere, b’a d’6ko, a si má juba òjo
Leader: ng ko ni sailu, ng ko ni s’ailu
Chorus: olowo ni mba, se ng 6 ni sailu
Leader: ma jo wuké wüké, ma jo wükéwüké
Chorus: bare ba dare ifa o, ma jo wukéwuké
Leader: l'a b’ope lùjù, l'a b’ope lùjù
Chorus: olowo di janjan, l'a b'ọpẹ lùjù
Leader: ori oloriṣa, ko ni ṣori egbe o
Chorus: olowo di janjan, l'a b’ope lùjù
Leader: ire loga ìyà ire l'ògá iya
Chorus: ẹ̀rò yale wa o, ire loga ìyà
Leader: ọlénà ona, oléna oran
Chorus: ona Oran awo loye o, ọlọnà ona
Leader: ifa gba yi ti a ṣe
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: a o f'ọtun gbọmo jo
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: a o fòsì gbọmọ pon
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: àríyá o, àríyá o
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: ẹ yá tẹwọ ẹ gb'ọmọ
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: àríyá ṣ'ọwọ bembe
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: àríyá ṣ'ẹsẹ bọnbọ
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: àríyá f'ori j'ẹranko
Chorus: àríyá

1335 1
336 1 Ifa Chants

Leader: ariya f'iru jeranko

Chorus: ariya
Leader: ariya ṣ'oju kokoro
Chorus: ariya
Leader: elégbé oran, elegbe oran
Chorus: oran awo l'o ye o, elégbẹ̀ oran
Leader: 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: ẹlẹrù wa gbe o, ẹlérù wa gbe o
Chorus: odìdẹ̀ t'alẹ t'alẹ o, ẹlérù wa gbe o
Leader: ajúbà ojo, ajúbà ojo
Chorus: ìbà rere, b'a d'oko, a si má júbà òjò
Leader: n ile onírẹ̀sì n ifa
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: ẹ yá tewọ ẹ gbọmọ
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: ifa gbàyí t'a sẹ
Chorus: àríyá
Leader: ifa gb'ayò o gba'jô
Chorus: àríyá
 + Bibliography "

Suggested Further Reading

on Ifa:

Bascom, William, Ifa Divination, Indiana University Press, Blooming-

ton, 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 Univer-
sity 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, Mal-
gaches 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, God in Yoruba Belief, Praeger, New York,
1963.
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 Pre-
sented 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, Uni-
versity 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 Pasa-

dena. 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