Eji Ogbe (First Chapter)

Since the last post I have now had three days of work/training with Ifaniwale Ogundiran, the Babalawo (diviner) who agreed to work with me. When I worked with him last year he was the Awise of Modakeke, kind of the spokesperson for Ifa in his town, but the old Araba or head of all Babalawo in the town died not too long ago, and Chief Ogundiran was the one who succeeded him!

Getting to his house is no trouble for me anymore, and I know exactly where to get which busses to get as close to his house as possible and some of the people in the neighborhood even recognize me! Before starting to record Ifa verses the new Araba wanted me to understand all of the basics about Ifa Divination, so he made an Opele (divining chain) with training wheels for me. It is made with some string, three cowrie shells, and eight pieces of igba Esu, or Esu’s Calabash (Esu is anothe Yoruba deity who is very close to Orunmila and Ifa Divination). I’m going to try to upload a picture of the Opele, but we’ll see if my connection will allow for all that...

The first thing I did was to start learning all of the 16 major Odu Ifa or signs of Ifa. On the Opele there are 2 sides of the chain, each with 4 pieces of the calabash. That means that there are two possibilities for the way each piece can land, either with the concave face up, or the convex face up, called open and closed respectively. That means for each side of the chain there are 2^4 different combinations or 16. So my job after the first day was to learn the first 8 combinations called Eji Ogbe, Oyeku Meji, Iwori Meji, Odi Meji, Irosun Meji, Owonrin Meji, Obara Meji, and Okanran Meji. Since I was pretty familiar with them, I went home and just memorized all 16 of them for the next day so we could move right along.

Once you know those basic 16 combinations, all of the other ones are just pairings of one of the 16. Since there are 16 possibilities for the right hand side of the chain, that means there are 16 possibilities for the left-hand side for each one of the 16 on the right. That makes 256 total, even though I only really had to memorize 16. The Araba would take my opele and turn the pieces of the calabash to make certain Odu and had me tell him what they were as a test, and after I kept answering him correctly, he taught me how to cast the divining chain. It was pretty easy, hold the opele in the middle of the chain and lightly tap the two dangling ends onto a surface three times, and then drop it so that the ends are closest to you. Then I would tell the Araba which Odu “came up.” It’s pretty cool, and I was really happy that I had learned the basics of the process in about a day!

On the second day the Araba made some prayers called Isoye to Orunmila for me so that I would be able to learn everything I needed to learn quickly and that Orunmila would look on my work with favor. Then he did another kind of divination with kola nuts in which he would ask questions with them cupped in his hands and then cast them on the ground. Depending on how they came up, he got a yes or no answer from Orunmila. He told me once it was finished that Orunmila said I should beware of some Babalawo who will want to take advantage of me for money, which was actually spot on! I really trust the Araba because he bent over backwards to help me last year without expecting any money, and Professor Ajibade has worked with him several times and says he is the most trustworthy Babalawo he knows, so I wasn’t too concerned about him. I did find out, however, that another one who had helped me last year, Dele, hadn’t acted so honestly. I had sent a bunch of pictures and money back to Nigeria with Damini in January last year for Dele to give to each one of the Babalawo who had helped me with my thesis research, and since I had worked with over a dozen I think, it was a fair amount of money. Apparently Dele kept the whole thing for himself even though he told me he had given it to everyone, and kept asking me for more money afterward too. I had actually been thinking about getting Dele to help me again, but I think I will take Orunmila’s advice and pass this time.

I wish I could have done divination before coming to Nigeria because I would have known that the Flip (a nifty handheld video recorder)I bought before coming wasn’t going to work. I tried two days in a row to record some Ifa verses, but it always freezes up on me. Fortunately for me it should be under warrantee, and I think I’ll be able to use my digital camera as a camcorder at least until I come back briefly, but it was pretty disappointing. Tomorrow I’m going to try my camera, but if that doesn’t work I’ll be in big trouble and my project will have hit a wall!

Tomorrow is also Nigeria’s 50th birthday and I heard some events will be going on at the University, so I might check that out once I’m done working with the Araba. I’m interested to see what it will be like in town/what people will be doing, and I think it might be even more interesting to talk to some people like my father who have been alive since the colonial days to see what they think about Nigeria’s development as a country. It’s a little strange to think that there are lots of people who are older than the country itself. Maybe I’ll ask the Araba to cast divination and find out what the future holds for Nigeria on the big day...

This Nigeria!

Sorry for the delay since the last post, things have gotten surprisingly busy since the last time! I decided to start tutoring sessions with Dr. Ajibade in Yoruba so I can become fluent more quickly and move my project along a bit better. He agreed to only speak Yoruba to me (except when it’s something really important), which I really wanted and think should help me a lot. Even though I’ve been flying through my lessons since we started with some basics, I have a lot to learn, and it’s a bit tougher since everyone wants to speak English with me if they can. I really like surprising some people who don’t think I understand any Yoruba, like last night I was taking a bus back to Ife from Ibadan, and the guys stuffed too many people into the bus (the buses are about the size of a Chevy suburban and usually carry 15 people but these guys started forcing 20 in!), and once we were all on the bus they demanded too much money. Everyone was getting heated and yelling at them in Yoruba and when the guy collecting the fare came to me, I told him he was acting like a thief and everyone started laughing!

I had a really interesting ride on that bus. At first I was a bit upset that the guys were charging so much and taking so many people, not because I had to pay an extra dollar since that’s not much to me, but because the ladies who were coming back from the markets to their smaller towns could really use that money. Then we must have gone through at least 5 or more “security checkpoints” which are just groups of policemen with their AK-47s stopping cars on the road. For us to pass each time, the driver had to give one of the officers a bribe. That’s nothing new or unusual, but it was getting dark and I wanted to be able to see when I was walking back to my room so I got a bit frustrated with the whole thing. Then I remembered that I shouldn’t get too angry with the policemen. Sure some of them are just crooked, but some of them have kids to feed and send to school and life is tough in Nigeria, so I don’t like to get too angry. After that I started thinking, since the drivers of the buses know that they will have to pay the policemen, they will naturally have to make their fares a bit higher. The guys taking me were still being exorbitant, but I realized that at least partially, because the government makes life so difficult, everyone seems to pay their own tax to each other to make sure things can still run somehow. That is, the policeman takes bribes, the bus man charges some more money so he can pay the policeman, the ladies at the market will raise their prices a bit so they can pay the bus fare, etc. That’s pretty typically of Nigeria, patching up whatever it is that you have been given and making it work somehow, even if it’s not correctly.

At any rate, I had gone to Ibadan to visit Kyle on Saturday morning to see how he was doing, which was why I was coming back last night. I think I’ve gotten really comfortable with transportation in Nigeria; I knew not to get on the bus going to Ibadan right outside of campus because they charge a bit more, and as an Ijebu man (the Ijebu are the sub-group of the Yoruba that my family comes from and are particularly tight with money) I couldn’t do that on principal. So I took another bus into town, to a place called Mayfair and then walked around the roundabout to the cheaper bus, which really only saved me a few cents, but it made me feel a lot better about myself which I decided made it worth it, even if I hadn’t saved more money!

We had a pretty good time at UI, we played soccer with a bunch of little kids who of course had all given themselves names of professional soccer players like Benzema, Walcott, John Mikel Obi, etc. The guys were pretty good, but Kyle and I had fun dribbling around them and juggling over them until we were all tired out. Then we crowded into the same sweaty room as last week to watch two English Premier League matches, but I’d rather not talk about them. More interestingly, I told Mrs. Biksin who runs a campus convenience store that I would come visit her next time I was there, so I made good on my promise and stopped in to greet her. I’m not sure why she likes Kyle and I so much, but she was so glad to see us! She asked us if we would go to a birthday party with her the next day, and I said as long as I could leave early enough to get back to Ife that would be fine. So on Sunday after eating some breakfast and watching more soccer, but in an air-conditioned, much less-crowded room I showed Kyle how to wash his clothes/sheets by hand and we went to the party with Mrs. Biksin. Unfortunately I think we had to leave before things really picked up, but her family was really nice to us and gave us some rice and juice to take with us back to school.

Today I was planning to start working with the Awise of Modakeke, the Babalawo who is going to be reciting the Ifa verses for me, but if I knew how to do Ifa divination myself I would have known it wasn’t going to happen! After my Yoruba class with professor Ajibade I went to the bank to try to set up my bank account, which meant going to the bank, getting passport photos taken and printed out, filling out 4 forms, and getting two people who also have accounts t the bank to fill out reference forms as well. Needless to say that took quite some time, and in between I met a really nice man from Cameroon, Dr Saah. Since I hadn’t practiced French in so long, I thought I would just take a few minutes to talk to him, but the five minutes turned into maybe an hour or hour and a half! When I finally did get back to the bank they said one of my references had the wrong kind of account, and since I didn’t feel like fighting or bribing I decided to come back later.

On the way out I ran into another pastor who stopped me and tried to convince me that I need to come to his church. This has happened just a few too many times for my liking since every other guy you meet is the pastor of some church somewhere, and they are incredibly persistent in recruiting you for one ministry or the other. I had asked Dr. Ajibad for directions to the Awise’s house, and he told me how I could take a bus to get close and that everyone there should know where he lives if I just ask or take an Okada (motorbike). I already knew how to take the bus, but when I got off and asked around, nobody seemed to know where it was, even after talking to him on the phone, so after spending a bit more money and time than I would have liked I just decided it wasn’t worth forcing it today. Fortunately for me, I have no set schedule so if things aren’t working, I have the luxury of adjusting my plans accordingly. I just wish my water supply was as flexible, I haven’t had running water for a few days and I just did laundry so I need a bit more water before I can take a shower and it’s raining now, so I’m going to go put a bucket out...

Return to the Source

After a brief spell in Lagos, I left with Uncle Seun, Aunty Bimbo, my cousin Gbebemi, and Kyle to go to Ibadan to take Kyle to the university there. As expected the Lagos-Ibadan “Expressway,” which should only take about an hour and a half to travel took about four or four and a half, which wasn’t too bad all things considered. Like many things in Nigeria I don’t think the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been seriously renovated or expanded since the 70s, and since the road conditions are so poor there are always accidents and a whole host of other impediments, but fortunately we made it to Ibadan without too much trouble.

When we got to Ibadan I greeted the family of Mama Ibeji, the lady who takes care of my grandparents’ old house on Agbeja street in Ibadan, and chopped (ate) quite a bit of her food. There is a new man working there that I had never met before, named Mr. Toyin who played some soccer with me and Kyle before we went to sleep. We got up fairly early the next day to go to the University of Ibadan so Kyle could get set up before starting work the next day (Monday). Before we left Idaban, we made the obligatory stop to Papa Odukoya’s house. Papa Odukoya was a very good friend of my grandfather, from the same village who ended up living just a few blocks away from my grandparents’ house on Agbeja Street. We like to call him our other grandfather because he was so close to my real one. This was the first time I had seen Mr. Odukoya since his wife passed away in June, and it was clear that it had affected him since they had been married for almost 56 years! Still he was very happy to see us, even though it was only briefly this time since we had to get to U.I. quickly.

U.I. looks like a great place! I was surprised how many hours of electricity they had, and Kyle’s room in the graduate dorms was really nice too. Uncle Seun had to take off after dropping us on campus so he could head up to Ilesa to move my cousin into school, so Kyle and I explored campus a little bit after we moved his things into his room. We took a taxi to the gate of the university (the universities here are almost like self-contained cities with enormous plots of land and practically everything you could need from restaurants, to banks, to barber shops), and then I picked out a driver who looked like an honest guy who could take us to a market so Kyle could pick our some things he would need. Walking around the market was a bit strange for me, because for the first time everyone wasn’t staring at me! I heard a little boy say, “Ejo, ri oyinbo!” which means, “come see the white person!” and to my surprise he wasn’t pointing at me, it was Kyle!

After getting what Kyle needed at the market, we came back to campus, ate some rice made by a lady with a shack by the gate, and then went to find a place to watch Super Sunday football since Liverpool was playing Manchester United at Old Trafford. We found a room with about 80 other guys packed in front of a TV run by a generator (no power), and sat on the windowsill to watch the match. Unfortunately Man U won, thanks to a hat-trick from Berbatov including a pretty spectacular bicycle kick, but Stevie G made the game really interesting by scoring a PK and a free-kick which both got everyone pretty animated. Afterward we found a little shop run by a woman from Abeokuta who immediately took a liking to us and said she’ll watch out for Kyle while he’s there. Then we went back to Kyle’s room and read a little and eventually fell asleep.

The next morning Uncle Seun came to pick me up and take me to Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, the mythological birthplace of the Yoruba, and depending on who you ask mankind itself. I was going to be staying in the boy’s quarters (a smaller building for serving boys usually behind a full-size house) of Dr. Ogungbile who had been a DuBois Fellow at Harvard for a few years, but there were some problems with the electricity in his house, so for a few days I am going to be staying in the boy’s quarter’s at Dr. Ajibade’s house. Dr. Ajibade is a professor of African language, culture, and literature who helped me immensely with my thesis last year and has connected me with the first Babalawo with whom I’ll be working.

I met up with Dr. Ajibade at about 10 am, and dropped my things off in his boy’s quarters. It was great seeing him again, and the boy’s quarters are a lot nicer than I had expected! The room has a ceiling fan, power outlet a couple desks, and is about as big as a college dorm room! Dr. Ajibade told me he was going to try to change the toilet there because it is what he calls “colonial” (its just a squat toilet) and there’s an American lady who is coming to stay here in a month or so. Dr. Ajibade has three kids who have made me laugh a little bit because they all speak German at home. He studied in Germany for several years so his children are all fluent in German, but it looks really funny to me seeing Yoruba kids speaking German of all languages, but the world has become a pretty small place I guess.

Yesterday Dr. Ajibade went with me to see the Awise of Modakeke, whom I had interviewed for my thesis and will be helping me again with my project this time around. He told me he was excited about it and was looking forward to getting started in the next few days, which is great for me because he is very knowledgeable about everything pertaining to Ifa and well respected by all the other Babalawo so he can help me find other Babalawo as well. In case I haven’t already explained what a Babalawo is, they are the priests and diviners of the Yoruba god Orunmila or Ifa. They memorize and use all of the myths I hope to record in their divination process, and the oral corpus of these myths addresses every aspect of traditional Yoruba life.

After leaving the Awise a policeman pulled Dr. Ajibade over and asked for his “particulars...” Anyone who has been to Nigeria knows that means there really isn’t anything wrong, the policeman just wants to extort a bribe before he lets you go. Unfortunately for the policeman, Dr. Ajibade got really angry and refused to pay him a single kobo (the Nigerian equivalent of a cent, which is worth less than a hundredth of a penny). Unfortunately for us, the policeman was just as stubborn, so Dr. Ajibade called the Awise, and after the Awise came and talked to the guy for about 2 or 3 minutes he became much more reasonable and let us go.

After I got back I had a lunch that consisted entirely of puff-puff (my favorite food which is basically just dough deep fried in oil...)! The best part wasn't just that each piece was the size of a plum, it was that 6 pieces only cost me about 33 cents! That's all for now, but I'm hoping to start some Yoruba classes and go back to the Awise soon so I can start collecting some Ese Ifa (Ifa verses).

Odaabo (Yoruba for goodbye)

I dey for Eko

I arrived yesterday in Lagos without too much trouble, which should have been my first hint that something might happen... After the plane touched down in Murtala Mohammed airport, I told Kyle (my friend from across the street in Delaware who is going to be studying in Ibadan!) that getting bags usually goes pretty smoothly, so naturally Lagos decided to teach me a lesson. We waited for about an hour and a half, and sure enough no bags... Fortunately this happened in Lagos, so there were several disgruntled Nigerians who stormed around telling the airport workers how unacceptable the whole situation was and forced them to go back out to the plane and make sure our bags came out. Sure enough a few minutes later we got them!

When we got to my Uncle Seun's house here in Lagos, of course there was no electricity, but he told us that he had recently put wifi in his house! That means I probably won't see too much of the Hausa guys who sell Suya outside of the cyber cafe not too far from here. They always confuse me with Damini, but it looks like their confusion is at an end.

Today we went out to a market to get some sheets for Kyle and on our way there this small boy on the street yelled, "come an see Oyinbo!!" Oyinbo is the word people use for "white person" or outsider and I'm used to that meaning me, but when I looked he was pointing at Kyle! We went to a restaurant called Mr. Biggs and I had the second person in two days ask me if I was the youngest member of the Marley family, which I'm sure is a direct result of my hair. Maybe one of these days I should just go along with it and see what happens, but to date all I do is laugh and pretend to sing Buffalo Soldier.

Tomorrow morning we are going to leave for Ibadan to take my cousin Gbebemi to her school in Ilesha, and then take Kyle to the University of Ibadan the day after that. There were some complications with the house where I was going to be staying, so I might not get to go directly to Ife like I had planned earlier. If not I will probably come back to Lagos for a week or two and see my great aunt, or Aunty the Great One as we call her.

Since the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is notoriously congested and slow, we are going to leave pretty early in the morning so I'm off to bed, but hopefully I'll write more either from Lagos or possibly Ife.

See you later

Hi everyone,

I'm leaving the US today, and I'll be posting some news on everything that I'm doing right here (hopefully every week or so). Feel free to leave comments or messages here and I'll get back to you, or just send me an email! If I can get enough bandwidth I'm going to try to upload pictures and possibly video too, but we'll have to see how that one works out.

That's all for now, I'm off to greener pastures,

~Deji