3.0 Iwori Meji

The Odu Ifa for this week is Iwori Meji because in that Odu there’s a story about how Orunmila left Ile-Ife for heaven because of something one of his sons did, and since I’m leaving Ife, I thought it was appropriate (although I’m in Ibadan and not heaven, and I don’t have any sons who can upset me...) Kyle came to visit me for about two days from Ibadan and we just went around campus, and on either Teusday or Monday we helped the Araba get the wheels rolling for some work he wants to do in Brazil.

A few years ago, a man in Brazil who runs a temple for the worship of various Yoruba deities brought the Araba to Sao Paulo to do some work with them, casting Ifa, initiating people into Ifa, making sacrifices, and they really loved him. The Araba made over $5,000 or about 8 million Naira while there, but the Yoruba guy who took him everywhere and did all of the translation for him stole the money and disappeared! So since then the Araba has wanted to go back to Brazil, but he doesn’t speak Protuguese so it was impossible to communicate with the people in Sao Paulo. So last week my friend Wale said he knew someone on campus who had lived in Brazil and spoke portuguese fluently, so I arranged for us to meet and call the Araba’s friend in Sao Paulo to see what could be done. The first time we tried on Monday, we couldn’t get a hold of the guy in charge, so I set up another day (this past Thursday) to try again. That morning the Araba cast some kola nuts after feeding Ifa and asked what was going to happen, and Ifa said that that day we would get to talk to Leo (the man in Sao Paulo) and that we would start the whole process of going to Brazil. Fortunately Ifa was right!

I was worried we might not get him because when I bought some credit for the Araba to use his phone to call, the network was terrible and we couldn’t call an number at all, but right before we tried to call Leo, it opened up, and no more than 5 minutes after we were done talking, the network went bad again. It was really wild. So now Leo is trying to get a group of people together who will pay for a ticket to bring the Araba to Brazil to do some more work for them, and apparently Ifa said that the Araba will also do some work with some other groups in Brazil because they will like what happened with Leo so much. The Araba was very very happy about all of this because it’s been bugging him for a long time that he lost so much money, and that it would be so easy for him to make some more, especially now that he needs it to finish building his house.

On Thursday I believe, I witnessed a traditional version of a pregnancy test! Someone I know had been having trouble with his girlfriend and went to talk to the Araba about it. Apparently it had happened a few times before, and the Araba told him that there was no need to go to the hospital to get a paternity test done because Ifa said that he was the father of his girlfriend’s baby. The poor guy just wanted to be sure, so he kept asking Ifa, and Ifa kept saying the same thing( by “saying” I mean the Araba would cast Ifa and the message on the opele was always the same). I found it to be very fascinating, and certainly cheaper and more private than a paternity test would be. At any rate, Ifa told my friend that everything would be ok, and that his girlfriend would come back, and she called him about a few minutes after we left baba’s house. I hope everything works out for them, but it sounds like that’s what Ifa said would happen.

A few weeks ago when I was with the Araba one of his “aburos/junior brothers” who I think is actually his nephew, or maybe just a friend in Abuja called to let him know that his refrigerator had been stolen when he took it to be repaired at a shop. The Araba consulted Ifa while they were on the phone and told him that the fridge was still on the premises, and that the people who said it was stolen were not exactly lying because they were the ones who stole it. He then told the guy that Ifa said he would get it back, but he might have to make a sacrifice to do it. Unfortunately the guy was dragging his feet about paying the Araba to make the sacrifice for him, and since the Araba really wanted to do it, I gave him some money to get it started. Just this past week, the man called back to say that someone had told him that he saw the fridge in the security office of the shop, and he got mad and barged in. Sure enough, his fridge had been there all along. The guy was so happy and promised to send the Araba more money.

On Thursday I went back to Osogbo to do my last round of interviews, this time on the god my great-great-grandfather used to worship, Ogun. Wale, of course, knew the head Ogun priest, so I met up with him and we went to the Ogun shrine there so I could ask some questions. While there are still a few gods/goddesses that have proved more elusive than I had hoped, I think I have a very good grip on the major myths about them now, because for the past few interviews, whenever I was told various myths, for many or even most of them, I already knew it, if only in a different form. The differences are often as interesting as the stories themselves, so I’m always happy to hear different versions, but it was reaffirming to know that all of the information I was receiving wasn’t terribly foreign. After it was all over I bought him some beer and gave him some money, and he was so thrilled, he kept thanking Wale for bringing me to him.

After it was all over, since I don’t know when the next time I will be in Osogbo will be, I asked Wale if we could go to Osun’s grove since it was only a few minutes away. The grove is wonderful, and I wish I had made some more time before to go all around it, but I’m glad I made it there all the same. Since everything inside the grove is believed to embody the goddess herself, people aren’t allowed to cut the trees or kill the animals, so there were monkeys running all over the place and eating the food people had used for sacrifices. It was really interesting for me to see some of the places explained or described in myths and Ifa narratives there, and while we were walking around I was telling Wale how certain statues came to be in certain places, in whose image they were made, and in which Odu it came be found.

As yesterday was my last full day in Ife, and was conveniently also Ose Ifa (the sacred day of Ifa in the traditional Yoruba week), I went to the Araba’s house for the last time to give him some schnapps and akara to give to Ifa and he said a bunch of prayers for me and my whole family. Then I just hung out with him for a few hours, and took him out to a bar to buy him a bottle of Heineken (his favorite beer) one last time. Maybe it’s because I have gotten so used to coming and going to his house, but it didn’t really feel real when I got up to go finally and rode off. Somehow I think I still expect to go back there after spending the better part of each day with him since September 2010! Who knows, maybe I’ll see him again sometime soon! Well, actually, Ifa probably knows, but I know I don’t.

I had to pack up all of my things this morning because yesterday everybody and his brother wanted me to come see them to say goodbye, and by the time night fell I was really beat. Shortly after noon today, Mr. Toyin came to pick me up at Dr. Saah’s house, I said my final goodbyes to his family and we left for Ibadan. Before we left, I stopped by the store of my Igbo friend Stem because he was really sad to see me go, and he kept telling me that I had to come back. Now I’m with Aunty Bimbo and Gbebemi in my grandparents house on Agbeja street, and I’m not sure exactly when we’re going to return to Lagos, but my guess is Monday or Wednesday since the last round of elections is on Teusday.

Right now my plan is to keep transcribing some more Ifa verses and also start piecing together some of the stories I want to put in the book. I’ve been looking forward to this part because I think I must have learned well over 200 stories about 20 gods/goddesses and more about different people, towns and animals and seeing them all (or most of them) together in the same will be very interesting. I still have about another two and a half weeks to do so, so I’m sure it shouldn’t be much of a problem. That’s all for now, I hope everyone has a happy Easter!

4.14 Irosun-Rete

I just got accredited for voting! I went to my polling place to get accredited to vote at noon here, so in just about an hour I’ll leave to do just that! I’m really looking forward to seeing how the whole process works and who gets the most votes (although I don’t think I’ll need to ask Ifa to know who will win). I chose Irosun Agbe for this post because there is one former senator here in Osun state who really did nothing but steal and has been paying people to vote for him, paying other people to intimidate other people into voting for him, and a bunch of other things too, but he was beaten very soundly last week by the opposition candidate. This is more or less what Ifa says will happen in that figure if you are greedy and have loose morals, a lesser known or smaller person will take your place even though you hold a higher position.

On a more personal note, I am very close to having everything I need for my book! This week I went to Osogbo a few times with Wale and also did some interviews here in Ife. I had a lot of fun with the Babalawo in Osogbo because whenever he would start telling stories from Ifa, he would ask me if I knew the Odu from which they came and almost every time I could tell him the answer. I found that even when I knew the Odu and the story as well, when he told it to me, it was always different from the one that I knew. This kind of confusion happened a lot in Ife, and one day in particular one woman told me that a woman named Moremi was married to another Yoruba mythic/historical figure named Oranmiyan and that she never had to sacrifice a child, and later on another priest told me that she didn’t marry Oranmiyan and that she did sacrifice her child. Both swore vehemently that if anyone says otherwise, (s)he is lying.

That has made figuring out which versions of stories to include a bit difficult, but it has made me pay more attention to the stories to try to understand them and their messages better since I believe these stories were mostly modeled on real events but created to convey a message or teach a more universal lesson or truth. I think next week if I have time I am going to try to sit down and try to piece together all of the stories and sort through all of the various versions I have heard, because honestly many of them are a bit of a jumble in my head! I also don’t want to just mix stories together because I think most of them are told in a certain (or divergent) ways because of the meanings that they carry, so I wouldn’t want to dilute, mix, or confuse any of the symbolism in them.

I have also come to realize that even if I stay here for another year, I will never be able to be able to write a completely comprehensive book on all of the Yoruba deities because the more I learn about these gods, the more gods I learn about! Also, even though many people may know about a certain deity, sometimes I have quite a bit of trouble finding anyone who can speak with a good level of certainty about him/her, how (s)he came to earth, how (s)he left, what (s)he did, etc.

The guy who has been taking me around to see all of these people, Wale, is a real character. Everywhere we go, there seems to be a woman who is upset with him, and his phone is always ringing because he has always promised someone that he would be somewhere an hour ago even though he might never actually get there. The other day we left the shrine of Oluorogbo in Ife (I never knew this, but apparently this deity created an indigenous form a writing a long time ago!) and right after the priest was trying to convince me to make a sacrifice and take a title from him, this woman ran up to the car and started yelling about how Wale hasn’t been calling her. Then the next day we drove past another one, and he kept getting calls from yet another one who was begging him to come to her house. He says women are going to kill him, and I think he could have a full-time job just trying to manage that aspect of his life. It all made me very glad that I haven’t let any of the women who have asked me to marry them get too close. Speaking of which, I had another record broken yesterday. I had a marriage proposal from a 50 or 60 something year old woman propose to me, which is definitely the oldest yet. Most of them usually aren’t much older than 35. At any rate, thanks to Wale, I know I am going to keep that part of my life under control!

Eji Ogbe (Part Two)

It’s tough for me to imagine that everything that happened this week actually happened in just one week! I guess the biggest news here is that the elections got pushed back again, so the senatorial elections happened yesterday and not a week ago as planned. At first when the elections got moved back to Monday, I thought it was because the INEC (Independent National Election Committee) knew about some plans certain politicians had for disrupting the voting in certain areas (I know one candidate in Osun state who has been paying people 50,000 Naira each to intimidate voters, snatch ballot boxes and that kind of thing), but when it got pushed back again to this Saturday, I’m beginning to wonder if there really were just some logistical issues. At any rate, the elections happened yesterday with only a few reports of violence in some states, and at least here on campus the guy everyone knows to be a rogue got less than a tenth as many votes as his ACN opponent, which gives me some hope. We’ll see what happens next week with the presidential elections!

So this week instead of working with the Araba, I have been going to Osogbo with a guy I know here to collect more stories from some priests there. The first place we went was to a priest of Osanyin (the god of herbs and medicine) because Osanyin is popular enough that I’ll want him in the book, but not so common that you can find his priests everywhere like you could a babalawo. Anyway that interview was one of the most wild things that has ever happened to me. Since he is a priest of Osanyin he “has Osanyin” in a corner in his room (there are two myths about why that is the case, but you’ll have to read the book when it comes out to find out why), which means the objects that embody and represent Osanyin are put there. The amazing part about it was that the priest put on a special necklace and was asking Osanyin some questions, and when he shook a rattle, everyone in the room could hear Osanyin answer him! It wasn’t a regular human voice, but a kind of high-pitched squeaky kind of voice, and I could almost pick out the words it was saying in Yoruba. Apparently Osanyin said it was my destiny to do this project and that the priest should help me with it. I can’t really give any explanation for how we heard the voice because there was nothing “alive” in the corner, and the priest couldn’t have been making the noise because sometimes they were both talking at the same time. It was a bit freaky I have to admit, but definitely fascinating.

I also went to interview a priestess of Osun at the palace in Osogbo, but she and her brother got really greedy when they saw me and wanted me to give them a really exorbitant amount of money, so we left them alone and went to see another babalawo that my friend Wale knows really well. It made me think of a time way back in September when the Araba told me that I should stay close to Ifa because Ifa was going to look out for me and make sure I got what I needed because this guy is amazing. I of course give him something for his time, but unlike the other guys he never asked for a cent and knows infinitely more than the priestess did. He helped me out so much that the plan now is just to go back to him and see how far I can get with him, because he might be able to tell me everything I need to know.

It has been very interesting hearing more stories and Ifa verses from Olaifa (the babalawo in Osogbo) because many are similar but slightly different from the ones I have learned from the Araba and elsewhere. He said something really insightful that I think will probably put in the introduction to the book. Roughly translated he said, “If you were to ask about me from 4 people in the neighborhood, none of them would lie, but they would all tell you something at least slightly different about me. If you took what just one person said, you wouldn’t have a great idea of who I am, but if you took what all of them said together then you’d have a much more complete picture.” I’ve always been very interested in this kind of contradictory but conciliatory aspect of Yoruba culture and it was really neat to hear him say that.

I went back to visit the Araba on Friday and he showed me the developed pictures of him and me on my “graduation” along with one of all of the babalawos who were there too. He is really proud of them and hung them up on his wall already. Maybe it was just me being self-centered, but I hadn’t completely realized how much having me around had affected the Araba. I think I was so focused on how much he had taught me that I didn’t know that I had helped him out a lot as well. When I visited him, he told me that nothing was really going on anymore and he hadn’t really had any big customers so money was really tight. He of course was still giving money out so other people wouldn’t go hungry, but I found out that he was having some trouble finding enough food for his whole family too. I think I didn’t realize it before because while I was working with him I would pay him regularly and if I was around I always tried to pay for whatever little things I could. I gave him some extra money to help see him through elections, and in a strange way even though I was really sad that things are so tough for him, I was happy that I was at least able to give him something in return. I still think I may have gotten the better end of the bargain, since knowledge and wisdom are certainly worth more than money, but at least the money counted for something!

I’m going to go back to Osogbo on Monday to interview the babalawo there again, but I’m getting very close to having everything I need to the book and I’m hoping that by week’s end I’ll be able to just start editing and compiling!

15.2 Ose-Yeku

Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks, things got fairly busy and interesting, which i guess makes it more of a shame that I didn't write it all up! The Odu-Ifa I chose for this post is Ose-Yeku, the Odu for taking a title or chieftaincy. If you're familiar with what's going on in Nigeria right now, you'll know that elections start today, so I thought it might be appropriate, but more importantly, I had my graduation of sorts with the Araba this past week. I'm trying to upload the official picture we took of me receiving my certification as a Babalawo from him, so I hope it works. Whenever a Babalawo finishes learning all of the Odu-Ifa, a special sacrifice is made to Ifa, and of course some money is paid to the Babalawo who did the teaching for each of the Odu. Since I'm not technically a practicing Babalawo, I just gave the Araba money to make the sacrifice on his own, but I did buy a lot of beer and schnapps for the Araba and some of his Babalawo-friends who all came on Wednesday to celebrate with me.

So now I still try to go to the Araba's house everyday to ask him a few more questions about Yoruba religion and Ifa, but mostly we have just been hanging around his house and helping people who come to him with problems. Starting this coming Tuesday I am going to go to Osogbo with a man named Wale I met here on campus who said he knows priests and priestesses there who can give me all of the information and stories that I need, so it looks like for the two weeks or so that are left for me I'll be interviewing priests and priestesses of several deities instead. I'm really looking forward to learning all of these things from them!

Dr. Ajibade had to leave for Germany on a fellowship this past friday, so I moved into the boy's quarters of another professor I know, Dr. Saah from Cameroon. The room is really interesting because he uses it as his recording studio and music practice room, so I'm surrounded by guitars, basses, and a keyboard! It's also been very good for my French because I've noticed that I have slowly been forgetting things like when to use the subjunctif, but since he only speaks French to me, it's all starting to come back.

Even with all of this the most exciting thing that happened was Ellie coming to visit! She was only here for about 4 days but we got to do a whole lot. Unfortunately the father of one of Uncle Seun's friends died, and in Yorubaland you have to return to the person's hometown to bury him/her, so we went out to Ekitiland (the far east of Yorubaland for the party!) We got to drive through lots of different parts of Yorubaland including Ife! All of the people at the party loved Ellie, and she got "sprayed" (given a lot of money for dancing) a lot by the people there. There were several older ladies there who really liked us, partly because Ellie gave them traditional greetings and partially I think because I could speak Yoruba to them. At any rate, they kept telling us that we had to get married and that they would come to the wedding to celebrate with us again! Uncle Seun also took us on a driving tour of Lagos, but I think one of Ellie's favorite things was the Akara that we bought on the side of the road. I think I'm going to have to make it for her once I leave.

Well those are the highlights from the past few weeks, but I'm sure I'll have plenty more to write after this coming week is over!