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IFA
IFA
BY BY CHIEF CHIEF FELA FELA SOWANDE
SOWANDE
The late Chief Fela Sowande was a
professor of Pan African Studies for Kent
State University/ Born in OYO, Nigeria,
in 1905, he received a good deal of
his higher education from British schools.
He discovered that for all his learning
his roots held the true knowledge. He
returned home to research his culture
and wrote a number of papers on
traditional YORUBA. The unpublished
papers were left to the Department of Pan
African Studies at Kent. Permission has
been given to share some of his work with
our readers. Discussion is certainly
welcomed as well as critique. The
following is an continuation of an
unedited excerpt from Chief Sowande’s
paper entitled “IFA.” - SG
Acknowledgements are due to the Ancient
Religious Society of African Descendants
Association for permission to
quote freely from their collection, and
to those who readily granted access to
private libraries of rare books. They
remain anonymous as a protection
against the curious-minded, whose
curiosity is only equaled by their forgetfulness
to return borrowed books. -
Fela Sowande.
We have therefore in the YORUBA
System, OLORUN, ELEDA & OLO-
DUMARE. Of the three, OLODU-
MARE is the least rarefied, be He is still
neither Matter, nor conditioned by Matter.
He is the Root of that which
eventually becomes Matter; the Root
of that which eventually becomes Form;
we may perhaps regard Him as the
Germ from which the Principles of
Form and of Matter subsequently develop.
He is pure Spirit, but so near to
manifestation, that He enters into virtually
every aspect of Manifested Life,
not because He is the Supreme God,
which He is not, be because He may be
likened to the Permanent Secretary
of a Minister of State, in whom the
Minister places absolute confidence,
and who deals with the general
public on behalf of the Minister.
One does not upset such a Permanent
Secretary and expect the
Minister to have much time for one!
OLODUMARE is vitally important
because of this sort of relationship
with OLORUN -- the Supreme Deity;
but also because these Three
Names represent Three States of
Manifestation of That which, in every
System like that of the YORUBA,
is forever Nameless, the “IT,” from
which even the Supreme Deity --
OLORUN -- derives, of which it has
been said, in another system: - I am,
without beginning, without end,
older than night or day, younger
than the babe new-born, brighter
than light, darker than darkness,
beyond all things and creatures, yet
fixed in the heart of every one.
From me the shining worlds flow
forth, to me all at last return, yet to
me neither men nor angels may
draw nigh, for I am known only to
myself. Ever the same is my inmost
being; absolutely one, complete,
whole, perfect; always itself, eternal,
infinite, ultimate; formless,
indivisible, changeless...Of all existences
I am the source, the continuation,
and the end. I am the germ,
I am the growth, I am the decay. All
things and creatures I send forth; I
support them while yet they stand
without; and when the dream of
separation ends, I cause their return
unto myself...Apart from me there
is neither wisdom, nor knowledge,
nor understanding. Into every state
of knowledge do I enter, into false
knowledge as well as into true, so
that I am not less the ignorance of
the deluded than the wisdom of the sage.
For what thou callest ignorance and folly
is my pure knowing imperfectly expressed
through an uncompleted image of my
divine perfection...Mine is the healing
influence flowing down from consecrated
hands, mine the venom of the adder’s
fang. Nothing falleth but my me, and in
whatsoever riseth, mine is the power that
lifteth up...Before all worlds, I WAS: In
all worlds I AM: And when worlds are
but a memory, I SHALL BE.
Of this same “IT,” it is also said: “From
my substance all things derive their substance,
and all that hath form is built
from my four-fold elemental
manifestation. Four are the subtle
principles which the wise conceal from
the uninitiate by the names: FIRE,
WATER, AIR, EARTH. In endless variety
of mixture and proportion, directed by
my Will, these mingle together for the
production of forms. They are
transmutations of a single essence and
from their mingling are brought forth all
things.” It is the writer’s currently held
view that, in the YORUBA System,
OLORUN correlates with FIRE; ELEDA
correlates with AIR; OLODUMARE
correlates with WATER; and OFUN
(HEPA) correlates with EARTH. The
‘single essence’ from which They all derive
is the un-named and unnameable “IT.”
These same oral traditions state
categorically that the permuted names of
OLORUN, viz: OLORUN-ELEMI, OLO-
RUN-ALANU, etc., were imported by
the YORUBA converts and had no place
in the Traditional System per se. Idowu’s
OLODUMARE, as”one who is supreme,
superlatively great, incomparable, and unsurpassable
in majesty, excellent in
attributes, stable, unchanging, constant,
reliable,” may apply to the concept of
OLODUMARE in YORUBA Christianity.
It simply does not belong in YORUBA