Ebook: A recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba

Ifa, teacher of gods and men, is the oracle of the Yoruba, an important West African people. Like I Ching, Ifa is a system of divination based on the casting of sacred objects to produce a set of signs—"hexagrams” in I Ching, “odus” in Ifa. But unlike the codified Chinese system, Ifa is an oral tradition transmitted and revealed only by its priests in recitations, each of which is unique.

This book contains one such recitation. It was given to Judith Gleason by Awotunde Aworinde, an Ifa priest in Nigeria, taped, and transcribed and translated by Mrs. Gleason in collaboration with John Olaniyi Orundipe, a Yoruba language teacher in New York. All 16 of the “major odus” are here, along with 25 castings (out of a possible 256) thrown on her behalf by Aworinde. These, together with a selection of Ifa chants and Mrs. Gleason's informative and lucid introduction, notes, and commentaries on each casting, make up 'A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba'.

No single recitation of this oral system of geomancy (earth-prophecy) can be definitive; yet each reveals something of the cosmology upon which all Yoruba cults are based. Thus A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba provides an insight into the workings of one of the world’s least-known great religions, and by extension the lives and beliefs of those who subscribe to it. An evocative, learned, and major book, 'A Recitation of Ifa, Oracle of the Yoruba' should command the fascination of all readers and the particular attention of folklorists and students of African history and religion, mysticism, and the occult.

Judith Cleason was born in 1929 in Pasa dena. She received a B.A. in history from Radcliffe 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 diviners 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.