IFA IN FLIGHT
DISPERSIONS AND ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSICAL AFRICAN SPIRITUAL SYSTEMS
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Yesterday, 14th Sept.2012, I had the privilege of interacting with the wonderful group of enthusiasts in the study and practice of the African spirituality of Ifa represented by the Independent Ifa- Orisa Practitioners on Facebook.
The 'Independent' in the group's name seems to mean that members are welcome to interpret this ancient tradition in novel ways that make meaning for them.
The group was founded by Jaap Verduijn and is currently run by Brenda Beek, both Dutch. They represent a powerfully growing trend in classical African spiritualities in which some of its most innovative developments are coming from non-continental Africans, and, in some cases, even from outside the African Diaspora.
The African Diaspora as a community, particularly in Cuba and the United States, from the centuries of slavery to the present, has been at the vanguard of rethinking and reapplying classical African spiritualities in new ideological, imagistic and performance contexts. They created syncretisms fusing dynamic forms from various cultures to generate such systems as Voodoo.
In their achievements, some light is thrown on the ultimate forms that may be demonstrated by these systems when their central points of alignment are correlated, their points of divergence better understood as variations on central features.
The convergences between these systems and others from other continents, religious communities and non-religious disciplines also assists in appreciating unifying themes in efforts at arriving at meaning across time, space and cognitive forms.
Beyond the African Diaspora, these traditions are spreading fast to non-Africans, some of whom come to Africa for study, such as the great scholarly work among the Dogon and the Mande by Marcel Griaule and his team and their successors, to study and practice, as the wonderful examples of the Orisa practitioners Susanne Wenger who spent almost all her life in Nigeria and the great writer Awo Falokun Fatumnbi who seems to be of US ancestry and now people like Brenda Beek and Jaap Verdun in the Netherlands.
A profound irony about these developments is that, in Nigeria, which I am acquainted with, and perhaps in much of Africa, which I know less about, an outcome of political and religious colonialism in which Christianity and Islam were central, is the enormous loss of prestige of the classical religions. As these systems are being transformed from oral to written traditions, playing centralised roles in the lives of Diaspora Africans and non-Africa, the systems have lost prestige so enormously in some of their ancestral countries that identification with them is often unhelpful to one's social image, Christianity and Islam being the 'civilised' and 'modern' religions.
A pastor may base his teaching on exorcism, at times depicting this process in terms of inversion of the central cosmological principles of the classical African religions, such as the guardianship of ancestors and relationships with non-human and non-animal agents, known as spirits, that expand human possibility. The pastor could address real problems people face with mysterious afflictions but seem to be content to describe the world of spiritual evil largely in terms of a negation of the traditional world view.
On the other hand, non-Africans in classical African spiritualities have often brought with them a remarkable capacity for both immersion and creative adaptation that demonstrates par excellence the creative vitality of the ancient systems.
Brenda Beek sums up such an understanding in relation to Ifa in the Netherlands in her description of the Independent Ifa- Orisa Practitioners group :
What this group represents
This is the place where we do impossible things! Traditional Ifa-Orisha practitioners may shake their heads in disbelief and/or disagreement. This means we are not shy to peek over the fence of traditional Ifa-ways. Ifa has landed again on new soil, and again will undergo an adaptation to fit in a new home, like it happened once, long ago, in the Diaspora. And more likely it has done so for thousands of years.
As Independent Ifa diviners we do take the YTR [Yoruba Traditional Religion] as a base, simply because it is the most prominent leftover of something that was much wider spread (and to a certain extent still is!) centuries ago [alluding to the pan-African and global similarities among a family of divination systems]. We are grateful to the Yoruba for their culture, because they were the staunch keepers and maintainers of something wonderful. Things change, that's all part of evolution, that's what Ifa-Orisha expresses. Besides the inevitable shaking of heads, we hope that there are also people out there whose faces light up with joy, because due to their dedication to a religion or philosophy, a knowledge of Ifa-Orisha has been able to reach new soil. In this particular case: The Netherlands – Europe.
... due to a social environment that left no other choice than changing traditional ways that have no roots in any European culture, into ways or lifestyles that suit our culture and still maintain the essence of Ifa-Orisha knowledge. Of course, in the way that it 'speaks' to us.
Jaap is even more forthright:
English postings and replies only, please! The odd greeting or interjection in Yoruba, Portuguese, Spanish[languages native to Ifa in Nigeria and the Diaspora] or for all I care Gheg or Tosk is perfectly alright, but the "communication language" of this group is English.
In the Ifa-Orisha religion, just like in every human endeavour, tradition carries down to us not only the vast wisdom of the ancestors, but also their monumental stupidities. We should subject our traditions to continuous investigation, and the occasional bit of damage control.
Considering that both in Africa and in the Diaspora the religion sometimes behaves more like a reenactment society than a living, ever-developing method for spiritual and moral growth, I wouldn't be surprised if increasing numbers of Ifa-Orisha practitioners are becoming uneasy with the "Because I say so", "That's a secret", and the recently surfacing "If you don't tiptoe the line I'll disown you and take your Ashe[spiritual power] away" attitude that they may encounter in their Houses, Ilé's or Egbes[formal communities of spiritual practice in the tradition]. For those, being an "independent" Ifa-Orisha practitioner may well be their destiny.
The very rich threads and documents on the group make it a vital resource for both scholar and practitioner.
New synergies are emerging. People are educating themselves on points of intersection of ancient and newer forms forms of knowledge across the globe. A movement is gathering momentum away from reliance on centralised spiritual authorities to one where the individual assumes the task of being their own priest and theologian, at times with the help of informal groups where this responsibility is cultivated in a fraternal spirit.
Begun 13th October 2012 Completed and first published 14th October 2012 00:12
Copyright of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
This essay may be reproduced in full for non-commercial purposes without the permission of the writer, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, but must indicate his name as the author at the top of the article.
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