Dialogues: January 2016

Sunday, January 31, 2016

USA Africa Dialogue Series - PwC Submits Report On Impact Of Corruption On Nigeria To Osinbajo

PwC Submits Report On Impact Of Corruption On Nigeria To Osinbajo

TheHerald - Nig / 2016-02-01 06:57

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja over the weekend received a report titled Impact of Corruption on Nigeria's Economy from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

The PwC team led by Mr. Uyi Akpata, Country and Regional Senior Partner West Market Area, said that the report centred on the ways corruption had impacted the Nigerian economy over time, adding that PwC believes that the work provides robust evidence and impetus for reducing the phenomenon in Nigeria.

Akpata stated that "the results of the study show that corruption in Nigeria could cost up to 37 per cent of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) by 2030 if it was not dealt with immediately. This cost is equated to around $1,000 per person in 2014 and nearly $2,000 per person by 2030. The boost in average income that we estimate, given the current per capita income, can significantly improve the lives of many in Nigeria".

Five steps where used in the report to estimate Nigeria's cost of corruption. The first step was to examine over 30 studies to understand the way that corruption affects GDP in Nigeria. The study was obtained from international organisations including the OECD, IMF, DFID and Transparency International and Nigerian academics affiliated with universities published by other academics across mediums such as journals, articles and PhD publications among others as well as in-house studies assessing the health of the Nigerian economy such as the World in 2050 publication. The IMF study was selected to estimate impact of corruption on economic growth.

The second step was to identify the impact of corruption on economic growth using the IMF study, which estimates that the impact of 1 point change in the corruption index results in a 1.2 percentage point change in economic growth per annum. The study's methodology – calculating impact on growth when a country moves from its own rank to another country's rank on the corruption index was also used.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) was also used as a proxy for corruption; this dataset defines corruption as the 'abuse of public office for private gain' and the index was categorized into three parts; Grand corruption, Petty corruption and Political corruption.

The fourth step in the report created 3 scenarios that show the lower levels of corruption that Nigeria could have achieved in the past and can achieve in the future while the fifth step calculated the impact of corruption on economic growth and output for each scenario.

According to Dr Andrew S Nevin, (PhD), PwC Chief Economist and co-author of the report, PwC formulated the ways in which corruption impacts the Nigerian economy over time and then estimated the impact of corruption on Nigerian GDP, using empirical literature and PwC analysis.

"We estimate the 'foregone output' in Nigeria since the onset of democracy in 1999 and the 'output opportunity' to be gained by 2030, from reducing corruption to comparison countries that are also rich in natural resources. The countries we have used for comparison are: Ghana, Colombia and Malaysia", he said.

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - boko haram massacre

President Buhari it was who said with fanfare that Boko Haram had been "technically defeated"--whatever that means. That was a political and tactical blunder. An insurgency that is "technically defeated" should be incapable of carrying out this kind of large scale, high-casualty conventional attack just 3 miles away from Maiduguri, the temporary headquarters of the Nigerian army, which purportedly houses several military garrisons. Mr. Buhari also said that all BH was doing was attacking soft targets, which I am sure will not give any comfort to the families of the hundreds of Nigerians who have been killed or maimed by the terrorist group since the declaration of a "technical" victory over BH.

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 5:17 PM, John Mbaku <jmbaku@weber.edu> wrote:

Did not someone on this forum say that the new government had effectively eliminated Boko Haram as a threat to peace and security in Nigeria and the neighboring countries? Or, did I misread the contribution?
On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 3:09 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
what a nightmare. (who said bk was finished??)

new york times today
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/31/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

DALORI, Nigeria — A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremists.

Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night's attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast.

The shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers continued for nearly four hours in the unprotected area, survivor Alamin Bakura said, weeping on a telephone call to The Associated Press. He said several of his family members were killed or wounded.

The violence continued as three female suicide bombers blew up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing many people, according to a soldier at the scene who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.

Troops arrived at Dalori around 8:40 p.m. Saturday but were unable to overcome the attackers, who were better armed, said soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, they said.

Journalists visited the carnage Sunday and spoke to survivors who complained it had taken too long for help to arrive from nearby Maiduguri, the military headquarters of the fight to curb Boko Haram. They said they fear another attack.

Eighty-six bodies were collected by Sunday afternoon, according to Mohammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency. Another 62 people are being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since the military last year drove them out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria.

The 6-year Islamic uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

___

-- kenneth w. harrow professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
--
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
1337 Edvalson Street, Dept. 3807
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax
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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - boko haram massacre

Did not someone on this forum say that the new government had effectively eliminated Boko Haram as a threat to peace and security in Nigeria and the neighboring countries? Or, did I misread the contribution?

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 3:09 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

what a nightmare. (who said bk was finished??)

new york times today
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/31/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

DALORI, Nigeria — A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremists.

Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night's attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast.

The shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers continued for nearly four hours in the unprotected area, survivor Alamin Bakura said, weeping on a telephone call to The Associated Press. He said several of his family members were killed or wounded.

The violence continued as three female suicide bombers blew up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing many people, according to a soldier at the scene who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.

Troops arrived at Dalori around 8:40 p.m. Saturday but were unable to overcome the attackers, who were better armed, said soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, they said.

Journalists visited the carnage Sunday and spoke to survivors who complained it had taken too long for help to arrive from nearby Maiduguri, the military headquarters of the fight to curb Boko Haram. They said they fear another attack.

Eighty-six bodies were collected by Sunday afternoon, according to Mohammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency. Another 62 people are being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since the military last year drove them out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria.

The 6-year Islamic uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

___

-- kenneth w. harrow professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
1337 Edvalson Street, Dept. 3807
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax

USA Africa Dialogue Series - boko haram massacre

what a nightmare. (who said bk was finished??)

new york times today
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/31/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

DALORI, Nigeria — A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremists.

Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night's attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast.

The shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers continued for nearly four hours in the unprotected area, survivor Alamin Bakura said, weeping on a telephone call to The Associated Press. He said several of his family members were killed or wounded.

The violence continued as three female suicide bombers blew up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing many people, according to a soldier at the scene who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.

Troops arrived at Dalori around 8:40 p.m. Saturday but were unable to overcome the attackers, who were better armed, said soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, they said.

Journalists visited the carnage Sunday and spoke to survivors who complained it had taken too long for help to arrive from nearby Maiduguri, the military headquarters of the fight to curb Boko Haram. They said they fear another attack.

Eighty-six bodies were collected by Sunday afternoon, according to Mohammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency. Another 62 people are being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since the military last year drove them out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria.

The 6-year Islamic uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

___

--   kenneth w. harrow   professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

USA Africa Dialogue Series - The urgent matter of refugees and internally placed people in Nigeria

Dear All,

Given the religious premises of reverence for life and the constitutional and legal ideals about the equality of all citizens of the country, the following cannot be overemphasised:

The details given in Dr. Tilde's latest discourse "Sansanonin Ƴan Gudun Hijira Sun Zamo Fursuna" translated from the Hausa: Refugee camps have become Captive brings to the forefront the very urgent problem of millions of internally displaced persons in Nigeria a result of years of Boko Haram mayhem, not least of all today's murder of some 86 as yet unnamed Nigerians and the burning down of their village Dalori in the precincts of Borno's capital Maiduguri

News: Refugees and internally placed people in Nigeria

Merely a month after the Nigerian Government's Declaration that Boko Haram was on the run, Boko Haram's war on fellow citizens continues with impunity, this time striking just outside the heart of Maiduguri, even as they continue with their terrorism in the countries immediately neighbouring Nigeria in to the North East with a recent horrific strike in Cameroon. This Sunni terrorist insurgency - as described in this Al-Jazeera programme - wanting to erect their caliphate on the carcasses of many innocent fellow human beings - is a regional problem and has been that for a few years now.

For a moment I dared to hope that President Buhari would be elected AU chairman for 2016 – but that was not to be, perhaps because he already has so much on his plate needing his absolute attention. Anyway, hopefully, the election of Chad's president Idriss Itno Déby as chairperson of the African Union will put more pressure on curbing Boko Terrorism operations in Nigeria, Cameroon , Niger and Chad.

These are very urgent matters awaiting stronger humanitarian measures from the Buhari Government.

All of the above sincerely meant.

Cornelius

We Sweden

USA Africa Dialogue Series - It Begins: Iowa and an Avalanche of Mayhem

It Begins: Iowa and an Avalanche of Mayhem

Sunday, 31 January 2016 00:00 By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed

Nilan Engstrom arrives early for a campaign rally for Sen. Ted Cruz in Ames, Iowa, January 30, 2016. After hundreds of campaign stops and tens of thousands of television ads, candidates were crisscrossing Iowa the last weekend before voting starts on a final sprint, cajoling the last undecided voters and energizing confirmed supporters to head to Monday night's caucuses. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times)

In Florida, California, New York, Texas - on Super Tuesday and everywhere else - a candidate can campaign by TV commercial and give speeches at big rallies. In Iowa, as in New Hampshire, you campaign by the side of the dusty road - in coffee shops, greasy spoon delis, barns and people's homes. You do so because it is expected and demanded by tradition. It's a place where the media's influence, for a short time, withers on the vine; where candidates actually have to be human beings and not images on a screen speaking in 30-second clips. Many have been called, but few have been chosen; it's a hard hustle, and many a campaign has wound up burned out by the side of that dusty road for failing to connect with voters they are actually required to shake hands with and speak to nose to nose. It is upon us once again.

The 2016 Iowa caucuses begin Monday night, likely in the teeth of a snowstorm if AccuWeather.com has it right. This changes the math regarding turnout, which changes the math on the eventual results. Those results, depending on the storm's severity, may depend not on whose supporters want it more, but on whose supporters have good snow tires.

The stakes are high, especially on the Democratic side. Front-runner Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by a wide margin nationally, according to every available poll, but I don't truck much with national polls. It's the state-by-state polls that matter because circumstances change by the hour, and in Iowa, Clinton and Sanders are in a dead heat. Her campaign is visibly spooked because the situation is exacerbated by Sanders' lead in New Hampshire; unless the planet crashes into the sun, Sanders is going to win his neighbor state by about six million points.

Here is where the media come back into play, and why Iowa is a grave concern for Clinton: Super Tuesday, the day upon which the Clinton campaign depends, is not until a month from Monday, on March 1. If Sanders manages to run the table in the first two states - Iowa on Monday and New Hampshire next Tuesday - the "news" media will have to fill the next three weeks with content, and that content will consist of report after report on how the "inevitable" nominee isn't so inevitable after all. If that happens, it's hats over the windmill for Sanders. The snowstorm may be a factor, but I'm betting there are a lot of people gnawing their fingernails in Clinton's Iowa headquarters.

As for the Republican side of the contest, who the hell knows. I've been covering these things for a very long time, and I've never seen a more unpredictable race in my life. Such an assemblage of rogues has not been seen in US politics since senators were beating each other unconscious with canes in the Capitol Building before the Civil War.

The GOP debate on Thursday night was a rank embarrassment to the tradition of public discourse, exacerbated (of course) by Donald Trump, who skipped the event entirely because Fox News commentator and debate moderator Megyn Kelly was mean to him. Instead, Trump held an ersatz rally for wounded veterans, joined by Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, who were fresh from the kid's table debate, and bulldozed his show into the Fox debate's time slot with the happy help of CNN and MSNBC. He used wounded veterans to step on the Fox News Channel's ratings, basically. As former Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most once said, this was a typical disgusting display.

So, it comes down to pick your poison. Trump? Cruz? Bush? Rubio? Carson? Kasich is surging here in New Hampshire. Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg is making loud noises about jumping into the race as some sort of half-baked savior, which leads to the heartwarming possibility of having two billionaires and a failed Hewlitt-Packard CEO on the stage with the rest of this confederacy of dunces. The whole thing is simply ludicrous.

I think Sanders has a solid chance of defeating Clinton in Iowa. His victory in New Hampshire is basically a foregone conclusion if the poll numbers are even close to correct. The geometry gets fuzzy after that. As for the Republicans, it's a genuine mystery. Is Trump really the front-runner, or just a media creation with support a mile wide and an inch deep? Cruz may well snatch an upset victory in Iowa, whereupon Trump will light his silly hair on fire and storm across the countryside like a berserker looking to sack Rome. One thing is certain: Monday will not be boring.

It begins.

William Rivers Pitt

William Rivers Pitt is Truthout's senior editor and lead columnist. He is also a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of three books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, The Greatest Sedition Is Silence and House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation. His fourth book, The Mass Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible, co-written with Dahr Jamail, is available now on Amazon. He lives and works in New Hampshire.

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa asCognitive Matrix: What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3?

Dear Dr. Oluwatoyin Adepoju:

Last Friday, I wanted to privately bring this to your notice and I searched for your email to no avail. I guess now it is proper to draw your attention and others on this forum who are working on mapping Ifá to many things or deciphering the depth of its knowledge to an essay I published two years ago. Being not an expert on Ifá, I wanted to quietly draw your attention to my essay that deals with Ifá. I did not claim any expertise on Yoruba sacred kingship and Ifá, but when Harvard University invited me in 2013 to respond to Jacob Olupona’s 2011 book on Ife ( City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination) I had to use my expertise in religion and philosophy to make a feeble foray into Ifá and its political theology and philosophy. The response was later published in a journal.

My response focused on the “bodies of the Ooni,” the King’s five bodies as against the two bodies in western theory of sovereignty. (See Nimi Wariboko, “The King’s Five Bodies: Pentecostals in the Sacred City and the Logic of Interreligious Dialogue.” Journal of Africana Religions, Vol. 2, no. 4(2014): 477-501). In this essay I mapped the king’s five bodies to the Ifa divination tray or the divination tray to the king’s bodies. I related the five bodies of the king to the five dimensions of the Ifá divination tray. In my explanation of the five bodies of the king I highlighted the importance of number five in Yoruba mystical thought. My thesis of the Ooni in his royal body is that he is a replica of the creation, an imago mundi, just as the Ifá divination tray is a wooden reproduction of the original world order and its five important axes of power. This essay reveals an aspect of Yoruba theory of sovereignty and this theory is more fascinating, in my judgment, than what is described and analyzed in Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957).

I hope this is helpful to your work.

Thanks,

Nimi Wariboko
Boston University

On 1/31/16, 10:52 AM, "Emmanuel Babatunde" <babemman2000@gmail.com> wrote:

Brother Oluwatoyin Adepoju,

Thank you for this pertinent and deep analysis of the possible uses of Ifa as a mathematical system, system of claims about human nature and a magico-religious matrix. As one interested in African Metaphysics, I am fascinated by these possibilities, while I also accept your caution that Ifa contains, like most magico-religious, internal contradictions. Since you see it as a possible mathematical system may I posit the following suggestions:

1. How does a religious matrix based on revelation and symbolic classification transform into an empirically validatable and refutable source of knowledge that will not depend on dogma and persecution to justify and corroborate its views as valid?

2. Since Mathematics is the language of science because it is logic in symbols, in order to make anything scientific, it must be mathematically replicatable, refutable, and verifiable. When will Yoruba Renaissance occur that will move claims of Ifa from the realm of belief to the realm of fact as Lock - Facta non Verba noted there must be a move from words and to facts?

3. I am fascinated by your mapping. When and what can we do to move Yoruba metaphysics to the point when it can provide mathematical knowledge for the laws of gravity .

When Galileo provoked a movement to the nature of science as the defining matrix for understanding the relationship between heavenly bodies in the universe when he propounded the theory of heliocentrism - the sun, not the earth as the center of the universe, he dealth a blow to magico-religious epistemologies of human experience and debunked the idea of heaven the earth hell or Gehenna-hell below the earth. All the powers of the The Catholic Church, even the Medici Royal line abandoned him. He came close to losing his life but for the support of Jesuits illuminati who confirmed the veracity of his views. Happily enough, the globe has moved away from that pernicious history of that imposed knowledge. What do we need to do to build valid mathematics on Odu Ifa besides its binary permutations etc.

Dr. Olugbemiga Ekundayo and Dr. Nana Aponsah and Walimu Bangura put up a session in the African Studies Presentation a couple of years ago. I am trying to invite deep things like you and them to a weekend at Lincoln University in the near future. Please can you identify about people you think can be invited to this special forum.Dr. Michael Afolayan is one scholar that Iknow

Oluwatoyin, Ki Ifa kogbe ise re;
Ki awon Alajobi fibukun si orii re. Ase! AseO!! Aseso!!!

On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 3:39 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwasrividya@gmail.com> wrote:

<https://www.boxbe.com/overview> This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (oluwasrividya@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule <https://www.boxbe.com/popup?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.boxbe.com%2Fcleanup%3Ftoken%3DCWTmBVhsPGm7wkxItp1yh68AGD%252FRqM20cRsXbPeUVd2M7BjlTXV6ijk8Q4Mc9VI8E85JkMJt23yTyiL%252B4g4oQkjzndA7Avx5vGTKSjY%252FuERup%252Bwz0Fd2T1doXHsk4DQvxamAWx9cnWRGXpYrx0SqyA%253D%253D%26key%3DVqgmFNg%252FUZhOqvkt9wchIvv74pWWgyg3HgYU64z8Vgg%253D&tc_serial=24189787575&tc_rand=1800345994&utm_source=stf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ANNO_CLEANUP_ADD&utm_content=001> | More info <http://blog.boxbe.com/general/boxbe-automatic-cleanup?tc_serial=24189787575&tc_rand=1800345994&utm_source=stf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ANNO_CLEANUP_ADD&utm_content=001>






                                                                                                                                                                                             Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa as Cognitive Matrix


                                                                                                                                                                                               What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3?


   Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
                                           Compcros <http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
                   Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
                                      "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"




Parts 1-3 of this essay series are in preparation.

What is a cognitive matrix?

In this context, a cognitive matrix is a body of ideas and/or practices from which various ways of cultivating knowledge can be developed.

Can the Yoruba origin Ifa system be called philosophy, as some have done, perhaps quoting ideas about the meaning of life and how to live it from ese ifa, Ifa literature?

I wonder, because ese ifa is so varied, playful and even anarchic in its orientation, taking together the various published texts I am acquainted with, these being the Abimbola, Ibie and Bascom translations in particular, along with other translations and renditions, I would be hesitant to describe such a semantically contradictory and complex playground of ideas and imagination an effort to project what one can identify as a unified world view or even a consistent effort to present wisdom.

Is Ifa a spirituality?

It is a spirituality in the sense that it is used as a divinatory and magical system.

Divinatory, in the sense of efforts to gain access to knowledge not otherwise accessible through methods that cannot not be fully accounted for in terms of physical reality.

In the case of Ifa, these methods may be understood in terms of dialogue with the ori or inner self of the client and the odu ifa understood as both organizational forms of Ifa and its active agents..

Ifa is magical, in the sense that it is applied to achieving effects in the world through means that cannot be fully explained in terms of laws of cause and effect that can be traced through logical analysis.

This magical dimension is evident in the prescriptions made after divination and in the use of Ifa incantations along with plants in Pierrer Verger’s monumental collection of Ifa herbalogy, such methods Ewe : The Uses of Plants in Yoruba Society.

Ifa might be challenging to describe as philosophy, but the literary and imaginative character of its verbal texts is evident.

Its mathematical structure, based on a binary principle and on permutations related to probability is also evident.

This mathematical structure demonstrates some similarity with binary structure in computer science, as Olu Longe seems to have been a pioneer in demonstrating, but that does not make Ifa a science nor identical with computing, but only demonstrates Ifa as sharing aspects of structure and aspiration- organization and application of knowledge- with computing, but both cognitive systems pursuing this goal in a different ways.

Its place in the visual arts is also sure, on account of the centrality to Ifa practice and symbolism of the sculptural forms represented by the opon ifa, the iroke ifa and agere ifa.

Is Ifa therefore limited to its explicit literary, divinatory, artistic and magical values?

No.

The system is too rich for such circumscription.

Its possibilities of adaptation are infinite.

It can be adapted to philosophical purposes, for one, through using Ifa as a mine for central questions about the nature of existence, broadly speaking.

As a divinatory system centred on the intersection between aspects of the self, free will and destiny, it can inspire explorations of the nature of the self, and of relationships between human will and the factors that shape the course of human life.

As a mathematical system, it can be adapted to the use of mathematics as a means of mapping ideas and phenomena, even up to scales as broad and as elaborate as the cosmos, one view represented for me by babalawo-adept of the esoteric knowledge of Ifa- Joseph Ohomina- describing the odu, the organizational categories of Ifa, as expressions of all possibilities of existence.

As a literary system, it can motivate literary study, and inspire the reworking of its literature to create new, hybrid forms or the development of entirely new forms.

As a system making unusual claims about the nature of phenomena, it can act as an inspiration for examining the question of the mode of existence of non- material forms, such as mathematical structures and other ideas.

On account of these adaptive possibilities, I see Ifa as a cognitive matrix in which several discipline constellate and from which they may derive inspiration.

Along those lines, the diagram directly below demonstrates an effort of mine to proceed with such an adaptation using an opon ifa around which orbit images of the odu ifa, the organisational categories and active agents of Ifa.

In the diagram the odu ifa are correlated with various aspects of existence.

This style of adapting Ifa derives from its character as a divinatory system but one which may be adapted for uses beyond that older orientation.



Ohomina, in a conversation we had in Benin-City, described the odu ifa as spirits who represent all possibilities of existence, from the concrete to the abstract, from the temporal to the situational.

One way of adapting this idea is that of correlating the odu with forms one understands as the primary categories of existence.

The collage above does this through adapting the structure of derivations in terms of which the odu are organized.

These derivations operate at various levels based on the expansion of one unit into two units in which the second unit is a variation of the first one.

The original two units then constitute the template in terms of which another two units are generated as variations of the first two.

These four primal units are then used as templates for the creation of another twelve units which are variations of the first four units.

The set of sixteen units thus generated is them employed as a framework for creating another two hundred and forty units, which are variations of the structure of the first sixteen units.

This sequence of derivations may be adapted to the development of an increasing number of ideas or principles from a few constituent ideas or principles.

The underlying ideas could demonstrate what are understood to be the most broadly summative of principles in that system while the other ideas could be derivations from these underlying forms.

Using such a process of derivation, one could adapt Ohomina’s description of the odu as demonstrating all possibilities of existence.

One could describe the primary odu in terms of the most fundamental principles of existence and the other odu that derive from the primary odu as the subdivisions of these primary principles.

Using that strategy, the collage above depicts the first odu, Eji Ogbe, as correlative with mind, because consciousness may be seen as the fundamental quality necessary for perceiving existence.

Without consciousness, the cosmos would exist but no entity would register that existence.

The fact of the existence of the cosmos or of any phenomena would be unknown.

The second odu, Oyeku Meji, is linked with matter, because existence, as currently accessible in an uncontroversial sense by human beings, is dependent on matter, be it matter known to be living, this being humans, animals and plants, or matter not conventionally understood as living, such as rocks and air.

The third odu, Iwori Meji, is identified with space because matter necessarily implies space since matter occupies space.

Space is also central to cognition beceause the human being, composed of mind operating in terms of matter, uses space in orienting itself.

The human form is structured in terms of spatial orientation towards the front, two sides- left and right, and the back, this being primary templates for the description of space in terms of east, west, north and south.

The fourth odu, Odi Meji, is depicted in terms of time, since movement in space implies motion in time.

The ultimate markers of time, the revolutions of the celestial bodies, demonstrate spatial motion at the largest scales.

Other primary markers of time, such as the developmental cycles of terrestrial forms, of which the human body and mind are central but which also includes animals, plants and geological forms, are not dependent on motion in space, but may be described metaphorically in terms of motion purely in time.

The remaining twelve of the foundational set of sixteen odu ifa are then described as derivatives of mind, matter, space and time, demonstrating specificities of these four primal units.

The odu to the left of the opon ifa are linked with aspects of mind.

Those to the right with forms of space.

Those at the bottom with forms of time.

Perhaps the model would be more comprehensive if forms of matter are also explicitly included in the subdivisions, but I am reflecting on that for a possible future development of the model.

Including the subdivisions of matter would be vital because Ifa operates in terms of a cosmology grounded in an understanding of ase, a cosmic force that enables existence and change, being and becoming, as pervading all forms of existence, and enabling mutuality of existence between various forms of being, this mutuality being meditated through, or understood in terms of, the orisa Esu, whose face is an invariable feature of every opon ifa, craved into its border, overlooking the empty space where the dialogue between forms of being takes place within a divinatory session, a symbolic construct that may be adapted to an understanding of Ifa divination as analogous to the emergence of possibilities through the intersection of forms of being from within the interactive space symbolized by the empty centre of the opon ifa.

Could these ideas demonstrate any practical significance?

After all, divination is meant to address practical issues that come up in people’s daily lives, issues for which they think their own intelligence or human intelligence as they understand it is too limited to address adequately, so they go to a diviner, a person understood to demonstrate access to supernatural knowledge and power.

So, if one is adapting a divinatory system, should one not also try to see how far one can go with developing that adaptation into a cognitive force which may be applied in daily life?

From my personal experience with access to various kinds of knowledge, I conclude that a cognitive continuum may be demonstrated by human beings, ranging from sense perception to intellectual analysis to imagination , to extra-sensory or expanded sensory perception and even prediction of the future, to intimations of what is described by Maurice Bucke, in his book of the same name, as cosmic consciousness.

This understanding of a cognitive continuum adapts Annenechukwu Umeh’s description of Igbo theory of perception in After God is Dibia : Igbo Cosmology, Divination & Sacred Science in Nigeria and Babatunde Lawal’s presentation of Yoruba theory of perception in “Àwòrán: Representing the Self and Its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art”, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/3177240?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=%22Babatunde+Lawal%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Facc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3BQuery%3Dau%3A%2522Babatunde%2BLawal%2522%26amp%3Bsi%3D1> The Art Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Sep., 2001), pp. 498-526.p.516.

My own experience of intimations of cosmic consciousness is as an intuitive integration of knowledge already held by the mind into a cosmic scope, as described by Aleister Crowley in his Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography and as suggested by Steven Katz in his introduction to Comparative Mysticism : An Anthology of Original Sources.

Can Ifa symbolism be useful as a means of exploring the full range of human cognitive possibilities?

I expect so.




The structuring of the opon ifa into unified segments created through the inscribing of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines into its surface in order to commence divination, may be adapted in relation to Ifa epistemology as grounded in dialogue with the inner self or ori, of the client.

This spatial division and integration is shown in the image directly above from Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought by Henry John Drewal, John Pemberton III and Rowland Abiodun ,

Ifa epistemology as grounded in dialogue with the inner self or ori, of the client was described to me by Ohomina and is suggested by Wande Abimbola in either Ifa Divination Poetry or An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus in terms of the saying that ori is the ultimate deity with respect to the self and that without ori’s consent, no other deity may grant any blessings to the individual.

A superb ese ifa poem Abimbola includes in Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa also indicates that ori is the only orisa or deity who can follow its devotee through the journey of life and into the ultimate journey represented by death.

This adaptation may be developed in terms of an understanding of the centre of the opon ifa as representing, in Stuart Dino Soto/Awo Fategbe’s ’s words presented in my Facebook essay “Ifa Cosmology : The Symbolism of Opon Ifa and Igba Odu 2: Stuart Dino Soto, Awo Fategbe <https://www.facebook.com/notes/oluwatoyin-vincent-adepoju/ifa-cosmology-the-symbolism-of-opon-ifa-and-igba-odu-2-stuart-dino-soto-awo-fate/370730459102> ”:

“The center of the opon not only represents the place where the individual is standing in time and space, but also represents the consciousness of the person in question, as well as the totality of all there is”.

To Be Continued

Also posted in

Facebook Notes <https://www.facebook.com/notes/oluwatoyin-vincent-adepoju/metaphysical-mapping-with-ifa-as-cognitive-matrix-what-is-philosophy-and-what-is/10153340584994103>

Opon Ifa Studies Facebook Group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/oponifa/>

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa asCognitive Matrix: What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3?

Brother Oluwatoyin Adepoju,

Thank you for this pertinent and deep analysis of the possible uses of Ifa as a mathematical system, system of claims about human nature and a magico-religious matrix. As one interested in African Metaphysics, I am fascinated by these possibilities, while I also accept your caution that Ifa contains, like most magico-religious, internal contradictions. Since you see it as a possible mathematical system may I posit the following suggestions:

1. How does a religious matrix based on revelation and symbolic classification transform into an empirically validatable and refutable source of knowledge that will not depend on dogma and persecution to justify and corroborate its views as valid?

2. Since Mathematics is the language of science because it is logic in symbols, in order to make anything scientific, it must be mathematically replicatable, refutable, and verifiable. When will Yoruba Renaissance occur that will move claims of Ifa from the realm of belief to the realm of fact as Lock - Facta non Verba noted there must be a move from words and to facts?

3. I am fascinated by your mapping. When and what can we do to move Yoruba metaphysics to the point when it can provide mathematical knowledge for the laws of gravity .

When Galileo provoked a movement to the nature of science as the defining matrix for understanding the relationship between heavenly bodies in the universe when he propounded the theory of heliocentrism - the sun, not the earth as the center of the universe, he dealth a blow to magico-religious epistemologies of human experience and debunked the idea of heaven the earth hell or Gehenna-hell below the earth. All the powers of the The Catholic Church, even the Medici Royal line abandoned him. He came close to losing his life but for the support of Jesuits illuminati who confirmed the veracity of his views. Happily enough, the globe has moved away from that pernicious history of that imposed knowledge. What do we need to do to build valid mathematics on Odu Ifa besides its binary permutations etc.

Dr. Olugbemiga Ekundayo and Dr. Nana Aponsah and Walimu Bangura put up a session in the African Studies Presentation a couple of years ago. I am trying to invite deep things like you and them to a weekend at Lincoln University in the near future. Please can you identify about people you think can be invited to this special forum.Dr. Michael Afolayan is one scholar that Iknow

Oluwatoyin, Ki Ifa kogbe ise re;

Ki awon Alajobi fibukun si orii re. Ase! AseO!! Aseso!!!

On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 3:39 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwasrividya@gmail.com> wrote:

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (oluwasrividya@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info




                                                                                                                                                                                             Metaphysical Mapping with Ifa as Cognitive Matrix


                                                                                                                                                                                               What is Philosophy and What is its Significance 3?


   Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
                                           Compcros
                   Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
                                      "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"




Parts 1-3 of this essay series are in preparation.

What is a cognitive matrix?

In this context, a cognitive matrix is a body of ideas and/or practices from which various ways of cultivating knowledge can be developed.

Can the Yoruba origin Ifa system be called philosophy, as some have done, perhaps quoting ideas about the meaning of life and how to live it from ese ifa, Ifa literature?

I wonder, because ese ifa is so varied, playful and even anarchic in its orientation, taking together the various published texts I am acquainted with, these being the Abimbola, Ibie and Bascom translations in particular, along with other translations and renditions, I would be hesitant to describe such a semantically contradictory and complex playground of ideas and imagination an effort to project what one can identify as a unified world view or even a consistent effort to present wisdom.

Is Ifa a spirituality?

It is a spirituality in the sense that it is used as a divinatory and magical system.

Divinatory, in the sense of efforts to gain access to knowledge not otherwise accessible through methods that cannot not be fully accounted for in terms of physical reality.

In the case of Ifa, these methods may be understood in terms of dialogue with the ori or inner self of the client and the odu ifa understood as both organizational forms of Ifa and its active agents..

Ifa is magical, in the sense that it is applied to achieving effects in the world through means that cannot be fully explained in terms of laws of cause and effect that can be traced through logical analysis.

This magical dimension is evident in the prescriptions made after divination and in the use of Ifa incantations along with plants in Pierrer Verger's monumental collection of Ifa herbalogy, such methods Ewe : The Uses of Plants in Yoruba Society.

Ifa might be challenging to describe as philosophy, but the literary and imaginative character of its verbal texts is evident.

Its mathematical structure, based on a binary principle and on permutations related to probability is also evident.

This mathematical structure demonstrates some similarity with binary structure in computer science, as Olu Longe seems to have been a pioneer in demonstrating, but that does not make Ifa a science nor identical with computing, but only demonstrates Ifa as sharing aspects of structure and aspiration- organization and application of knowledge- with computing, but both cognitive systems pursuing this goal in a different ways.

Its place in the visual arts is also sure, on account of the centrality to Ifa practice and symbolism of the sculptural forms represented by the opon ifa, the iroke ifa and agere ifa.

Is Ifa therefore limited to its explicit literary, divinatory, artistic and magical values?

No.

The system is too rich for such circumscription.

Its possibilities of adaptation are infinite.

It can be adapted to philosophical purposes, for one, through using Ifa as a mine for central questions about the nature of existence, broadly speaking.

As a divinatory system centred on the intersection between aspects of the self, free will and destiny, it can inspire explorations of the nature of the self, and of relationships between human will and the factors that shape the course of human life.

As a mathematical system, it can be adapted to the use of mathematics as a means of mapping ideas and phenomena, even up to scales as broad and as elaborate as the cosmos, one view represented for me by babalawo-adept of the esoteric knowledge of Ifa- Joseph Ohomina- describing the odu, the organizational categories of Ifa, as expressions of all possibilities of existence.

As a literary system, it can motivate literary study, and inspire the reworking of its literature to create new, hybrid forms or the development of entirely new forms.

As a system making unusual claims about the nature of phenomena, it can act as an inspiration for examining the question of the mode of existence of non- material forms, such as mathematical structures and other ideas.

On account of these adaptive possibilities, I see Ifa as a cognitive matrix in which several discipline constellate and from which they may derive inspiration.

Along those lines, the diagram directly below demonstrates an effort of mine to proceed with such an adaptation using an opon ifa around which orbit images of the odu ifa, the organisational categories and active agents of Ifa.

In the diagram the odu ifa are correlated with various aspects of existence.

This style of adapting Ifa derives from its character as a divinatory system but one which may be adapted for uses beyond that older orientation.



Ohomina, in a conversation we had in Benin-City, described the odu ifa as spirits who represent all possibilities of existence, from the concrete to the abstract, from the temporal to the situational.

One way of adapting this idea is that of correlating the odu with forms one understands as the primary categories of existence.

The collage above does this through adapting the structure of derivations in terms of which the odu are organized.

These derivations operate at various levels based on the expansion of one unit into two units in which the second unit is a variation of the first one.

The original two units then constitute the template in terms of which another two units are generated as variations of the first two.

These four primal units are then used as templates for the creation of another twelve units which are variations of the first four units.

The set of sixteen units thus generated is them employed as a framework for creating another two hundred and forty units, which are variations of the structure of the first sixteen units.

This sequence of derivations may be adapted to the development of an increasing number of ideas or principles from a few constituent ideas or principles.

The underlying ideas could demonstrate what are understood to be the most broadly summative of principles in that system while the other ideas could be derivations from these underlying forms.

Using such a process of derivation, one could adapt Ohomina's description of the odu as demonstrating all possibilities of existence.

One could describe the primary odu in terms of the most fundamental principles of existence and the other odu that derive from the primary odu as the subdivisions of these primary principles.

Using that strategy, the collage above depicts the first odu, Eji Ogbe, as correlative with mind, because consciousness may be seen as the fundamental quality necessary for perceiving existence.

Without consciousness, the cosmos would exist but no entity would register that existence.

The fact of the existence of the cosmos or of any phenomena would be unknown.

The second odu, Oyeku Meji, is linked with matter, because existence, as currently accessible in an uncontroversial sense by human beings, is dependent on matter, be it matter known to be living, this being humans, animals and plants, or matter not conventionally understood as living, such as rocks and air.

The third odu, Iwori Meji, is identified with space because matter necessarily implies space since matter occupies space.

Space is also central to cognition beceause the human being, composed of mind operating in terms of matter, uses space in orienting itself.

The human form is structured in terms of spatial orientation towards the front, two sides- left and right, and the back, this being primary templates for the description of space in terms of east, west, north and south.

The fourth odu, Odi Meji, is depicted in terms of time, since movement in space implies motion in time.

The ultimate markers of time, the revolutions of the celestial bodies, demonstrate spatial motion at the largest scales.

Other primary markers of time, such as the developmental cycles of terrestrial forms, of which the human body and mind are central but which also includes animals, plants and geological forms, are not dependent on motion in space, but may be described metaphorically in terms of motion purely in time.

The remaining twelve of the foundational set of sixteen odu ifa are then described as derivatives of mind, matter, space and time, demonstrating specificities of these four primal units.

The odu to the left of the opon ifa are linked with aspects of mind.

Those to the right with forms of space.

Those at the bottom with forms of time.

Perhaps the model would be more comprehensive if forms of matter are also explicitly included in the subdivisions, but I am reflecting on that for a possible future development of the model.

Including the subdivisions of matter would be vital because Ifa operates in terms of a cosmology grounded in an understanding of ase, a cosmic force that enables existence and change, being and becoming, as pervading all forms of existence, and enabling mutuality of existence between various forms of being, this mutuality being meditated through, or understood in terms of, the orisa Esu, whose face is an invariable feature of every opon ifa, craved into its border, overlooking the empty space where the dialogue between forms of being takes place within a divinatory session, a symbolic construct that may be adapted to an understanding of Ifa divination as analogous to the emergence of possibilities through the intersection of forms of being from within the interactive space symbolized by the empty centre of the opon ifa.

Could these ideas demonstrate any practical significance?

After all, divination is meant to address practical issues that come up in people's daily lives, issues for which they think their own intelligence or human intelligence as they understand it is too limited to address adequately, so they go to a diviner, a person understood to demonstrate access to supernatural knowledge and power.

So, if one is adapting a divinatory system, should one not also try to see how far one can go with developing that adaptation into a cognitive force which may be applied in daily life?

From my personal experience with access to various kinds of knowledge, I conclude that a cognitive continuum may be demonstrated by human beings, ranging from sense perception to intellectual analysis to imagination , to extra-sensory or expanded sensory perception and even prediction of the future, to intimations of what is described by Maurice Bucke, in his book of the same name, as cosmic consciousness.

This understanding of a cognitive continuum adapts Annenechukwu Umeh's description of Igbo theory of perception in After God is Dibia : Igbo Cosmology, Divination & Sacred Science in Nigeria and Babatunde Lawal's presentation of Yoruba theory of perception in "Àwòrán: Representing the Self and Its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art", The Art Bulletin, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Sep., 2001), pp. 498-526.p.516.

My own experience of intimations of cosmic consciousness is as an intuitive integration of knowledge already held by the mind into a cosmic scope, as described by Aleister Crowley in his Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography and as suggested by Steven Katz in his introduction to Comparative Mysticism : An Anthology of Original Sources.

Can Ifa symbolism be useful as a means of exploring the full range of human cognitive possibilities?

I expect so.




The structuring of the opon ifa into unified segments created through the inscribing of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines into its surface in order to commence divination, may be adapted in relation to Ifa epistemology as grounded in dialogue with the inner self or ori, of the client.

This spatial division and integration is shown in the image directly above from Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought by Henry John Drewal, John Pemberton III and Rowland Abiodun ,

Ifa epistemology as grounded in dialogue with the inner self or ori, of the client was described to me by Ohomina and is suggested by Wande Abimbola in either Ifa Divination Poetry or An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus in terms of the saying that ori is the ultimate deity with respect to the self and that without ori's consent, no other deity may grant any blessings to the individual.

A superb ese ifa poem Abimbola includes in Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa also indicates that ori is the only orisa or deity who can follow its devotee through the journey of life and into the ultimate journey represented by death.

This adaptation may be developed in terms of an understanding of the centre of the opon ifa as representing, in Stuart Dino Soto/Awo Fategbe's 's words presented in my Facebook essay "Ifa Cosmology : The Symbolism of Opon Ifa and Igba Odu 2: Stuart Dino Soto, Awo Fategbe":

"The center of the opon not only represents the place where the individual is standing in time and space, but also represents the consciousness of the person in question, as well as the totality of all there is".

To Be Continued

Also posted in

Facebook Notes

Opon Ifa Studies Facebook Group



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