Thank you prof.
.What we need to appreciate is that, what is characterised as magic: that which principle of operation are closely guarded by a few knowledgeable elite. Their decided secrecy was their 'patent' and 'copyright'
One of such elites in Biblical times was Moses. He, together with Aaron and others knew the principles of what was represented as 'magic' to outsiders, which the Rabbinical class embellish with fantastic tales to confound and assert their magical nature. The Inner circle knew how to crack the code of information encoded in the lore wrapped in agreed metaphors. We must remember that the etymological roots of the word magic was the word 'magi', a select group like the the Ifá priesthood or the Ògbóni cultists.
Isaac Newton was reputed to have through diligent studies cracked the code of such Biblical lores and established the basis of alchemy which later grew to modern Chemistry by substitution of letters and number codes for the literary and lexical codes. Biblical codes entail use of what we literary comparatists would call agreed Metonymical and Synechdochal words by such closely knit knowledgeable guilds. For example the head of an antelope was discovered to refer not to the actual animal but was stand- in name for a precious metal. ( Ifá uses this strategy a lot!)
As for Ifá and Ofò they would never agree to demonstrate the basis to a western trained outsider like the late ' Baba Dean' ( as my sibling who was at the Ogun State University said they called the late Oyin Ògunbà.) What would be the point of demonstrating the basis of their ' patent' to him and losing their exclusive rights to the products, thus undercutting themselves.?
Adepoju's proposed Ofò project does not fit in into the traditional use of Ofò as you said. It hoes beyond the ordinarily literary because the guild had evolved an idiolect specific only to them and not shared by the Yoruba generality. So even if Adepoju is generally proficient in Yoruba ( which he is not) it would still be an un-doable project for him unless he belonged to the guild that composed the Ofò. What is crucial here is that words were not used in their denotational level but in their exclusive concentrated connotational level ( language within a language if you wish.)
When Àwíse Wândé Abímbólá for instance was doing a literary analysis of sixteen poems of Ifá, he would limit himself to this denotational use and would not reveal the deeper connotational meanings shared with fellow members of Ifá guilds with the public.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
From: segun ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com>
Date: 17/12/2020 11:48 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding and Shaping LifethroughStudying and Creating Yoruba Poetry of Laughter, Delight and Wonder
I know Ofo works very effectively in a very limited way if used by a competent practitioner as a medicine man and not as a magic wonder.
I knew Prof. Oyin Ogunba. He was the Dean of Faculty of Arts at Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye, Ijebu-Igbo campus in the mid 80s. I had worked very closely with him in those days. I knew he
had doubts about the efficacy of African magical powers just as I did then. The question l still grapple with is that, if African ancestors had such magical powers, how come, a handful of Europeans took them into slavery?
The practitioners of Ofo, in my view, use it on emergencies.
Segun Ogungbemi.
On Fri, Dec 11, 2020, 9:08 AM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
--
This is a misrepresentation of what Ofo as a cosmic force is about.
I remember when I had a tutorial with my HOD the late Oyin Ogunba on the use of Ofo..
He told me he had been invited to demonstrations of the magical efficacy of Ofo and that at the last moment the organisers prevaricated. He said he did not have any evidence of the magical efficacy of Ofo.
I reminded him that he was a ' foreigner' among the practitioners and they would be reluctant to share their secrets with him, like they would not with a westerner knowing he would encourage broadcasting it for gains without a return to the owners of the 'patent' ( I could not believe this came from an Ìjębú professor who were reputed among the Yoruba for their especial proficiency in the magical arts. I thought he was only telling me what western education allowed him to divulge and not what he actually believed. The Awo whom I consulted within the same period for effective remedy which I narrated here was actually in Ìjębú land.)
I reminded him that the verbal arts which he wanted to treat merely as literature has an esoteric side involving actual psysical potencies. He merely chuckled in his characteristic style.
What Toyin Adepoju seems to be misrepresenting falls along the same pathway: that the words alone will produce magical power. I do not believe this is possible.
How is Toyin Adepoju going to use the literary power of words to change the life of participants in a seminar? The Awo I consulted did not just heal me with the power of words contained in the Ęsę Ifá he chanted. He handed me a bottle containing herbs and tree bark in solution which actually did the healing.
An etymology of Awo comes in handy here. It means a covenant not to divulge the workings and formula of the products of a particular guild and therefore represents humanity's first attempt to evolve a copyright and patent system before western modernity. It was primarily evolved to prevent abuse by the laity and protect the earnings of members from activities of fakes.
What Adepoju is misrepresenting is what psychoanalysis describes as the fallacy of the omnipotence of thought. The literary effects of words cannot procure the remedy which Adepoju is using this forum to falsely disseminate.
Oyin Ogunba never told me that the literary effects of words can achieve the transformation in the problems in the lives of anybody. He never advocated that people should be taught how to construct Ofo so that it can provide a remedy for human problems..
Adepoju has gone a step further as usual in presenting himself as an expert in what he does not fully understand in order to make a fast buck.
The proposed seminar is therefore sham and a money making gimmick.
If he wants to teach literature and literary analysis of Ofo as Oyin Ogunba did then that is a straightforward issue. But he does not belong to any guild that knows the full circumstances of producing either Ìjálá or Ofò.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>Date: 11/12/2020 10:28 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>, wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com, Bring Your Baseball Bat <naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding and Shaping Life throughStudying and Creating Yoruba Poetry of Laughter, Delight and Wonder
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1. Mobilize Cosmic Force in Nature to Empower Your Life and Pursue Your Goals through Ofo, Yoruba Poetry of Incantations--
Would you like to learn to use affirmations that draw on the cosmic force that pervades nature in energizing your life and pursuing your goals?
Masters of verbal art among the Yoruba of West Africa developed powerful systems for this purpose, ancient methods this course will teach you how to understand and use.
Mobilizing patterns in nature through powerful imagery, they directed ase, creative, cosmic force, for the achievement of specific goals.
You can do the same too, with the guidance of this course.
The course will be taught in English.
2. Studying and Creating Ese Ifa, Literature of Laughter and Worship, Adventure and Delight
Some people, somewhere, laugh at their gods.
Yet they worship them.
No humans, no gods, they say.
Earth existed before the gods, they assert.
In this world, no one fights to defend any god or belief.
The sheer beauty of the celebration of nature in this world, the delightful variety in their depictions of the divine, funny and sublime, are glorious.
This is the world of ese ifa, one of the world's great bodies of literature.
It comes from the Yoruba people of West Africa.
Encounter this ancient and magnificent tradition and learn how to create such literature as those inspired masters.
No literary background is required.
The course shall be taught in English.
3.Forest as Cosmos
Learning from and Constructing Ijala, Yoruba Poetry of Hunters
Poised to bring down the magnificent beast, I yet marvelled at it's amazing grace within such brute power.
Hidden in the forest, lying flat with my gun pointing at at the baboon, I seemed to be doing him homage.
Is the life of a hunter a life for a thinking man?
This is a description from "Salute to the Baboon," a poem of Ijala, poetry of hunters from the Yoruba of West Africa, with a reflection on it's implications.
Wole Soyinka describes Ijala as celebrating the deity Ogun, as well as "animal and plant life, the relationships of growing things and the insights of man into the secrets of the universe.'
Abiola Irele depicts Ijala as expressing the world of the hunter seen as a navigation of the forest, peopled by animal and spirit powers, reflecting the variety and complexity of the cosmos.
Learn how to draw upon such rich insights, ancient yet ever fresh, in an increasingly complex world, as the world of work replaces the forest, the daily commute the navigations of the hunter, lockdown isolation replaces his long hours waiting for animals to appear.
You will learn how to understand this art and use it in making sense of your life, shaping it's meaning and outcomes.
The seminar will be conducted in English.
All interested parties may contact me for directions at to how to take advantage of these courses.
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