Myth about IFA

MYTHS ABOUT IFA 

Several myths about Ifa say that Ifa in the company of other major deities came to earth from heaven and first landed 

at Ife.

The Yoruba people believe IFe to be the cradle of mankind. 

The gods were sent from heaven to Ife mainly to establish order on the young earth. 

Ifa played a major role in this divine ordering because of his great wisdom. 

At this period of the sojourn of Ifa at Ife, he lived in a place known as Oke lgiti. 

That is why one of his praise names is Okunrin kukuru Oke lgiti (The small man of lgiti Hill). 

The myths say that after a long stay at If¢, Ifa moved to Ado. Ifa is believed to have spent the greater part of his life on earth at Ado. 

That is probably why there is the mying 

'Ado n'ile Ifa' (Ado is the home of Ifa). But it is not known  which one of the two most prominent Ado in Yoruba oral 

literature-Ado-Ekiti and Ado-Awaye-this myth refers to. 

lfa literary corpus is, however, so full of names of places from Ekiti area that one is inclined to think that Ado-Ekiti is the 

more probable one. 

We also learn in these myths that lfa had eight children and a number of disciples, all of whom he taught the secrets  of divination. 

Six of the eight children bear personal names  similar to the titular names of Eldti kings; 

Alara, 

Ajero, 

Ontaji, 

oloye-moyin, 

Elejelu-mope and

 Alakegi. 

The other two are Olowo (similar to the title of the king of Owarangun (similar to the title Orangun, king of lla and to the 

title (the king of Ila). 

All the eight children were born while 

Ifa was at Ife. 

They all grew up to be important people and they later dispersed to various parts of Yorubaland. 

According to the myths, there were occasions when, there being no physical barrier between heaven and earth at that 

time, Ifa was summoned by Olodumare (God Almighty) to heaven to use his great wisdom to solve problems for Him. 

Ifa finally returned to heaven in annoyance due to an insult given to him by one of his children. 

Shortly after this, the earth was thrown into great confusion. Famine and pestilence raged throughout the earth. 

So great was the calamity that the ferti�lity cycle in human beings was disrupted. 

After some time, the people of the earth decided to seek remedy for the hardship by sending the eight children of  Orunmila to heaven to go and beg their father to return to earth. 

The children went accordingly. When they reached heaven, they found lfa 'at the foot of the much-climbed palm tree which branched this way and that until it had sixteen hut-like branches.' 

They begged Ifa to come back to the earth, but he refused. 

lfa, however, gave each of his eight children sixteen palm�nuts .

When the children of lfa returned to earth, they started to use the sixteen palm-nuts for divination. 

The sixteen palmnuts were the symbol of the authority by lfa to his children to continue making divination in his absence. 

The sixteen palm-nuts known as ikin have been used as an impor�tant part of the Ifa divination system from that time till today. 

The absence of Ifa from the earth no longer mattered, since his children and disciples could communicate with him through ikin and the other instmments of divination. 

This Article is written by AJE NLA (whatsapp +2347031178647).For the following:::

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Yes and No questions

Feeding of Ori (inner head)

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