AFA IN IGBO LAND

                        AFA IN IGBO 

                    (IFA IN YORUBA)

An extract from the book ‘Oghe Peoples and Culture’:

By Chief (Hon) Ndu Oliver Kanayo (Ezedinaobi).

The Afa, (Igbo) and Ifa (Yoruba) divination system is a set of divination acts of seeking after knowledge of the future or hidden things by a Dibia (Igbo) and Babalawo (Yoruba) to create and make use of set of rules to communicate with the gods so as to solve people's problems.

Afa in Igboland, and particularly in Oghe is a system of enquiry into the land of the unknown; of looking into the future to see which seed will grow and which will not. Through ‘igba-afa’, the Dibia could find out the solution to man’s problems, and find out the root cause of an action or an undesirable situation.

In Igboland, and Oghe in particular, the dibia mediate between the people and the gods, and therefore are consulted in order to know the minds of the gods and before taking a decision on an important issue and their opinions as fortune tellers are widely respected.

Mankind has the technique to invent and use tools, build houses, machines, etc; and also the technique of the spiritual order; as a conscious attempt to control the environment in which he lives, either in the form of prayer, sacrifice, or reciting an incantation in prescribed form. The Igboman believes that the spirits control his affairs; hence he seeks a mediator between him and the many gods or powers, and falls into the hands of the dibia who are believed to know the minds of the gods and the ways of appealing to them or avoiding their anger.

People consult the dibia in important issues of life, for example, in choosing a wife or husband, at birth to know which ancestor is reincarnated in the child, in death to find out who is responsible for it, etc; hence the expression: “Ana esi na anya Dibia ahu mmuo”, meaning one sees the spirit through the eyes of a diviner, one hears the words of the spirit through the mouth of a diviner. 

Their function in the community is unlimited: they say when to engage in a war; they maintain justice in the land; direct people on sacrificial rites and requirements; and are in many cases the only eligible men to offer sacrifices, depending on the type of sacrifice.

Types of Afa: The Dibia use different divination item and materials, like Cowries, Nuts, Kennels, Coins, Pebbles, Bones and Shells (Afa Nd’ Mmiri); Kola nuts (Afa Oji); Mirrors, Mats and Twined Straws (Afa Ita); but the most popular in Oghe-Ezeagu is the traditional ‘Ukpukpa’ divination chain, mostly of ‘Ujuli’ (Afa Ujuli).

Ifa or Orunmila, in Yoruba is the deity of wisdom and intellectual development, called upon to judge cases and provide answers to problems. He is a link between the people and Almighty God (Eledumare).

Igba-afa/Idafa divination systems, performed by Dibia (Babalawo/Iyanifa), make use of signs omens and coincidences to tell hidden things; some of which are more deliberate, almost as reading signs and omens. They are invented to generate coincidences that do not depend upon external events, which can then be interpreted.

The Igbo are among the first people to understand the algorithms of the computer system; the binary of everything, called the ‘Akwu-Obi’.  ‘Akuw-Obi’, in mathematics, is called binary; 0 and1. 

The word ‘Akwu’ means zero in ancient Igbo language; the Afa cult language which men spoke, when men were gods, during ‘Uga-Aka’. So ‘Akwu’ is (0) zero and ‘Obi’ is (1) one. The combination and permutation of the ‘Akwu-Obi’ gave birth to the 16 constellations of every Afa language, including ‘Odi’, ‘Owi’, ‘Otule’, and ‘Obala’. The Igbo people were using these mathematical constant for communication. 

Some notable Yoruba scholars, especially Prof. Odeyemi, Prof. Olu Longe and Bade Ajayi had presented an extensive explanation of the Ifa divination system; proved its existence and authenticity, given and bring out salient similarities between the field of computer science and the act of ifa divination; and presented a reference data for future work in this study.

There are 16 rules that underline the Afa/Ifa divination system:

Law 1: There is a single Supreme God.

Law 2: There is no Devil.

Law 3: Except for the day you were born and the day you are supposed to die, there is no single event in your life that cannot be forecast and, when necessary, changed.

Law 4: It is your birthright to be happy, successful, and fulfilled.

Law 5: You should grow and obtain wisdom during this process.

Law 6: You are born through your blood relatives.

Law 7: Heaven is home, the earth is the marketplace, and everyone is constantly between the two.

Law 8: You are part of the universe in a literal sense, not a figurative way.

Law 9: You must never initiate harm to another human being.

Law 10: You should never harm the universe of which you are apart.

Law 11: Your temporal and spiritual capacities must work together.

Law 12: You are born with a specific path, and it is your goal to travel it. Divination will be there to provide your road map.

Law 13: Your ancestors exist and must be honoured.

Law 14: Sacrifice guarantees success.

Law 15: The Órisàs live within us.

Law 16: You need to have no fear.

Afa (Ifa) universal relevance lies in the fact that it may reveal a message of national, continental or even global importance, which may be a warning of an approaching war, famine, or pestilence, although the seeker was concerned only about personal issue, such as marriage.

The Afa (Ifa) divination system, practiced for over 12,000 years among Africans (eg. Igbo and Yoruba) communities and by the African diaspora in the America and the Caribbean; makes use of an extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formulas.

The opele (ukpukpa) is a divining chain consisting of two arms made of 8 beads on both the left side and the right side. The right side is called the male, and the left is called the female.

Academic studies revealed that Ifa/Afa Oracle divination was developed based on the square of 16=16x16=26 = 2^8 corresponding to the vertices of an 8 dimensional hypercube and to the binary 2-choice Clifford algebra C1(8) and so to related ones such as C1(8)xC1(8) = C1(16).

Since the number of sub-hypercubes in an 8-dimensional hypercube is     6,561 =81x81=3^8, the Ifa (Afa) Oracle has N=8 ternary 3-structure as well as binary 2-structure. The processes used in ifa (afa) divination system bear some similarities with the Computer Science.

For thousands of years, Ifa (Afa) was preserved in binary coded format within 256 Odus or Corpus, each Odu representing an esoteric pigeonhole, itself divisible into 256 sub-holes; each has sixteen alternatives and subdivided into verses called ese.

Ifa (Afa), Prof. Olu Longe said, is actually an ancient binary computer system which, in some inexplicable way, has successfully linked the probability of numbers with the complexities of the human condition and the ever complex flux of events. Bits are used to represent, encode and store information; hence Ifa (afa) is based on the 8-bit pattern with its eight–piece divination chain. 

Sixteen of the Odu are the major/principal ones while the remaining 240 are the mixed or minor Odu. Mixed Odu is formed by the combination of two principal Odu; each, (both principal and minor) is represented by a specific sign which is binary in nature.

Bade Ajayi stated that Orunmila, the Yoruba God of Wisdom and divination uses a geomantic system of divination to arrive at appropriate signs and employs Ifa (Afa) verses to interpret the signs.

Communication with the Odu is achieved by means of a calculated mathematical framework based on the prescribed course of conduct required from each Odu.

At a divination session, several ‘Ibo’ (instruments for casting lot), may be used to find detail information about a client's problem.

Consider the opele that have pairs punched (1) and there ‘bi’ pairs not punched (0); using this code paper model of Ifa -6-A-Bits computer model N has been developed.

Here is the model worked out by Opele Punches Odu Name:

(1) 000000 Ogbe (2) 001111 Oyeku (3) 001001 Iwori (4) 000110 Odi        (5) 000011 Irosun (6) 001100 Owonrin (7) 000111 Obara       (8) 001101 Okanran (9) 001000 Ogunda  (10) 000001 Osa (11) 001011 Ika  (12) 001110 Oturupon (13) 000010 Otua   (14) 000100 Irete (15) 000101 Ose (16) 001010 Ofun 

In Computer Science, a byte consists of eight bits and a nibble represents four bits. Thus the four beads on one side of an opele can be likened to a nibble and all eight nuts, is a byte in Computer Science.

Just like bits are arranged in different patterns of zeros and ones to form a particular binary number or digit; such is the opele nuts combinations.

The concave side is two strokes, 1 in binary and the convex side is a stroke, 0 in binary; represent names:

(1)Ffff 0000 Ejiogbe (2) Bbbb 1111 Oyeku (3) Bffb 1001 Iwori (4) Fbbf 0110 Odi (6) Bbfb 1100 Owonrin (8) Bbbf 1101 Okanran (11) Bfbb 1011 Ika         (12)Bbbf 1110 Oturupon 

Each one of the 256 odu has its specific divination signature. Within each of the 256 Odus, there are 1,680 Sacred Verses all presented in Parable - Format. Thus, the body of Ifa (Afa) consists of 430,080 messages for mankind.

The pattern of outcomes derived from the opele (ukpukpa) is analysed against all 256 odus and ese (poem) to derive a solution to the clients problem. Then the ifa (Afa) priest prescribes an oogun (ogwu) (medicine) for the client.

The dibia are highly respected for their role, and also for the rigorous, painful training they undergo and the good relation which is believed to exist between them and the spirits. 

They are equally feared and respected because they are believed to be under the possession of the spirits whenever they are engaged in divination.