"Writing" and "Reference" in Ifá Divination Chants

Abstract

Abstract By casting Ifa stories in a relatively permanent medium, Christian missionaries would be creating a self-reflection apparatus for the literate nonbeliever with which to critically examine the spheres of thought hitherto controlled by the guild of divination priests, the babalawo. Taking divination stories to be Ifa's main tool of mind control, Bishop Phillips recommended print dissemination of these narratives as a means of freeing the critical faculty of non-Christians from the shroud of secrecy (awo) with which Ifa priests deceived Yoruba people through the ages. Print technology, he thought, would separate mystery (awo) from its curators (babalawo). For Bishop Phillips, the deep secret of pre-Christian Yoruba worship lay not in sculptured icons but in the reasoning that inspired divination stories. If the stories were converted to portable packages comparable to the Bible, the only book authored by the true God, then the theological errors of Yoruba religion could be easily pointed out. In a palpable, scripted shape, indigenous religious thought could be quoted, disputed, and exposed.

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