Baba Odùdúwà, the 16 Kings, and how Babalawo’s changed the Tradition of ÒÒŞÀ & IFÁ:

Bàbá Odùdúwà tells about the beginnings of the Yorùbá ÒÒŞÀ and IFÁ Traditions in ancient times.

Teaching given by Baba Odùdúwà through his Ẹlẹ̀gún (medium or channel) in August 2009. Baba Odùdúwà:
When I initiated this Tradition, we were 16 Elders and me (Odùdúwà), I don’t have essence of Ọbàtálá, and I
have essence of ÈŞÙ ELÉGBÁRA. They were 15 Ọbàtálá’s plus another man; You know who that man was?
That Man was ÒGÚN, that’s why the ODÙ (or ÓDÙN) OGUNDA, that means “Ògún Creates”. Ògún is the
hard worker that never stops working, always sweat and with strong odor, due to the action of his hard work.
The Yorùbá Òòşà Tradition belongs to those who work, to those who clean the floor, the ones who clean up.
We called the 15 Ọbàtálá’s, because they represented the Kings. Ọbàtálá means the King of the Cloth (or
white mantle or cloth). These 15 men had essence of Ọbàtálá. When we arrived at the area of ỌYỌ, that was
the Promise Land, we all establish there, and we distributed the land in 16 Kingdoms (the 16 Kingdoms of the
YORÙBÁ Confederation). In one kingdom, according to the doctrine that I gave to my followers, they did
things in one way, the way that they understood them, and in another kingdom they did things according to
how they understood them, and so on happened in the 16 kingdoms. The 16 kingdoms were like a diamond
that has to be polished. They notice that the 16 kingdoms worked differently, and what they did was to unify
the way each kingdom worked in the presence of Baba Odùdúwà. I indoctrinated all the 16 kings, but I
emphasized that they understood what had to be understood. The 16 kings had already three years building
their respective kingdoms. Later in the land of ILE IFE, they began to know IFÁ, who was an ELDER, a
WISEMAN, and is when people believe that they fuse the Òòşà and the IFÁ Traditions. To do an Òrìşà, you
don’t need an AWO IFÁ (Babalawo), the Òòşà Tradition belongs to the Òòşà Tradition (ad their Initiates).
Òòşà and IFÁ are two different currents or paths, they walk together, but that doesn’t mean that they are
fused. After the Ọ̀rúnmìlà disappeared, and after the 16 Kings died, after Ògún died, and after I (Odùdúwà)
pass away, when the new arrived, Elégbára, Yemoyale, Ọ̀şọ́ọ̀sì, it comes to happen that they created, in
accordance with what the assembly of OLUWO or the more elder Ifá Priest Elders they decreed in ILÉ IFẸ̀
that a person initiated into IFÁ CAN`T be Initiated into the Òòşà / Òrìşà Tradition. If you went to the Oluwo
(Babalawo) they Initiated you into the Ifá Tradition, but for them, You could not go and get Initiated into the
Òòşà (Òrìşà) Tradition. That was because this groups of Elder Babalawo’s started to demerit the Òòşà (Òrìşà)
tradition, and because of that, Ọ̀rúnmìlà came back and started to spread “Afọşẹ” (afoshe-Magic Spells),
tragedy, and he told the Babalawo and Oluwo this: “I Curse You all, because You Don’t Recognize the Origin
of All”, and this is written. Then this group of Babalawo continued with their work, and they began to distort,
to deviate. Now, there are places that they don’t Initiated woman into Ifá (Ìtẹfá initiation as Ìyánifá), there
another places that they do initiated woman to Ifá, there other places that only allow woman to be Apètèbí
(and so on, many different changes and variations from one place to another in the Yorùbá land).

Note: You can see how that happen in ancient times, and now it continues, different opinions, different ways
of doing the ceremonies, in one place do this this way, in another group in another way.