DECOLONIZING THE DISCIPLINES: A HISTORICAL STUDY OF

REVOLUTIONS AND PARADIGM SHIFTS IN IFA AS A DIVINATION

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

Balogun Oladapo Jimoh

Abstract

This paper attempts to survey and conceptualize what it observes as a

decolonizing, globalizing and Pan-African shift in contemporary divination

theory of knowledge. Thus, I shall explore divination as a theory of epistemic

gaze within this shifts and paradigm. Specifically I shall explore Ifa as a mental

discipline and its vicissitudes in the globalizing, decolonizing and Pan-Africanist

quest for the disciplinary attitude which could jumpstart the rebirth of African

civilizations.

Decolonization as a theory of epistemic gaze marks the beginning of the

irruption of Ifa in contemporary epistemic theory. Its amoebic fusion with

modern disciplines such as philosophy, medicine, biology, computer,

mathematics, literature and so on is quite significant and remarkable for our

attention.

It is this significance and remarkability of the ‘fusionary trend and patterns’ in

contemporary divination theory of knowledge that I hope to explore in this

paper.

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Introduction

The ratio of forces has been inverted; decolonization

has begun; all that our hired soldiers can do is to
delay its completion (Jean Paul Satire) in the
introduction to Wretched of the Earth.

‚The central objective of decolonization is to

overthrow the authority which alien traditions
exercise over the African. This demand, the
dismantling of white supremacist beliefs, and the
structures which uphold them, in every area of
African life. It must be stressed, however, that
decolonization does not mean ignorance of foreign
traditions; it simply means denial of their authority
and withdrawal of allegiance from them – Chinwezu‛
(in Uhuru, Hotep,
http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/post-
translated/9003-decolonising-african-mind-
africentricstrategy/htm/).

Concluding their paper on the relationship that exists between Ifa and Statistics,

Shango Doyin and Ojo asks three fundamental questions as futuristic challenges

to researchers on Ifa. First, they ask, whether Ifa has a future or not. Second, they

ask whether Ifa divination would be turned to means of entertainment or

documents for serious scientific and philosophical work for the advancement of

knowledge in its ramifications? Third, they ask whether Ifa has any positive

direction in this modern world. This essay is an attempt to respond to these

questions within the decolonizing framework and divinatory perspectives using

Ifa as an example of the current urge, almost everywhere, to decolonize modern

disciplines in Africa (Shangodoyin and Ojo in Orisa: 2007:75-87).

Thus, this paper will be surveying the intellectual and decolonizing shifts in

contemporary divination theory of knowledge. The intention is to bring into

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focus a long-drawn trend and pattern in the discourse concerning Ifa corpus and

in the end we shall flesh out the disciplinary characteristic of this discourse.

The first thesis we shall be defending is that most disciplines in African

intellectual history are already undergoing a process of decolonization. This urge

to decolonize is everywhere in literature, philosophy, social sciences. It is this

urge to decolonize the disciplines that we have taken as the point of departure in

our bid to reinvest African indigenous knowledge systems with the disciplinary

power that it deserves. Knowledge is possible only through the bodied with the

unbodied; and this is what divination represents.

The second thesis is that divination as a systematic pattern of knowledge

gathering is the most ubiquitous mode of knowledge that Africans have been

practicing since the dawn of time. There is no human civilization without a

knowledge base, without a logical pattern of reasoning which helps to grasp the

problems of human existence and his place in the universe. If the urge to

decolonize the discipline as a mental locus of power is to be accomplished, then

we should be looking at divination and its shift from purely aboriginal

knowledge system to its contemporary fusion with modern disciplines. In this

sense, Ifa is the most visible explainer of this process. Decolonization as an

internal epistemic gaze makes Ifa the foundation of disciplinary attitude that is

needed for the rebirth and the ‘return into history’ of African civilizations.

The third thesis is that Ifa is undergoing a transmutation into contemporary

knowledge system with its fusion with modern disciplines like physics,

computer sciences, statistics, biology, mathematics, technology, literature,

philosophy, history medicine etc. And since one of the intention of the historian

of knowledge systems is to map out emerging territory of knowledge, we shall

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anchor this ‘fusionary trends and pattern’ on the conceptual formulation which

we shall refer to as Oruminology. Orunminology, we shall claim, is a thought

process whose subject matter is the systematic investigation of the foundations of

indigenous knowledge systems and their application to contemporary needs of

African in particular and humanity in general. We shall conclude this essay with

the decolonizing intent, an idea with which we started in the first place: the

Substitution of the Epistemology of African Philosophy with Orunminology of

indigenous knowledge systems using divination as its inner wheel.

Decolonization has become a concept in African intellectual history. It has been

approached from various points of view. But what we shall do here is to explore

decolonization as a theory of interdisciplinary and intellectual disobedience as

Uturu Hotep puts it or what Franzt Fanon refers to as violence. One important

thing to note is that decolonization is now a concept that is being practiced in

most western inherited disciplines. Again, we should note that decolonization

does not emerge as a conscious theoretical effort in this disciplines, in most cases,

it occurs as unconscious mental habit. This is so amongst African scientists who

never even mention or discuss the concept but employ it extensively in their

theoretical practices (Gagut, Ifan and Science, Ifa & Computer, Ifa and Statistics,

Ifa and Mathematics, the Biotechnological Power of Ifa and so on).

Thus, we use decolonization as the conceptual thread that knots together the

global possibilities and the pan-African heritage of ’divination’ as a theory of

knowledge. The idea of divination is explored here as both a mental activity and

an intellectual project in the flourishing discourse concerning the pan-African

quest for knowledge that is grounded in Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems.

Viewed from this creative perspective, therefore, decolonization is both a concept

of ‘internal self-understanding’ and ‘external appropriation’.

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It is in this sense that the question, how can African indigenous knowledge

system be the bedrock of her return to history? becomes germane. This question

agitates the mind of many African scholars who have agreed that African mental

habits ought and must be decolonized. This is so because the necessity of the

clash of civilizations imposed on us by history is innegligible. Since destiny is

usually an aggregation of imposed condition of existence and the limitations and

possibilities of conscious human choices, then the question should the clash of

civilization be mutually inclusive or/ and mutually exclusive? rises the problem

of pertinent choices to be made.

This is where decolonization comes in handy both as a mental habit and

methodological procedure for the reclaiming of the historical destiny of African

indigenous knowledge system. Writing on decolonization, Franz Fanon claims

that decolonization is a violent phenomenon. But in this case, it is intellectual

violence, a sort of disobedience anchored on mutual inclusivity of knowledge

systems.

Thus, decolonization is combative and irruptive. Applied to contemporary

African intellectual history, especially the disciplines, it becomes an attitude of

resistance and subversion.

As a historical process, decolonization is a phenomenon of ‘total, complete and

absolute substitution’. Fanon emphasizes that decolonization is a programme of

complete disorder. Decolonization never takes place unnoticed, modifying and

influencing individuals fundamentally. It is both a call into question the colonial

situation and the creation of new humanity based on the clash between two

forces.

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 National liberation, national renaissance, the
restoration of nationhood to the people,
commonwealth: whatever may be the headings used
or the new formulas introduced, decolonization is
always a violent phenomenon. At whatever level we
study it< decolonization is quite simply the replacing
of a certain ‘species’ of men by another ‘species of
men’ without any period of transition, there is a total
and, complete and absolute substitution (Fanon
Franz, p. 1)

Of course, Franz Fanon interprets decolonization from the point of view of

Marxism. We only disagree with him to the extent that our conception of

violence is not the violence of guns, cutlasses, grenades and bombs. It is a

violence of the intellect. The sort of non-violence that Mandela’s imprisonment

represents, intellectual disobedience.

It is in this sense of intellectual disobedience that Uhuru Hotep conceptualized

decolonization. He shares with Fanon the idea that decolonization deals with the

rule of replacement in which there is an absolute substitution of the existing

colonial mentality with an African mentality based on the remembrance of the

past in the present and envisioning of fresh beginnings.

Uhuru presents us with the psychological framework for discussing African

liberation by using the idea of colonialism, colonization and decolonization as

political terms. Contextualizing the history of African American oppression

within these terms he traces how the period of seasoning led to mental

colonization, achieved through deculturalization. Here ‘seasoning’ is taking as

the process through which Africans Americans have been deprived of their

intellectual identity. This deprivation cuts off Africans from self-knowledge. A

deprivation that has become self-imposed: seasoning, mental colonization and

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deculturalization are all triplets of intellectual colonization. Uhuru claims further

that:

Deculturalization is the fuel that drives the engine of

mental colonization; both processes turn on a
companion process called miseducation (Utep,
Uhuru, 2010:4).

Deculturalization is a method of pacification and control perfected over the past

500 years by Europeans. Its practice is a systematic stripping away of the victims

ancestral culture and replacing them with European culture.

This whole process takes place within the methodological framework of

miseducation. Consequently, he outlines three end goals of miseducation. First to

produce Africans who are ambivalent or indifferent towards their own heritage.

Second, to produce diseducated Africans and third, which is the ultimate to

initiate the process of mentacide, a term linked to genocide and diseducation

which incorporates the European determination to exterminate the African

intellectual identity. But this is just an aspect of a dual problem. And once we

make the attempt to bind the two aspects together decolonization remains

significant.

The second aspect is largely, the self-imposed conceptual incarceration by

Africans themselves. They have subsumed most conceptual frameworks under

their European counterparts. Our time is determined by European time. Yet we

are undergoing a wave of conceptual decolonization that is coming to the fore of

African intellectual history. And to do this successfully, we have to undergo a

complete reversal of time; the reversing of the seasoning process, not a return to

the past. Thus;

7
 reversing the seasoning process is a constructive way
to frame a psychoeducational approach for cleansing
African minds of European or Arab cultural
infestation (Utep, Uhuru, 2010:5).

From this perspective decolonization is a journey of self-discovery, which is set

to ultimately culminate in a re-awakening and a re-orientation. Accordingly,

decolonization is a transforming and liberatory intellectual project which tasks

African in the world to recover and reconnect with indigenous knowledge

systems in other to forge ahead in their effort to sustain the epistemic

foundations of the social values, beliefs and customs that enabled their ‘ancestors

to establish stable, autonomous families and communities prior to their

displacement from historical significance. Decolonization, therefore, undermines

colonial mentality which alienates African psychologically from their historical

origins. Uhuru, explores further the inter-disciplinary nature of the

decolonization with the suggestion that decolonization;

Cannot be achieve in a single evening by reading a

single book or by attending single a lecture or even by
taking a single course. However, reading, lectures,
courses (along with study groups and conferences),
are critical to the success of any decolonizing project
(Ibid, 2010:9).

It is this process that can lead into the accomplishment of decolonization as a

theoretical attitude and intellectual disobedience as its method in African

intellectual history.

Despite his highly political tone, Uhuru succeeds in replacing (a product of

intellectual disobedience) miseducation with Swahili’s concept of ‘maafa’ and

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‘sankofa’, both historical concepts that ensures the fusion of past, present and the

future within a social practice that puts Africans into an experience that is

intellectually open to explore various sources (such as divination European,

Asian, Religion, Science, Literature, Philosophy, History, Language, and so on) of

knowledge. It is in this sense, that decolonization serves as an internal epistemic

gaze; a gaze from the inside to the outside.

The question, what is decolonization connotes an urgency involving the task of

Knowledge production from a global and pan-African perspective. If

colonization is an epochal phenomenon in the sense that it has affected every

facets of human life in Africa, then decolonization set itself up as an opposition

and appropriation of indigenous ideas in our unfolding colonial history (Ekeh

Peter, 1980).

The importance of decolonization lies in the singular fact that it has become an

interdisciplinary framework for the consistent efforts to explore and appropriate

the value and products of indigenous knowledge systems.

It is this interdisciplinary nature of decolonization that makes it possible for it to

foreground our claim that the modern disciplines be decolonized. It is within this

historical framework of the disciplines that our contemporary characterization of

Ifa as a mental discipline would be located. Judged within this creative force, we

shall see that our appropriate configuration of the various trends and patterns of

discourse concerning the production of decolonized knowledge that, we shall be

able to conceptualize the thematic continuities and discontinuities of the ongoing

shift in the history of Ifa as a mental discipline.

Thus, from the perspective of language and literature both Wole Soyinka and

Ngugi Wa Thiog’O raise the issue of the decolonization of both disciplines. While

9
Ngugi took the extreme course with the claim that for indigenous knowledge to

be adequately assessed, the mind of the African can be decolonized through a

recourse to the documentation of African literature using indigenous language.

Ngugi Wa Thiong’O took this approach serious by completely abandoning any

foreign language as a means of communication. According to him:

Culture embodies those moral, ethical and aesthetic

values, the set of spiritual eyeglasses through which
they come to view themselves and their place in the
universe. Values are the basis of a people’s identity,
their sense of particularity as members of the human
race. Language as culture is the collective memory
bank of a people’s experience in history. Culture is
almost indistinguishable from the language that
makes possible its genesis, growth, banking,
articulation and indeed its transmission from one
generation to another (Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, 1998:15)

He stressed further that while the colonial means of physical subjugation was the

bullet, language was the means of the spiritual subjugation. Since economic and

political control can never be complete or effective without mental control, the

most important area of domination was the mental universe of the colonized, the

control, through language and culture, of how a people perceive themselves and

their relationship to the world (Ibid, 16).

Corroborating Ngugi’s position, Elavie Ndura argues that language is an

important tool of mental colonization especially as it applies to the Great Lakes

Region of Africa. Reminiscing about how language had been used to dislocate

the minds of African children, the author argues that Western-bound education:

has at best produced graduates who hold a truncated

and distorted vision of themselves and of their place

10
 in their respective African communities. It has
produced an isolated African educated elite that lacks
global perspective (Elavie Ndura, 2006:96).

It is within this perspective that we shall locate Wole Soyinka’s suggestion that

there remains a ‘hidden knowledge’ in Africa. Exploring the epistemic

possibilities of Ifa through its dialogic process, he succeeded in showing that

looking ‘inward’, or ‘internal gaze’ would yield a lot of solutions to the ongoing

problem of knowledge production in Africa. However, unlike Ngugi, he does not

think that the language through which we communicate our indigenous

knowledge is important as much as knowledge that is produced and

communicated therefrom:

In short, beyond the assured role of the integrity of

language e in the refurbishing of creative resources,
there is quite simply but crucially – ‘hidden
knowledge’. Reservoirs of information that do not
know themselves as such. This is one dimension that
constitutes my principal concern as a writer and
seeker after resources, not so much the language in
which I address any audience community, but the
loaded, encrypted langage within language from
which the mere means of expression derive (Soyinka,
Wole, 2002:14).

The debate concerning the role of language within the framework of

decolonization is pertinent when we consider that indigenous knowledge is

communicated through foreign languages. If this is the case, we cannot run away

from the fact that as a continuous phenomenon in African intellectual history

decolonization can only be achieved in degree, since at this stage of its unfolding,

11
indigenous knowledge is communicated in foreign languages in African

intellectual history.

While not deemphasizing this linguistic crisis in the evolution of a decolonized

concepts and disciplines, Rene Devisch, who in asking the question what is

anthropology? Proposes that anthropology should be decolonized along the

course of the ‘gaze of alterization’, wherein one gazes ‘from there’ ‘to here’ or

‘from here’ ‘to there’. Tracing how he collaborated with African anthropologists

to, not only decolonize Lovanium University, but also push for an idea of

anthropology that allows for the cross pollination between the universal sciences

and local knowledge practices and systems, he as a European anthropologist

applied his understanding of local Congolese life-worlds to investigate much

overlooked aspects of his native Belgium. Devish displays an impressive ability

to look at local practices through a bifocal lens. His project redefines

decolonization in terms of the epistemic benefits which accrues to foreign

country when local knowledge is made to contribute to the universal sciences.

Thus, redefining the flow of North-South intellectual dependence into one of

intercontinental exchange. This is so because there is a ‘shared border space’

between a transcontinental plurality of life-worlds, traditions of thought and

scientific disciplines. His kind of a decolonized anthropology is that which is

characterized by intercultural commitment to a bifocal gaze and to a multisided

intercultural discourse.

Thus, bifocality and intercultural dialogue is at the heart of a decolonized

anthropological endeavour. The implication of Rene Devisch’s decolonized

anthropology, is that decolonization affects both the colonized and the colonizer.

And in the end he turns anthropology into (a discipline always under suspicion

12
from the African point of view) a multi-value logic of endeavours in favour of

subject-object dualities (Editorial, Codestra Bulletin, 2008:1).

If we infer certain characteristic of decolonization from Devisch’s quest to

decolonize anthropology we should see the intercultural characteristic of

decolonization. Its domain of creativity, multiplicity and synthesis, solidarity are

clearly demarcated. His conclusion admonishes the cultivation of three

decolonized pathways; the attitude or the approaches of an intercultural

polylogue, the re-appropriation of local knowledge form and practices and an

intercultural emancipation of ‚man into a human being‛. Furthermore, if we

combine Rene Devisch decolonization of anthropology with Claude Ake’s

complaints about the imperialism of the social sciences then the decolonization of

the social sciences becomes prominent in Africa’s intellectual history. However,

it is pertinent to say that Claude Ake, didn’t look inward. By turning to Marxism

he was not looking at indigenous knowledge systems, his epistemic gaze was not

internal (Ake, Claude, 1980).

Contributing to this process of decolonization, from the perspective of a

womanist, Ifi Amadiume seeks to rewrite African history along the line that

Cheikh Anta Diop constructed in which the matriarchal perspective of history

was given prominence. The most important claim of Amadiume on the problem

of decolonization is her intent on decolonizing the discipline called history. So

her deployment of decolonization as a theoretical perspective affects history as a

discipline in this way:

Given the effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism

on African societies, the most urgent project in
African scholarship – as many African scholars have
argued – is deconstructing and decolonizing received
colonial African history (Amadiume Ifi, 1997:177)

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One caveat thou, Amadiume’s effort to decolonize history is largely influenced

by western conception of feminism. But because the most powerful influence on

her decolonizing projection of African history is Cheikh Anta Diop’s matriarchal

African history, she accordingly argues that the patriarchal projection of African

history is an indo-European outline of African history. Thus, a patriarchal

perspective of history is mental colonization. Amadiume’s contestation of

African history is that the future of Africa is dependent on Cheikh Anta Diop’s

matriarchal conception of history. Decolonization according to her, then is the

cultivation of matriarchal equalities of love and struggle; class and feminists

ideals.

According to her, decolonization of African history should be reproduced from

the perspective of matriarchal love and struggle (Amadiume Ifi, 1997:199).

Accordingly, love in the sense of support, power and solidarity is amongst the

multiple expressions of social hopes is what decolonization is all about. As an

approach in African history of the disciplines inherited from colonial projects, Ifi

Amadiume’s matriarchal projections of African history is parasitic on male

conceptions of African history; especially Cheikh Anta Diop’s. Nonetheless, it is

important to note, that Amadiume’s findings are grounded in matriarchal

expressions of African social history.

Lynda Smith, who applied decolonization as a theoretical interdisciplinary

framework to the problem of methodological colonization in research is in close

alliance with Ifi Amadiume on this issue. While Ifi Amadiume decolonizes the

African history from the matriarchal point of view, Lynda Smith in her book

‚Decolonizing Methodology‛ implicitly agrees with Ifi Amadiume’s matriarchal

conception of African history, nonetheless applies decolonization as a framework

14
for methodological and theoretical problems of modern disciplines and their

relationships with indigenous knowledge systems. She acknowledges the

significance of indigenous perspective of research and attempts to account for

how, and why, such perspectives need to be developed, since indigenous

peoples all over the world have alternative stories to tell. She argues that

indigenous knowledge systems represents the unfinished business of

decolonization.

Thus, decolonization is inevitably woven with cultural protocols, values and

behaviours which are built into research design in both explicit and reflexive

ways. In relation to this, she identifies three ways to be cultivated by decolonized

indigenous researchers; they are, first, that indigenous epistemic projects should

be disseminated back to the people in culturally determined ways and in a

language that can be understood. Second, a long term commitment to sharing of

knowledge. Sharing of knowledge not only between indigenous peoples and

their colonizers but crucially, amongst indigenous peoples. She argues that it is

much easier for researchers to hand out their report than to hand it in. In other

words, researchers’ in decolonization process must engage actively in continuing

knowledge – sharing processes. Third, a relationship must exist between the

indigenous researchers and indigenous people; even though she says that she

has not developed her views completely in the book under review now, one is

able to deduce that she is eager to develop a bicultural relationship between

indigenous researchers and non-indigenous researchers. This is in agreement

with Rene Devisch’s epistemic bifocal points of interest which is the ground of

both partnership in research and interdisciplinary research. Towards this, she

concludes that her book is an anti-research book on research. She claims further

that the history of research on indigenous people continues to make indigenous

15
students who encounter this history very angry. So, in decolonizing history as a

discipline she posits that;

coming to know the past has been part of the critical

pedagogy of decolonization. To hold alternative
histories is to hold alternative knowledge’s. The
pedagogical implication of this access to alternative
knowledge is that they can form the basis of
alternative ways of things. Transforming our
colonized views of our own history (as written by the
West), however, requires us to revisit, site by site, our
history under Western eyes. This in turn requires a
theory or approach which helps us to engage with,
understand and then act upon history (Smith, Lynda,
1999:34).

Reflecting further on this problem, she asserted that history and theory are not

only about power, infact they are power. The power of research is linked with all

disciplines and the theories employed therein is generated from our

understanding and perspectives about the issues involved. Even for those who

are researchers in indigenous knowledge systems, they are aware of the

oppression of theory. In other to escape this theoretical quagmire, most

researchers in indigenous knowledge systems prefers writing research than

creating disciplines and theory from the indigenous perspectives. Yet, like any

other researcher, who employs decolonization as a theoretical framework she

warns that decolonization does not mean and has not meant a total rejection of

all theory or research or western knowledge. Rather, it is about gazing at theory,

and methodology from the inside; from the perspectives of indigenous

knowledge systems which must refer to our own purposes.

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Two other most powerful disciplines that have faced the ravenous intent of

decolonization are Philosophy and Religion. And the most influential of all, who

felt the need to be decolonized is Kwasi Wiredu. As an influential philosopher,

the turning point began when he decided that African philosophy and African

religion need to be decolonized. The core of his decolonizing claim is that we

should be able to synthesize our philosophical inheritance which is of indigenous

and foreign orientations. Accordingly, decolonization is an intellectual

framework, like Janus; he posits on the one hand, that African philosophers

should avoid or reverse, through a critical conceptual self-awareness the

unexamined assimilation of conceptual frameworks embedded in foreign

philosophical traditions into African conceptual frameworks. And on the other

hand, it advocates the exploiting of our own indigenous conceptual schemes in

our philosophical mediations on the most technical terms in contemporary

philosophy. These dual project of decolonization, even though one is opposite

and the other positive, are mutually inclusive:

The negative is, of course, only the reverse side of the

positive. But I cite it first because the necessity for
decolonization was brought upon us in the first place
by the historical super imposition of foreign
categories of thought on African thought systems
through colonialism (Wiredu Kwasi, in Olusegun
Oladipo, 1995:25)

For him language is an independent category of thought through which

conceptual assimilation of foreign conceptual frameworks takes place. Language

is decolonization site of occurrence, since by definition, the fundamental

concepts of philosophy are the most fundamental categories of human thought.

Yet they are nevertheless, culture specifics, environment bound and

17
idiosyncratically motivated. It is because of the impact that these three factors,

have influenced African philosophers continuing use of foreign conceptual

scheme that he encourages us to:

Think, then, of the possible enormity of avoidable

philosophical deadwood we might be carrying
through our historically enforced acquisition of
philosophical training in the medium of foreign
language (Ibid, 1995:23).

Having said this, he began to apply decolonization, not only to philosophy, but

also to religion and politics. In religion, decolonization yields the rediscovery of

the Akan believe in and conception of a supreme being as a quasi demiurgic

cosmic architect rather than the ex nihilo creator of Christianity. In politics,

decolonization yields to the substitution of majoritarian democracy to consensual

democracy.

So far, we have been exploring the application of decolonization as an

intellectual framework to modern disciplines in Africa. One general observation

is that decolonization is a clamour for the evolution of concepts and disciplines

that would anchor these changes that is taking place in contemporary African

intellectual history and the history of the disciplines. Even scientists of African

origin are not far removed from this clamour. In other to substantiate this claim,

we shall discus divination as a theory of knowledge using Ifa as an example.

18
 DIVINATION AS A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE: REVOLUTIONS AND

PARADIGM SHIFTS IN IFA

In this section, divination would be characterized as a theory of knowledge. In

fact, its pan-African and global nature would be brought to the fore and

concretized. Ifa would also be characterized as a mental discipline. It will be

argued that Ifa is a rigorous academic discipline that has been able to stand the

text of time and that its limitless possibility in contemporary epistemic gaze is

still unfolding.

Finally, some traces of the amoebic and chamelic features will be out lined. The

thesis we hope to push here is that this ‘fussionary trends and pattern’ in Ifa are

neither purely traditional nor are they completely foreign (or modern). This

means that seeing Ifa within the framework of decolonization it can become a

fertile ground wherein new products of knowledge have a chance of blossoming.

Perhaps the safest way to determine the nature of divination as a theory of

knowledge is to place it within its historical origin. To this extent, it is possible to

guess that it may have began with the dawn of human consciousness. The

undeniable fact, however, is that divination as an intellectual means of probing

into the enigmatic problems of human life and the nature of the structure of the

universe, is a universal phenomenon. According to Philip M. Peek,

A divination system is a standardized process deriving

from a learned discipline based on an extensive body of
knowledge (Peek, Philip M. p. 171).

Divination system of knowledge is a product of the recognition of human need

for specialized knowledge; in other to be able to tackle problems emanating from

19
his existence. Divination sessions are therefore not instances of arbitrary,

idiosyncratic behaviour of diviners. A divination system is often the primary

institutional means of articulating the knowledge systems of a people. (Ibid

p172) Peek’s definition of divination system points out that divination is not only

a phenomenon amongst Africans, it is also practiced in most, if not all human

cultures. Using the promethean example; he claims that divination, is not only

practiced by the ancient Greeks but also by other great civilizations. Thus,

Anthologies by Caught and Leibovici (1968) and Loewe

and Blacker (1981) include contributions on divination’s
critical role not only in the classical world but also in the
Americans, India. Tibet, Japan and China, Africa, ancient
Egypt and the Middle East, Judaism and Islam, and the
Germanic world (Peek Philip, 1998:171).

Corroborating this, Tony Smith indicates that divination is an early pattern of

man’s inquisitiveness about himself and existence in general. Although Smith

calls this early human inquisitive nature ‚Global Early Religion‛ he says that

divination system is the knowledge system upon which the cradle of civilization

of Abyssianian Highlanders of the African Nile Region was built. Even though

Smith’s historical exposition of divination is highly speculative, it is this

(speculation) that makes it difficult to ignore his claim that divination especially

Ifa has been playing pivotal role in human civilization. He reports that:

Ifa, whose divination system seems to be based on the

same 256 – dimensional Clifford Algebra CI (1,7) as the
D4-D5-E6-E7-E8 VODOU Physics Model, is probably not
only the source of all Human religious, but also
divination systems such as I Ching (64 – dimensional),
etc; and the abstract structures of the Natural physical
world such as Elementary particle physics, Quantum
consciousness, cosmology, etc (Smith, Tony, 2000:1)

20
He speculates further that after the disruption of early civilizations by the ‚Ice

Age‛ there was no recognizable human civilization until about 6,000 years ago

when the Abyssinian Highlanders of the African Nile Region who were the most

highly organized remnant of the Ice Age civilization re-emerged and provided

sources of ways to cope with the changed circumstances of the post-Ice age

world, including agriculture, mining, written communication, and organized

armies with which a global Early Civilization that used a Global Early Language

was formed.

Thus, the aboriginal wisdom of Ifa is the original Wisdom of the cradle of

Human Civilization which included the Global Early Civilization of the

Abyssinian Highlanders of the African Nile Region. These people of the Cradle

of civilization, are the Fon people of Benin (Dahomey), in whose language it is

called FA; the Yoruba and Benin Edo of Nigeria, in whose Language it is called

Ifa; and the Ewe of Togo, in whose language it is called Afa:

Ifa is the oracle of god who directed creation, formed the

universe, formed the earth, taught humans about
divination, medicine and language (Ibid, 2006:112)

From this point of view, he proceeds to claim that divination (Ifa) speaks to the

Arabs of North Africa, who calls the process Iim al Raml; the science of sand

cutting or Iim al Raml; science of lines in sand. The prophet identified with this is

prophet Idris. African people of the U.S.A, West Indies and South America. It is

clear from this that divination is both, Yoruba (African) and Pan-Africa.

However, the most important difficulty in Tony Smith’s submission is his

continuous association of divination (Ifa) with religion. It forces us to ask the

21
question whether Ifa or divination is incapable of yielding knowledge that is not

religious. In other words, is the language of divination a religious one only?

Answering this question, Eze E. Chukwudi, claims that Ifa as an example of the

theory of divination is a work of philosophical nature that is often neglected or

misunderstood when it is completely confused with the religious or the

theological environment. Posing the problem of reason in tradition, he claims

that Ifa is a quest for discovery of meaning and direction in life, personal or

communal, through ratiomal discernment and liberation. Accordingly, Ifa as an

idea is not an abstraction but a fundamental experience of life itself:

Ifa is a process of pursuit of knowledge about destiny. i.e.

about the course of life< < Ifa is a framework for the
quest for answers to the questions such as: What is the
meaning of being? What is the goal of my Life? What is
my destiny? What does reason of one demand that one in
this particular circumstances and so on. (Eze E.
Chukwudi, 1998:174)

Essentially then, Ifa as an example of divination theory of knowledge is a well

developed process of knowledge that has been a reliable foundation for many

civilizations. This is also corroborated by Abosede Immanuel who claim that

Orunmila (the corporate name of Ifa whose mythical and human existence has a

long history of controversy) is a witness to man’s choice of destiny, it is the

power that challenged and defeated death, the equilibrium that adjust evil in

favour of Good, perfection of wisdom and infinity of knowledge. He claims

further that Ifa is a human institution which has gone through several processes

of internal revolution and paradigm shifts.

22
Modern understanding of the nature of knowledge includes the capacity of an

intellectual framework to generate its internal crisis which in turn culminates in

changing adaptation of such intellectual framework into different experiences.

This universal characteristics of knowledge is shared by Ifa both in its traditional

and modern form. And Orunmila is such personality who brought such internal

revolutions and paradigm shifts to Ifa. Dividing its history into three schematic

stages (Immanuel) traces the difference that Ifa has gone through in its history

showing that Ifa was not a complete system of knowledge at its inception. It has

gone through different stages of development and that its complete modern form

has gone through various internal revolutions and paradigm shifts. Its internal

growth is marked by the different attempts to eliminate the subjective

determination of the divinatory outcome from the control of the practioner of Ifa

and to reinforce the role of chance or probability in the process.

This changes he claims is due to the activity of Orunmila:

It is my view that the reformer responsible for this

changes was Orunmila. This would place the life and
work of Orunmila in the ‚Oduduwa Age‛ and since the
age spans a millennium, it is tempting to conclude that
the name Orunmila, which at first belong to the radical
reformer of Ifa, came to signify a ‚corporate identity‛
(Immanuel Abosede, 2000:86).

There were different schools of thoughts of Ifa, until those who struggled

amongst themselves over who possessed the best method of divination emerged.

It is this struggle amongst these different schools of thoughts that led to the

fusion of the sixteen Odus as an indivisible units with its own internal conflict.

(Ajayi Bade, 1996:46-59).

23
The intellectual history of Ifa as a divination system in modern theories of

knowledge is not so much different from its traditional account which Abosede

Immanuel enumerates. The entry of Ifa into modern academic disciplines is an

irruption in the sense that modern disciplines do not readily admit the

intellectual indigenous heritage of Africa. But because of its viability and

possibility it has become difficult for it to be completely ignored. For it is

becoming increasingly clear that Ifa is an existential logic, it contains the software

of human civilizations. In it, the destinies of individuals is an aggregative destiny

of communities, nations and world at large. Like another body of knowledge

such as the sciences, it generalizes its particular findings and reduces the general

to particular structure. Its existential structure incorporates both abstraction and

existence. Unlike Mathematics each abstract notations represent a particular

history of whatever is available within the environment. Bringing to the fore its

own perspective of both the creative and evolutionary structure of the universe.

This can be grasp clearly when we see it from Wande Abimbola (P30, 1968)

perspective that Ifa is a body of knowledge and an academic discipline. And it is

only in this sense that it participates in the contemporary urge or drive to words

decolonization of the disciplines.

Our observation here is that in its present history as an intellectual property and

an indigenous knowledge system; Ifa is undergoing another kind of revolution

and paradigm shift. This revolution and paradigm shift has been going now for

sometimes now that it will be difficult to deny its occurrence. That Ifa is

undergoing a fusion with a many modern disciplines such that it is no longer

purely traditional knowledge and not completely modern is of remarkable

significance. Ifa has become the foundation, the ground on which this modern

disciplines are bring anchored.

24
The decolonizing nature of this ‘fusionary trend and patterns’ of contemporary

Ifa discipline is that its gaze is internal; from the ‘inside’ to the ‘outside’. Apart

from its highly publicized literary, mathematical, philosophical and

computerized structure and content, Ifa is already being linked with theoretical

physics and evolutionary biology. This is interesting and remarkable in the sense

that fresh concepts are being created that do not fall within the available

languages of this disciplines. Examples abound. Longe, Olu presented an

inaugural lecture on behalf of the computer science department at the University

of Ibadan in 1983. In this inaugural he attempted to fuse together Ifa divination

and Computer Science. (Longe, Olu 1983: Inaugural) in that process certain

inevitable conceptual grid began to emerge. Longe’s overall aim and objectives in

this inaugural is to assimilate computer science into Ifa divination. Thus, just as

computer sciences, which is a modern discipline is grounded in ‘binary digit’ so

does Ifa, an ancient system of knowledge is grounded in the ‘binary digit’. The

implication of this is that Ifa could be thought as a theoretical foundation of

computer science; this is not a new knowledge but it presents us with the

resilience of Ifa as an academic and mental discipline. It does mean that the

theoretical foundation of computer science is present in African intellectual

history.

The language of this inaugural lecture is neither that of pure computer science

language neither it that pure traditional Ifa. So of what revolutionary importance

is this to Ifa? It simply means that despite efforts to blackmail Ifa, it is making a

return into the mainstream of human intellectual history but computer sciences

is not the only modern discipline in which Ifa has re-emerged as a subject matter.

Another group of researchers have also claimed that Ifa is an intellectual ground

for statistical inference. (Shangodoyin and Ojo In ‘Orisa’ 75-85). They claim that

25
Ifa is both a theoretical and existential discipline with which it is possible to

managed uncertainties and the problem of decision making. If this is so, then Ifa

as a divination theory of knowledge is statistical. They assert that:

Ifa divination is an abstract scheme found amongst the

Yoruba people as a system of abstract thinking, that is
logical, derived to answer some fundament questions.
Apart from the common feature of randomness, the
recording system in Ifa divination fits into so many well-
developed models in modern statistics (op. cit,
Shagotoyin and Ojo, 75).

Asking that Ifa should be given an equal intellectual status in the world of

science they claim that divination is the bedrock of statistics. Just as Longe did,

they also emphasize the ‘binary digits’ as a statistical characteristic of Ifa. It is

within the interplay of this binary digits that uncertainties, randomness, chaos

can be managed or handled. Evidently, this is another irruption of Ifa in modern

academic disciplines. The significance of this Ifa nature of statistics is that as a

mental discipline it can contribute to the pan-African search for a disciplinary

power which could be the care of the return of indigenous knowledge systems

return into intellectual history as a means of handing randomness, uncertainties,

chaos and so on.

Ifa is at the fore front of this intellectual return of Africa’s intellectual heritage

into history. In a book titled ‘Ifa and Science’ Komolafe Kolawole details the in-

negligible connection between Ifa and biology, mathematics, cosmology etc.

According to him, Ifa is a universal science whose ancient knowledge of human

destiny correlates significantly with modern biological discoveries such as D.N.A

At this juncture, let us examine the facts as well as

correlations in the Ifa method and the bio-chemical

26
 process of arriving at structure, which the modern
scientific called Deoxy Ribonucleic Acid (D.N.A) which
Ifa calls ‘FORAN’ (Akomole, Kolawole, 2003:29).

Furthermore, it has been established over a long period of time that professionals

of Ifa study arrive at accurate understanding of existential phenomenon such as

creation, birth, life, and death. Evolutionary discoveries shows that reptiles in the

form of dinosaurs were the first to inhabit the earth, in the case of Ifa, it was the

Chamelion, that first experimentally walk on earth in other to show whether the

earth was still full of water or not. He states further that the idea of cloning had

been discovered by practitioners of Ifa since they have knowledge of the genetics

of plant, animal and human structures. According to Kmolafe:

I have discussed how bio-chemical studies revealed the

D.N.A molecules with the coded characteristics or genes
on its helixal protein mesh. It has also been shown how
genetic studies can predict many aspects of the character,
form and behaviour of an individual. In a similar
manner, Ifa also reveals many aspects of the character,
form and behaviour of the divine (Ibid, 2003:3).

Linking genetics with the phenomenon of re-incanation he claims that since the

science of genetics asserts that certain characteristic can be passed from parents

to offspring then, it should no longer be shocking if Africans, especially Ifa

practitioners assert that a child could be his fathers re-incarnate.

The import of Komolafe’s research on the correlations between Ifa and the

sciences is that Africans both at home and in diaspora can develop this ancient

wisdom and promote a new technology with a difference:

27
 Using his own original methods, the black man can
achieve similar or better scientific and technological fits
capable of transforming the world into a better place for
mankind (Ibid, 2003:40).

Steps in this direction have been undertaking by researchers although some of

them are still at the speculative stage. However, it is noteworthy that some bold

but controversial steps have been taking in this direction. For instance the

controversial ‘God Almighty’s Grand Unified Theorem (GAGUT) is intellectually

founded on Ifa. The direction that this discovery, is the attempt to fuse together

physics, mathematics and Ifa should not be ignored. Ignoring the political

aspects of this theorem, the attempt to show that Ifa can be the intellectual

foundation of a unified theorem of religious and scientific inclination is

something attention should be paid to. It does means that Ifa responds to

different intellectual experiences even in this modern times. Oyibo’s Gagut

concerns us only in the sense of the ameobic and chamelic resilence that Ifa

exhibits. It tells African everywhere; either at home, in the diaspora or global,

that divination is their means of accessing reality and that amongst the many

African who practice it, Ifa is an example that projects this intellectual heritage.

Knowledge, is therefore, not entirely empirical intuitive rational, objective or

even relative, it is aggregative and this is what Ifa represents.

From the foregoing, it should be clear that Ifa is infinitesimally in any endless

(Komolafe, 2003:46). Like any other human knowledge it has its own problems,

nonetheless, it always strive to adjust, in a fusionary pattern’ to human needs

and projections.

28
Having shown that the history of Ifa is a history of the resilient survival of

indigenous knowledge systems, the next question we should be answering is

this, what is the implication of this survey of the decolonizing effect of Ifa on

modern disciplines? That what will engage us in the next part of this essay.

29
 DECOLONIZING THE DISCIPLINES: FROM EPISTEMOLOGY TO

ORUNMINOLOGY

There is a tendency for us to agree too quickly on

various analyses of society, turning some scholars and
their ideas into canon, stifling contrary opinions,
avoiding intellectual risks, teaching the same
paradigms and ideas around them again and again
and recycling deed ideas to new generations. This is
intellectual death and we must all admit that the
humanities, like the universities, are undergoing
serious pains (Falola Toyin, in Orisa, 2003:29)

The history of the disciplines in Africa is a history of colonization. And from the

arguments of those who are engaged in the decolonizing project, it is clear that

disciplines in Africa need a total change. This change is about how we look at the

disciplines. Do we gaze at them from the inside or from the outside. The whole

effort of this paper has been concentrated on mapping a territory of knowledge

which as we have observed is an emerging configuration. Toyin Falola’s

arguments in support of this observation are inviting enough. He asserts that we

have to rethink the knowledge base in African institutions especially as it

concerns the humanities. He suggests further that we have to reclaim and

repackage the past and set appropriate boundaries to contain and curtail the

West.

In addition to this, we have to recognize the creation and presentation of

knowledge, admonishing in the process that the humanities that can respond to

the challenges of reformulating ideas, images, narratives and frameworks need

to be developed.

30
Looking at it from the framework of decolonization then, how we package

knowledge from now on, is very crucial. There are many literatures today

wherein the claim for the need to create knowledge for the reclaiming and

rebirth of Africa’s greatness is emphasized. Yet we seem not to take the idea that

western disciplines are anchored on western epistemology seriously. The

epistemology that are taught in African philosophy today are still entirely

western based. Hardly is divination as a ‘theory of knowledge’ taught in African

philosophy. Yet, the disciplinary greatness in philosophy lies in its history as the

parent of many of the modern disciplines that have taken over Africa’s

intellectual history.

Epistemology plays a significant role in this. The outcry against epistemology by

Richard Rorty has been totally ignored. The stultifying effect of epistemology on

western disciplines were clearly instructive to the extent that he claims that its

disciplinary matrix should be abandoned. Yet it continues to be the nerve centre

of the history of the disciplines especially (philosophy) in Africa. Epistemology

does not include divination. Nonetheless, divination is an African inheritance.

Using Ifa as an example, we have shown the remarkable role and the significance

of divination to the development of African disciplines’.

Thus, the attempt to decolonize the disciplines is an attempt to recover

intentions, to reconstruct conventions and to restore contexts. It begins with the

observation that the cognitive, the historical and the institutional environments

of disciplines consist first of all of other disciplines and that an ‘economy of

resources requires that each discipline that tries to articulate, to systematize and

to institutionalize or professionalize a set of ideas and practices, also try to

distinguish itself from other disciplines:

31
 A discipline claims a cognitive identity, the uniqueness
and coherence of its intellectual orientations,
conceptual schemes, paradigms, problematics, and
tools for inquiry’. At the same time it has to find a
social identity ‘in the form of its major institutional
arrangements. Finally, an historical identity must be
acquired, the reconstruction of a disciplinary past to
which in principle all members of a scientific
community would agree to belong (Lepenies, Wolf,
156)

The three conditions that a discipline need to fulfil according to the quotation

above are cognitive identity, social identity and historical identity and divination

as a means of understanding human existence and reality fulfils all these. In fact,

it is in response to its historical identity that we have provided a conceptual grid

with which we can continue to delineate its importance in the history of the

disciplines. This conceptual grid is what we have termed Orunminoogy. In doing

this, we agree with Abosede Immanuel’s claim that Orunmila is a corporate

name. It is under this corporate name that we have subsumed our contemporary

characterization of divination as a theory of knowledge. Orunmila’s logic (ifa) is

a pattern of reasoning whose parallel can be drawn from all over the world but

whose uniqueness is maintained by its disciplinary matrix. It is within the

intention to gather together the ‘fusionary trends and patterns’ discernible in

Ifa’s fusion with other disciplines. And as we have claimed, this fusion does not

belong to the domain of traditional Ifa divination nor does it belong completely

to the domain of modern knowledge with which it is continuously fusing itself.

Orunminology is a conceptual formulation which carries the disciplinary

intentions of indigenous knowledge systems. As a body of knowledge and a

thought process Orunminology is used in the sense of gathering together a long-

32
drawn discourse concerning the contemporary relevance of Ifa in general. We see

it as a unique system of thought which if theoretically investigated and

experimentally concretized could offer many alternatives to our present

epistemic understanding and thus jump-start the much awaited ennoblement of

African culture. So, it could be used as a critical engagement with African

intellectual project which, as a body of knowledge, can maintain its own

disciplinary matrix.

Orunminology is an attempt to conceptualize a deep but growing tendency to

see a contemporary relevance in the Ifa corpus. In different ways theories which

has contemporary relevance have been rediscovered in Ifa. This justifies the

attempt to find an indigenous philosophical foundation upon which the present

drive of Africa’s ‘return to history’ can be built. Today; scientific, aesthetic,

metaphysical and ontological theories in Ifa connect with contemporary African

search for a spiritual root and, if careful attention is paid to it, it should express

itself in industrialization, technological, economic, political, etc theories. It is an

attempt to sustain a conversation with the past of Africa with a view to use this

heritage for contemporary need such that it can serve as an intellectual catalyst

for Africa’s projection towards cultural ennoblement.

Orunminology in its disciplinary context is a continuous attempt to mould the

minds of young ones and show them the possibilities and limitations inherent in

indigenous knowledge system. Joining together the decolonizing

interdisciplinary intellectual framework with Ifa’s amoebic and chamelic fusion

with contemporary disciplines, we believe that allowing the cultivation of the

multi-logical gaze from the ‘inside’ is worthwhile for the Africa’s project towards

using her inheritance in recreating her destiny. It is an attempt to negotiate

through our disrupted inheritance to a creative reclaiming of our rebirth.

33
Conclusion

The intent with which we started this essay has been accomplished. The

decolonization of the disciplines, but another engagement remains. The matter of

the extent to which decolonizing project can go, especially when such

decolonizing project is still communicated in a foreign language. My position

about this is within our contemporary intellectual inheritance. If we consider the

epochal nature of colonialism, the strength of decolonization is to admit that, it

(decolonization) can only be achieved as a matter of degree not in totality but

‘aggregatively‛. It is in this sense that we take our position with Wole Soyinka

(but with a very minor correction) that the ‚vectors of expression‛ is not a

totality but an aggregation; that it does not matter the language in which you

communicate this vectors but how you communicate it without disrupting its

traditional heritage as a carrier of contemporary and future mutations of ideas.

34
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