Onboarding

What Ifá is, how the divination actually works step by step, how the binary structure produces 256 addresses into a memorised corpus, and what is true and false in the claim that it is an ancient computer.

What an òrìṣà is, how the pantheon is organised, who the major figures are, how devotion actually works, and why the demon framing does not describe any of it.

Four thousand years compressed into one pass, from the Niger-Benue confluence through Ifẹ̀ and Ọ̀yọ́ to the nineteenth-century wars, conquest and the present, with dating confidence marked throughout.

Destiny, character, the inner head, what a person is, and how Yorùbá ethics works, in plain language.

Alphabetical glossary of Yorùbá terms used across the corpus, each with diacritics, a literal gloss where one is documented, a plain definition, and the section that treats it fully.

Four ordered routes through the corpus with time estimates, for the curious newcomer, the diaspora Yorùbá reconnecting, the reader who came for Ifá as an information system, and the parent teaching children.

Direct answers to the questions readers actually ask, including the uncomfortable ones about human sacrifice, the slave trade, initiation, appropriation and faith.

How to read the diacritics and tone marks used throughout this corpus, with worked examples and links to audio resources.