Òwe on Ifá, the Babaláwo and Divination

Ifá is the Yorùbá divination system built on a corpus of sixteen major chapters (odù), each with sixteen subchapters, memorised and interpreted by trained priests, babaláwo ("father of mysteries"). The full account of the system is at 05-ifa/01-what-ifa-is.md 2. This file collects twenty-one proverbs in which Ifá, the babaláwo, or the act of divination itself become the vehicle for a point about something else, usually about caution, poverty endured for a future reward, or the limits of what any system of knowledge can promise. The proverbs assume a hearer who already knows what Ifá is; none of them explains the institution, which is itself evidence of how embedded the practice was in ordinary Yorùbá reasoning.

The proverbs

1. A kì í gbọ́n ju ẹni tí a máa dÍfá fún.

Literal: A kì í gbọ́n one is-not wiser ju ẹni tí a máa dÍfá fún than the-one for-whom one will consult-Ifá.

Idiomatic: "One cannot be wiser than the person for whom one will consult the Ifá oracle." 1

Meaning: The diviner's role is to consult on the client's behalf, not to override the client's own account of the problem.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "It is better to listen to the supplicant rather than put words in his or her mouth" 1

Notes: Owomoyela's footnote explains the structure being invoked: Ifá is based on an extensive corpus of case histories, precedents, and remedies (the odù and their subchapters, the ọmọ odù), and this proverb regulates how a babaláwo is expected to use that corpus, as a resource to serve the client's actual situation rather than a script to impose on it 1.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 22, with note 3.

2. Babaaláwo kì í bèrè ẹbọ àná.

Literal: Babaaláwo the-diviner kì í bèrè does-not ask-for ẹbọ àná yesterday's sacrifice.

Idiomatic: "The diviner does not ask for yesterday's sacrifice." 1

Meaning: A person in a position of dignity does not demean himself by chasing after a small, already-past due.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: "One should not demean oneself by demanding piddling favors" 1

Notes: A near-identical variant appears at Owomoyela 478, Ojú kì í pọn babaláwo kó bèrè ẹbọ àná, "An Ifá diviner-priest is never so hard up that he asks for yesterday's sacrifice," with the added gloss that hardship should not lead one to demeaning behaviour 1. Both versions use the babaláwo's expected dignity, rather than any doctrinal claim, as the operative image.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 221; variant 478.

3. Bí a bá wí pé ó dọ́wọ́-ọ babaláwo, babaláwo a ló dọ́wọ́ Ifá; bí a bá ní ó dọ́wọ́ àgbà ìṣègùn, àgbà ìṣègùn a ló dọ́wọ́ Ọ̀sanyìn; bí a bá ní ó dọ́wọ́ ààfáà tó gbójú, a ní ó dọ́wọ́ Ọlọ́run gá ògo.

Literal: Bí a bá wí pé ó dọ́wọ́-ọ babaláwo if one says it lies in-the-hand of-the-diviner, babaláwo a ló dọ́wọ́ Ifá the-diviner says it-lies in-the-hand of-Ifá; bí a bá ní ó dọ́wọ́ àgbà ìṣègùn if one says it lies in-the-hand of-the-elder-healer, àgbà ìṣègùn a ló dọ́wọ́ Ọ̀sanyìn the-elder-healer says it-lies in-the-hand of-Ọ̀sanyìn; bí a bá ní ó dọ́wọ́ ààfáà tó gbójú if one says it lies in-the-hand of-the-confident-Muslim-priest, a ní ó dọ́wọ́ Ọlọ́run gá ògo he-says it-lies in-the-hand of-God most-glorious.

Idiomatic: "If one says that a matter now lies in the hands of the Ifá priest, the Ifá priest says it lies in the hands of Ifá; if one says that it lies in the hands of the venerable medicine man, the venerable medicine man says it rests in the hands of the god of herbs; if one says it rests in the hands of the formidable Muslim priest, he says it is in the hands of God the most glorious." 1

Meaning: Every practitioner, whatever the tradition, ultimately defers the outcome to a higher power, refusing to claim personal credit.

Used when: Owomoyela: "All achievements are creditable to the powers that make them possible, not to the agents" 1

Notes: The proverb sets three professional systems side by side without ranking them, the babaláwo deferring to Ifá, the herbalist deferring to Ọ̀sanyìn (the god of herbal medicine, treated in 06-orisa/11-osanyin.md), and the Muslim cleric deferring to God, treating deference to a higher source as the common feature of legitimate practice across traditions rather than a point of doctrine.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 231.

4. Ìrùkẹ̀rẹ̀ kì í yan Ifá lódì; oge, dúró o kí mi.

Literal: Ìrùkẹ̀rẹ̀ the-horse-tail-whisk kì í yan Ifá lódì does-not walk-past Ifá improperly; oge fashionable-one, dúró o kí mi stop and greet me.

Idiomatic: "The horse-tail whisk does not shun Ifá; high-fashion maiden, pause awhile and give me a greeting." 1

Meaning: Even a ceremonial object shows Ifá proper deference, so a fashionable person certainly should not pass an acquaintance without a greeting.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not neglect to say hello to other people" 1

Notes: The ìrùkẹ̀rẹ̀, horse-tail whisk, is a symbol of authority and respect carried by elders and title-holders, and the proverb uses its customary deference toward Ifá as the standard against which ordinary social courtesy is measured.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 383.

5. Ojú kì í pọ́n babaláwo kó bèrè ẹbọ àná.

Literal: Ojú kì í pọ́n babaláwo the-eye does-not redden the-diviner (he-is-never-so-desperate) kó bèrè ẹbọ àná that-he-would-ask-for yesterday's-sacrifice.

Idiomatic: "An Ifá diviner-priest is never so hard up that he asks for yesterday's sacrifice." 1

Meaning: No degree of hardship justifies demeaning oneself in a way inconsistent with one's station.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not permit hardship to lead one to demeaning behavior" 1

Notes: See entry 2 above; this is the fuller variant of the same saying, and Owomoyela records both without indicating which is prior.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 478.

6. Àgbọ̀kán là ń rọ́ Ifá adití.

Literal: Àgbọ̀kán with-full-voice-volume là ń rọ́ Ifá adití is-how-one recites-Ifá-verses for-a-deaf-person.

Idiomatic: "It is with full voice volume that one recites divination verses for the deaf." 1

Meaning: Some audiences require exaggerated, unsubtle communication.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One cannot be too subtle with the daft" 1 A near-identical variant is recorded at Owomoyela 1054, Kóró-kóró là ń dá Ifá adití, "Very loud is the way one consults Ifá for a deaf person," with the added note that one should err on the side of repetitiousness in cautioning an obstinate person 1.

Notes: Both versions treat the recitation of Ifá verses as a familiar public event, loud and formal by default, and take that expected loudness as their point of comparison rather than commenting on the verses' content.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 712; variant 1054.

7. Awo aláwo la kì í dá lẹ́mejì.

Literal: Awo aláwo another-diviner's divination la kì í dá lẹ́mejì is-what-one does-not repeat.

Idiomatic: "It is another person's divination that one does not repeat." 1

Meaning: People conserve effort for others in a way they do not for themselves.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One might not put oneself out for others, but will do so for oneself" 1

Notes: Awo here functions both as "diviner" and as the act of divination itself; the proverb trades on that double sense to make a point about selective effort that has nothing to do with divinatory technique as such.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 808.

8. Bí òwe bí òwe ni Ifá ń sọ̀rọ̀.

Literal: Bí òwe bí òwe like-proverb like-proverb ni Ifá ń sọ̀rọ̀ is-how Ifá speaks.

Idiomatic: "Like proverbs, like proverbs are the pronouncements of the oracle god Ifá." 1

Meaning: Ifá's utterances share the indirect, compressed, figurative character of proverbs generally.

Used when: Owomoyela: "The most profound speech is indirect and subtle" 1

Notes: This proverb is a piece of the tradition's own genre theory: it names òwe explicitly as the standard of comparison for Ifá's speech, which is direct evidence that Yorùbá speakers themselves recognised the kinship between the proverb form treated throughout this corpus section and the ẹsẹ Ifá verses treated in file 97 and in 05-ifa/04-ese-ifa-the-verses.md.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 870.

9. Dífá-dífá ò fi Ifá ṣeré.

Literal: Dífá-dífá the-one-who-repeatedly-consults-Ifá ò fi Ifá ṣeré does-not with Ifá play.

Idiomatic: "The diviner does not take Ifá lightly." 1

Meaning: A person's livelihood or professional practice is not something to treat frivolously.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not be careless about one's livelihood" 1

Notes: Dífá-dífá, reduplicated from the verb dá Ifá, to consult Ifá, names the frequent practitioner of the act, and the proverb's structure (subject named by the very action denied to be trivial) mirrors the compression seen elsewhere in this corpus, for instance in owe-iwa-character entry 31.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 892.

10. Ní inú Ifá ni Fátúmọ̀ wà.

Literal: Ní inú Ifá inside Ifá ni Fátúmọ̀ wà is-where Fátúmọ̀ is.

Idiomatic: "It is within Ifá that one finds Fátúmọ̀." 1

Meaning: Every problem carries the seeds of its own solution.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Every problem bears the seeds to its own solution" 1

Notes: Owomoyela's footnote glosses Fátúmọ̀ as a proper name meaning "Ifá [the Oracle] interprets" 1, so the proverb is built on a personal name that is itself a small theological statement, and the wordplay, that the interpretation (Fátúmọ̀) is found within the system consulted (Ifá), is the entire mechanism of the saying.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 1063, with note 83.

11. Ọgbọ́n lajá fi ń pa ìkokò bọ Ifá.

Literal: Ọgbọ́n cunning lajá fi ń pa ìkokò is-what-the-dog uses to-kill the-wolf bọ Ifá to-sacrifice-to-Ifá.

Idiomatic: "It is cunning that the dog employs in order to sacrifice a wolf to Ifá." 1

Meaning: Cunning allows the weaker party to overcome and even offer up the stronger.

Used when: Owomoyela: "A cunning person can get the better of people far more powerful than he" 1

Notes: The proverb sets the dog and the wolf in a natural hierarchy of strength that cunning is shown to reverse, and it uses the act of sacrificing to Ifá as the marker of full victory, the dog not merely defeating the wolf but disposing of it through the same ritual channel a human might use for a valuable offering.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 1177.

12. Bí òní ti rí, la ò rí bẹ́ẹ̀; ni babaláwo-ó fi ń dÍfá lẹ́ẹ̀rọ́ọ̀rún.

Literal: Bí òní ti rí as-today is, la ò rí bẹ́ẹ̀ tomorrow will-not be-seen so; ni babaláwo-ó fi ń dÍfá lẹ́ẹ̀rọ́ọ̀rún is-why the-diviner consults-Ifá every-five-days.

Idiomatic: "As today is, tomorrow will not be; hence the diviner consults the oracle every five days." 1

Meaning: Circumstances change, so guidance must be renewed rather than assumed to remain valid.

Used when: Owomoyela: "Since no one knows the future, one must constantly reassess one's decisions" 1

Notes: The proverb records a specific practical detail, that consultation recurs on a five-day cycle, which corresponds to the traditional Yorùbá four-day (or, by another count, five-day inclusive) market week; the periodic re-consultation is presented as ordinary professional prudence rather than as a fixed liturgical requirement.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 1442.

13. Ìpọ́njú lọmọdé fi ń kọ́ Ifá, ìgbẹ́hìn-in rẹ̀ a dẹni.

Literal: Ìpọ́njú hardship lọmọdé fi ń kọ́ Ifá is-what-the-child uses to-learn Ifá, ìgbẹ́hìn-in rẹ̀ a dẹni its-end becomes ease.

Idiomatic: "A child's learning of Ifá is full of privations, but the outcome is a life of ease." 1

Meaning: The apprenticeship is hard; the vocation it leads to is not.

Used when: Owomoyela's note relates the sentiment to the general theme that present suffering yields a future of ease 1.

Notes: The proverb attests directly to the difficulty of Ifá training as ordinary Yorùbá common knowledge, sharply lived enough to become proverbial. See 05-ifa/06-becoming-a-babalawo.md for the documented account of the years of memorisation this apprenticeship requires.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2146.

14. Ojú tí ń pọ́n awo àpọ́nkú kọ́; ìyà tí ń jẹ awo àjẹlà; ìṣẹ́ tí ń ṣẹ awo à-ṣẹ́-ṣẹ́-obì-jẹ ni.

Literal: Ojú tí ń pọ́n awo àpọ́nkú kọ́ the-hardship afflicting the-diviner is-not one-that-leads-to-death; ìyà tí ń jẹ awo àjẹlà the-suffering afflicting the-diviner is-one-that-leads-to-wealth; ìṣẹ́ tí ń ṣẹ awo à-ṣẹ́-ṣẹ́-obì-jẹ ni the-poverty afflicting the-diviner is-one-that-still-allows-a-bite-of-kola.

Idiomatic: "The suffering that the babaláwo is experiencing is not something that leads to death; the hard time that the babaláwo is going through is one that leads to riches; the vicissitudes that now befall the babaláwo leave room for taking a bite of kola nut." 1

Meaning: The diviner's present hardship is a stage on the way to prosperity, not a terminal condition.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One's present troubles will lead to even better times" 1

Notes: This proverb makes the same point as entry 13 in a more elaborated, three-part form, and Owomoyela's footnote glosses babaláwo itself as "father of mysteries," the title of the priests of Ifá, who function as diviners, healers, and general-purpose medicine men 1, a role description consistent with the account in 05-ifa/06-becoming-a-babalawo.md.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2271, with note 52.

15. Ọlẹ́ bà á tì, ó kó sílé Ifá.

Literal: Ọlẹ́ bà á tì the-lazy-person fails-at-everything, ó kó sílé Ifá he goes to-the-house-of-Ifá.

Idiomatic: "The lazy person fails at everything, whereupon he becomes an Ifá acolyte." 1

Meaning: A person with no other options turns to Ifá study as a last resort, on the assumption that it demands less effort than other trades.

Used when: Owomoyela: "The lazy person finds easy tasks to do" 1

Notes: Owomoyela's footnote clarifies that this proverb rests on the (satirical) premise that the chief task of the Ifá pupil is to memorise the huge texts associated with it, and the joke is precisely that this is not, in fact, an easy option 1. Owomoyela records a matching variant, entry 2346, in which the lazy person instead enters a Koranic school on the same false premise of ease 1. Neither proverb is a serious claim about the difficulty of Ifá training; read against entries 13 and 14, which state plainly that the training is hard, this proverb's irony becomes visible only in context.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2345; variant 2346.

16. Èjì Ogbè ni baba Ifá.

Literal: Èjì Ogbè [name-of-the-first-odù] ni baba Ifá is the-father-figure of-Ifá.

Idiomatic: "Èjì Ogbè is the father figure in Ifá." 1

Meaning: Èjì Ogbè is without peer in its category, foremost among the chapters of the Ifá corpus.

Used when: Owomoyela's note: the subject of this comment is thought to be without peer in its category 1, applied generally to anyone or anything asserted to be first in its class.

Notes: Owomoyela's footnote identifies Èjì Ogbè as the first and most important of the sixteen main chapters (odù) of Ifá 1. See 05-ifa/03-the-256-odu.md for the full structure of the corpus this proverb names a single element of; the proverb itself does not explain the odù system, assuming the hearer already knows it.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2725, with note 1.

17. Ikú tí kò níí pani ní ń gbé aláwo rere koni.

Literal: Ikú tí kò níí pani death that will-not kill-one ní ń gbé aláwo rere koni is-what brings a-good-diviner one's-way.

Idiomatic: "It is the death that has no intention of killing one that brings an expert diviner man one's way." 1

Meaning: A near-miss with disaster is what puts one in contact with the help that will actually save one.

Used when: Owomoyela: "One should be grateful if one has people to warn one about impending dangers" 1

Notes: The proverb treats the diviner's arrival as providential rather than coincidental, a survival mechanism built into how danger and warning are connected in this proverb tradition, related to the fate proverbs collected in file 79.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2970.

18. Òkété, báyìí ni ìwà ẹ: o bá Ifá mulẹ̀ o dá Ifá.

Literal: Òkété giant-bush-rat, báyìí ni ìwà ẹ such is-your character: o bá Ifá mulẹ̀ you made-a-pact-with Ifá o dá Ifá you betrayed Ifá.

Idiomatic: "So, giant bush rat, such is your character: you made a pact with Ifá and you betrayed Ifá." 1

Meaning: Addressed to a person who was trusted and who has broken that trust.

Used when: Owomoyela: "An address to a person whom you trusted but who has betrayed you" 1

Notes: Owomoyela's footnote explains the natural-history detail behind the image: giant bush rats favour palm kernels, which are also used in Ifá divination, so the rat is depicted as raiding Ifá's own preserve, betraying an implicit understanding by taking what belongs to the oracle 1.

Source: 1 Owomoyela 2575, with note 22.

19. Ẹnu tí ń pọ̀n babaláwo kó bèrè ẹbọ àná; kì í ṣẹ̀.

(Compare entry 5 above; recorded here only as the reference for the variant discussed in entry 2's notes; not counted separately in the total for this file.)

20. Kì í ṣe ẹjọ́ eléhín gan-gan-ran; òrìṣà ló dá a tí kò fi awọ̀ bò ó, ṣùgbọ́n a kì í dÍfá ká fàyè gbàgbé ẹ̀bi.

(This entry is a compiler's cross-reference, not a separate sourced text, and is not included in the count below. See file 70, entry 14, Owomoyela 3555, for the fully sourced proverb about the person with protruding teeth, which concerns divine responsibility for physical form rather than divination as such.)

21. Ìjìnlẹ̀ awo ni afọ́jú fi ń mọ ọ̀nà.

(Withheld: this saying circulates widely in secondary and popular sources on Ifá but could not be located in Owomoyela, Delano, or any peer-reviewed source available to this compiler. Per the corpus's hard rule against inventing or unsourced-quoting a proverb, it is named here only to record that it was checked and cut, not presented as a verified entry.)

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A note on the count

Eighteen proverbs above carry a full citation and are counted as this file's verified collection (entries 1 through 18; entries 19 through 21 are cross-references or explicitly discarded candidates, not additions to the count). Ifá and the babaláwo are, in Owomoyela's arrangement, scattered across nearly every thematic section of the book rather than gathered in one place, unlike the divine-and-supernatural section mined for files 70 and 71. This file's eighteen proverbs are the yield of a targeted search across the full text for every occurrence of Ifá, babaláwo, aláwo, and dá Ifá; a further, more exhaustive pass against Delano, Ajibola, and peer-reviewed Ifá scholarship might add more, but nothing beyond what is sourced here is presented as verified.

Reading this set

The proverbs converge on three claims about the profession rather than about divination's metaphysics: that the babaláwo's dignity forbids petty demands (entries 2, 5), that the training is genuinely arduous with a payoff on the far side of it (entries 13, 14, and, ironically, 15), and that Ifá's discourse is proverb-like in form (entry 8), which is the clearest native statement in this corpus of the kinship between the òwe genre this whole section documents and the ẹsẹ Ifá verses documented in 05-ifa/04-ese-ifa-the-verses.md.