Ifa Divination Poetry, our final text in this exploration of the cosmogonies in the ancient world, comes to us from the Yoruban people of western Africa, and takes us deep into a practice we have seen in other texts, the practice of divination. Think back on the dreams you noticed Gilgamesh and Enkidu interpreting in the Epic of Gilgamesh. And consider how dreams and visions informed the daily affairs and decisions of Noah and Abraham in the Hebrew Bible.
In the lecture below, Dr. Marcus Harvey locates the motivating forces of Ifa Divination in the existential tension humans experience in the world between the realities of conflict and mystery. How do you see conflict and mystery manifest in your life? On a local scale? On a global scale?
Divination is not a long-gone practice of ancient peoples, and it’s important to remember that the texts we read continue to be sacred to people today. As we will discuss, Maya traditionalists consult the Popol Vuh, and through that text, the wisdom of their ancestors. The hero twins are connected to the planets and stars, connecting the Maya people to their ancestors through the sky and motion of celestial bodies. It may be helpful to think of this in terms of how the wisdom of the past can inform the present. What questions or advice might you seek from a grandparent or a respected “elder” in your own communities?
Present-day practitioners of Ifa go through years of training to be able to serve their communities.
For Your Journal
Consider: what are some life questions you would like advice or insight on? Think of questions that bear on your future, and necessitate a decision. Examples could be: What to major in? Whether to start or continue a relationship? Whether to invest time or money in XYZ. . . Jot these down in your journal.
After you’ve watched Dr. Harvey’s video module and explored some of the Ifa Divination poetry in our text, copy out, or illustrate any stanzas or fragments that stand out to you.
In class, we will take our questions to the poems and see what sense we can make, and what conversation emerges.
Madeline Thornton
I think today, many people find a way to distract themselves from dealing with conflict. Humans in general hate dealing with conflict, so we do our best to distract ourselves from it with many things, some better than others. When it comes to mystery, a lot of people tend to not think about it, myself included because sometimes it can be hard to get away from all of the what if’s and why’s. Then there are others who turn to religion or cultural beliefs to help relieve their questions they may have.
Ash McKim
One of the ways people deal with conflict and mystery in everyday life is through distraction. This can be through healthy or unhealthy means. Some examples of healthy distractions are music, art, exercise, work, and spending time with friends/family. Of course, these are only healthy distractions if they are used in moderation. Some examples of unhealthy distractions are drugs, alcohol, affairs, and gambling.
Emily Alexander
I think it’s common for people to cope with conflict and mystery in several different ways both positive and negative. Some positive ways of coping are like going to therapy, making art, listening to music, and hanging with friends. Music is one of my favorite ways to cope. Coping strategies that are more negative are like turning to drugs or alcohol, surrounding yourself with bad influences, or just keeping everything inside and not talking about it. I know many people who have gone this route. I feel like the most effective way to resolve conflict or uncover a mystery is to just ponder about it and then talk it out. This can apply to both a large scale (cultural or societal conflict) and a small scale (roommate issues).
Mike
There are many ways people cope with conflict and mystery. I believe one of the most popular ways to deal with conflict is to avoid it or ignore it in some way. Music, games, hanging out with friends, or drugs are a few ways people avoid problems. I do not think it’s laziness, but just a natural way of coping with such extreme stress and anxiety. We have access to so much negative information, much more than humans are used to I think. Naturally, humans latch onto negative information much more than positive information, because that has helped us survive throughout history.
Ziyanah Alexander
I think one major way that people cope with problems is by thinking/pondering and then talking about them with a person/group who can listen, help, and/or relate. Sometimes thinking deeply and talking about problems brings about solutions but other times it just feels good to get something “off of your chest” and out in the open even though it may not do anything to actually help solve the problem in the moment. Another way that people cope, which actually happens to be the opposite of what I said before is ignoring or denying a problem. The suppress it and continue through life as if it doesn’t bother them, possibly because the problem feels too big or hard to handle. I think this can be sort of a survival mechanism because there are so many problems that if we really thought about it all of them, we would be very overwhelmed and may shutdown, so instead we ignore them.
Ian Valiante
Conflict and mystery suround me every single day. One example of this would be the mystery of how the food at brown is going to be, and it could cause internal conflict if its a bad day. Locally there is also constant conflict and mystery, the homeless population is a good example of that. A lot of people have the mystery of where they are going to sleep that night, and a lot of shelters have an abundance of conflict. Some questions I would seek from my elders are; Did you ever feel truly content? Is being older fun? Is it better to be alone or to spend more time with others? Is it worth loving someone?