What is Ifa Tuntun?

What is Ifa Tuntun?

When did Ifa Tuntun begin?

Who is culpable for initiating it?

Ifa Tuntun started the moment we Africans were packed into the hulls of the merchant ships and hauled across the sea.

Everything changed from that point.

Nothing has ever been the same again both for those who were forcibly taken and those left behind.

Those forcibly taken did several things:

1. Some looked back and cursed the land that they were leaving, and those who forced them into captivity and alienation.
2. Some, knowing they would be killed, locked their captors into a fight, even chained, and got executed.
3. Some, with courage, jumped into the ocean, burying their bodies in the mother sea, preferring death to captivity.
4. Some descended into the hull of the ships into which they were led, determined to live to see where the rest of the journeys of their lives would lead them.

They shed blood.
They shed tears.
They shed sweat, cold sweat.
They shed urination.

They shed milk, those mothers taken away from their children, their swollen bodies lactating.
They met others who could not speak their language.

They communicated with gestures, with signs, with sighs, with cries.

That was the birth of jazz music, as they improvised beyond words to make their feelings clear.

That was the birth of blues, as they sobbed, rocking from side to side, moaning ai, aye, bae, bi, bligh, buy, by, bye, cai, chai, chi, cry, cy, dai, die, dry, dye, eye, fae, fi, fly, fry, frye, guy, hi, high, hy, hye, i, i., kai, kwai, lai, lie, ly, lye, mai, mei, my, nigh, nye, pe-tsai, phi, pi, pie, ply, pri, pry, psi, pye, rye, sai, shy, sky, skye, sly, spry, spy, sty, sy, tai, thai, thigh, thy, tie, tri, try, ty, tye, vi, vie, wai, why, wry, wye, y, yeeparipa!

Their blood, mixing with the sweat, tears, milk, and urines on the floor of the ship, as pregnant women gave birth, and weak ones gave up life and dead bodies left marks on the bottom of the slave ships—gave birth to the origin of abstract painting, conceptual art, and gestural images of body markings.

That moment, which came for different people and their descendants in the foreign land, which they turned into the New Africa, was the end of an old order, and the birth of a new world.

Their new voices articulated Ifa Tuntun, as they opened their mouths, and sang, in a rhythm, pacing, harmony, discord, and coloring never before known to humankind, Ifa Tuntun came out of these spirits:

Aberjhani, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Linda Addison, Tomi Adeyemi , Rochelle Alers, Elizabeth Alexander, Kwame Alexander, Larry D. Alexander, Lewis Grandison Alexander, Candace Allen, Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen, Robert L. Allen, Garland Anderson, Maya Angelou, Tina McElroy Ansa, Ray Aranha, Chalmers Archer, M. K. Asante, Jr. Jabari Asim, Russell Atkins, William Attaway, James Baldwin, Calvin Baker, Toni Cade Bambara, Leslie Esdaile Banks Amiri Baraka, Shauna Barbosa, Steven Barnes, Lindon W. Barrett, Samuel Alfred Beadle, Paul Beatty, Robert Beck, Christopher C. Bell, Derrick Bell, Brit Bennett, Gwendolyn Bennett, Hal Bennett, Lerone Bennett, Jr., Bertice Berry, Venise T. Berry, Henry Bibb, Eleanor Taylor Bland, Marita Bonner), Arna Bontemps, James Boggs, Demico Boothe, David Bradley, William Stanley Braithwaite, Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude Brown, Hallie Quinn Brown, Roseanne A. Brown, Sterling A. Brown, William Wells Brown, Anatole Broyard, Ashley Bryan, Niobia Bryant, Ed Bullins, Olivia Ward Bush, Octavia Butler, Roderick D. Bush, George Cain, Bebe Moore Campbell, Stokely Carmichael, Ben Carson, Jennie Carter, Stephen L. Carter, Cyrus Cassells, Kashana Cauley, Eddie Chambers, Lady Chablis, Charles W. Chesnutt, Alice Childress, Cheril N. Clarke, Cheryl Clarke, John Henrik Clarke, Stanley Bennett Clay, Troy, Pearl Cleage, Eldridge Cleaver, Michelle Cliff, Lucille Clifton, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, Ta-Nehisi Coates , author, journalist, Wanda Coleman, Marvel Cooke , Anna J. Cooper, Clarence Cooper Jr., J. California Cooper, James Corrothers, Jayne Cortez, Bill Cosby, Joseph Seamon Cotter, Donald Crews, Stanley Crouch, Harold Cruse, Countee Cullen, Waring Cuney, Christopher Paul Curtis, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jeffrey Daniels (living), Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Christopher Darden, Angela Davis, Frank Marshall Davis, Kyra Davis, Milton Davis, George Dawson, Samuel R. Delany, Eric Jerome Dickey, Anita Doreen Diggs, Nahshon Dion, Lonnie Dixon, Rita Dove, Sharon Draper, Tananarive Due, Henry Dumas, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, David Anthony Durham, Richard Durham, Michael Eric Dyson, Ralph Ellison, Cornelius Eady, Sarah Jane Woodson Early, Junius Edwards, Olaudah Equiano, Don Evans, Mari Evans, Percival Everett, Eve Ewing, Sarah Webster Fabio, Ronald Fair, Sarah Farro, John M. Faucette, Arthur Huff Fauset, Jessie Fauset, London R. Ferebee, Lolita Files, Antwone Fisher, Rudolph Fisher, Liseli Fitzpatrick, Sharon G. Flake, Robert Fleming, Mary Weston Fordham, Namina Forna, Leon Forrest, Tonya Foster, J. E. Franklin, John Hope Franklin, Hoyt W. Fuller, Nina Foxx,Ernest Gaines, Ruth Gaines-Shelton, Marcus Garvey, Tony Gaskins, Henry Louis Gates, Roxane Gay, Nikki Giovanni, Roy Glenn, Donald Goines, Marita Golden, Edythe Mae Gordon, Edmond T. Gordon, Eugene Gordon, Charles Gordone, Amanda Gorman, Lawrence Otis Graham, Moses Grandy, Victor Hugo Green, Eloise Greenfield, Sam Greenlee, Bonnie Greer, Deborah Gregory, Dick Gregory, Sutton E. Griggs, Nikki Grimes, Angelina Weld Grimke, Charlotte Forten Grimké, Rosa Guy, John Langston Gwaltney, Yaa Gyasi, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alex Haley, Virginia Hamilton Henry Hampton, Lorraine Hansberry, Joyce Hansen, Vincent Harding, Rachael Harding, Edward W. Hardy, Nathan Hare, Frances Harper, E. Lynn Harris, Michael Harris, Juanita Harrison, Saidiya Hartman, Robert Hayden, Essex Hemphill, David Henderson, Safiya Henderson-Holmes, Freida High-Tesfagiorgis, Chester Himes, Kameisha Jerae Hodge, Corey J. Hodges, Karla F. C. Holloway, bell hooks, Pauline Hopkins, Nalo Hopkinson, George Moses Horton, Roberta Hoskie, Tracie Howard, Detrick Hughes, Langston Hughes , Zora Neale Hurston, Jordan Ifueko, Rashidah Ismaili, Brenda Jackson, Jesse C. Jackson, Mae Jackson, Harriet Jacobs, T. D. Jakes, Ayize Jama-Everett, John Jea, N. K. Jemisin, Beverly Jenkins, Terri L. Jewell, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Angela Johnson, Charles R. Johnson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Helene Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Mat Johnson Varian Johnson, Edward P. Jones, Gayl Jones, Joni Omi-Osun Jones, Kelly Jones, Tayari Jones, June Jordan, Martin Luther King, Ron Karenga, Bob Kaufman, Elizabeth Keckley, William Melvin Kelley, Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins, Randall Kenan, Adrienne Kennedy, Nina Kennedy, John Oliver Killens, Jamaica Kincaid, Emeline King, Martin Luther King Jr., Woodie King Jr., Etheridge Knight, Yusef Komunyakaa, Pinkie Gordon Lane, Nella Larsen, Victor LaValle, Brent Leggs, Andrea Lee, Julius Lester, David Levering Lewis, Willie Little, Alain Locke, Attica Locke, Audre Lorde, Bettina L. Love, Glenville Lovell, Toni Morrison, Christopher Mwashinga, Nathaniel Mackey, Naomi Long Madgett, Haki R. Madhubuti, Clarence Major, Raynetta, Manning Marable, John Marrant, Paule Marshall, Ora Mae Lewis Martin, Hans Massaquoi, Brandon Massey, Victoria Earle Matthews, Julian Mayfield, James McBride, Nathan McCall, Bernice McFadden, Claude McKay, Patricia McKissack, Reginald McKnight, Kim McLarin, Terry McMillan, James Alan McPherson, Louise Meriwether, Oscar Micheaux, E. Ethelbert Miller, May Miller, Arthenia J. Bates Millican, Mary Monroe, Anne Moody, Jessica Care Moore, George McMichael Moyer, Toni Morrison, E. Frederic Morrow, Walter Mosley, Thylias Moss, Willard Motley, Jess Mowry, Albert Murray, Pauli Murray, Walter Dean Myers, Tariq Nasheed, Gloria Naylor, Larry Nealy, Barbara Neely, Huey P. Newton, Richard Bruce Nugent, Mwatabu S. Okantah, Oladejo Okediji, Nnedi Okorafor, Marc Olden, Porsha Olayiwola, Rita Omokha, Terry a. O’Neal, Tochi Onyebuchi, Roscoe Orman, Ewuare Osayande, Brenda Marie Osbey, Candace Owens, ZZ Packer, Gordon Parks, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tyler Perry, Eric Pete, Ann Petry, Delores Phillips, Steve Phillips, William Pickens, Leonard Pitts, Ann Plato, Sterling Plumpp, Carlene, Alvin F. Poussaint, Jewel Prestage, Robert Earl Price, Aishah Rahman, Alice Randall, Dudley Randall, Cordelia Ray, Francis Ray, Andy Razaf, Ishmael, Kiley Reid, Jason Reynolds, Willis Richardson, Florida Ruffin Ridley, Harrison David Rivers, Cliff Roquemore, Carolyn Rodgers, Octavia V. Rogers Albert, Al Roker, Fran Ross, Ola Rotimi, Shawn Stewart Ruff, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Malinda Russell, Rachel Renee Russell, Carl Hancock Rux, Rupaul, Kalamu ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez, Dori Sanders, Sapphire, Charles R. Saunders, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, George Schuyler, Gil Scott-Heron, Clara Johnson Scroggins, Sandra Seaton, Victor Séjour, Fatima Shaik, Tupac Shakur, Ntozake Shange, Nisi Shawl, Lowrey Stokes Sims, Sister Souljah, Iceberg Slim, Amanda Smith, Cherise Smith, Danez Smith, Effie Waller Smith, William Gardner Smith, Thomas Sowell, A. B. Spellman, Anne Aurin Squire, Theophilus Gould Steward, Maria W. Stewart, Jeffrey C. Stewart, Nic Stone, Ellen Tarry, Mildred D. Taylor, Susie Taylor, Mary Church Terrell, Lucy Terry, Michael Thelwell, Angie Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Joyce Carol Thomas, Lorenzo Thomas, Piri Thomas, Truth Thomas, Pamela Thomas-Graham, Era Bell Thompson, Howard Thurman, Wallace Thurman, Ruth D. Todd, Lynn Toler, Melvin B. Tolson, Jean Toomer, Touré, Askia M. Touré, Quincy Troupe, Sojourner Truth, Omar Tyree, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Henry Van Dyke, Ivan Van Sertima, Bethany Veney, Olympia Vernon, Dwyane Wade, Alice Walker, Frank X. Walker, Margaret Walker, Christopher George Latore Wallace, Michele Wallace, Eric Walrond, Mildred Pitts Walter, Marilyn Nelson Waniek, Douglas Turner Ward, Jesmyn Ward, Booker T. Washington, Frank J. Webb, Ida B. Wells, Richard Wesley, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Cornel West, Dorothy West, Phillis Wheatley, Walter Francis White, Colson Whitehead, Steven Whitehurst, Albery Allson Whitman, Anthony Whyte, John Edgar Wideman, Isabel Wilkerson, Crystal Wilkinson, Alicia D. Williams, Chancellor Williams, John Alfred Williams, Samm-Art Williams, Sherley Anne Williams, Walter E. Williams, August Wilson, Harriet E. Wilson, Kathy Y. Wilson, William Julius Wilson, Oprah Winfrey, Carter G. Woodson, Jacqueline Woodson, David Wright, Jay Wright, Kelly Wright, Richard Wright, Sarah E. Wright, David F. Walker, Malcolm X, Marian X, Camille Yarbrough, Frank Yerby, Al Young, Zane, and Ahmos Zu-Bolton.

Moyo Okediji did not invent Ifa Tuntun.

He is not culpable.

If you kill Moyo Okediji, it is pointless.

To kill Ifa Tuntun, you must kill all the sacred voices listed above.

They are culpable.

Picture is by Tom Feelings, Middle Passage: White Ship, Black Cargo