Wow! Ifa is more Civilized than anything known to Man, see one of its verses (Ogbe Rikusa) !

Odu Ogbe rikusa

The blind and disabled are friends

The disabled person asked the blind person:

Is this how we are going to die of suffering?

The blind responded: what shall we do about it?

The disabled answered: let us go and ask a wise person what to do.

They inquired of the wise person: will we ever walk or see again?

The wise person queried: Have you ever walked or seen before?

They answered: never!

They were asked to perform an offering

They were perplexed: What is he talking about?

Can we afford to pay for any offering? 

The disabled suggested suicide as an option

Days latter the disabled repeated the suggestion to the blind person

The blind responded: you know I cannot see, so whatever you suggest is okay 

We  have been friends for too long and I could not live without you

The disabled responded: I know a place we can go to kill ourselves

The disabled person added: when we get to the water, I will just jump into it

The blind person questioned: how would I know? 

The disabled said: I will bring you close to the edge so when you hear the loud sound of falling, you know it is time to jump

On the second day they decided to end it all

The disabled led the blind to the water

As they neared the edge the disabled lamented and threw a huge stone into the water

The disabled hoped he tricked the blind person to jump

But the blind person was so worried and upset that threw his walking stick around and hit the disabled person  

The disabled person shrieked!

The blind person was so surprised 

He asked the disabled why he wanted to trick him to die

The disabled apologized and the blind person could not be too upset 

Did he not need the disabled to bring him home?

As they continued along in the bush they came across some food 

Cooking the meat seemed to take too long. but

The blind realized that each time the disabled spoke it sounded as if he was eating

Since the blind person kept asking the disabled person for food, the disabled gave the blind a toad to eat instead

The blind could not see so he put the toad’s head in his mouth

As he bit the toad the water from the toad’s eyeball broke and splashed into the blind’s eye

He regained sight!

As he regained sight the blind took over the cooking and gave the toad to the disabled person to eat

He then went to the waterside to drink

But he told the disabled person that if  the disabled person was still present when he returned, the disabled person had only three options: 

To be pushed into the water

To be beaten

To be taken into the forest and abandoned

The disabled person chose to be beaten 

The previously blind person went to beat the disabled on his head

The disabled suggested being beaten on the buttocks, knowing that from the waist down was paralyzed so he would not feel any pain

As the previously blind started to beat his buttocks with a walking stick

The disabled stood up and started running!

But the two of them were so carried away they could not see what was happening to both of them

As the disabled was running and the blind chasing 

They ran into a prophet

The disabled screamed for help

Help me Baba!

The prophet asked them what the problem was between them

They explained everything that happened up until that moment

Then the prophet asked the disabled: Ever since you have been disabled

Have you ever thought of asking your Blind friend or family to beat you with a walking stick before?

He answered: No!

The prophet also asked the blind person: If you had known that it was the water from toad’s eyeball that would heal you

Wouldn’t you have asked your disabled friend or family for it?

He also answered: Yes!

Then the prophet told both of them to embrace each other

They should forever be friends and never let anyone come in between them. Ever!

They were happy and started remembering their journey together

The prophet then said to them that  a little bit about Olodumare had been revealed to them

Indeed, after we listened intently to Ogberikusa, little did we know that the story predicted the events of our subsequent journey in Oke Igbo. Indeed, Onaje would play the role of the blind person and Folasade would play the role of one with disabilities for the remainder of our search for a teacher.  You see, although Onaje had the desire and will to venture into very remote towns and villages on motor bikes on lumpy unforgiving dirt roads, with scorching sun, miles away from any hospitals, and had been to Nigeria five times already, most of the time Onaje felt culturally, socially and environmentally blind, unable to rely on past experience to perceive even the next bump in the road.  Everything felt new to Onaje and he complained or questioned our movements each time we made a decision to go deeper into the village and forest.

 

Folasade was truly leading a blind man and over time it was a burdensome task that slowed and worried her.  Not only did she have to listen to his complaints, but she had to be careful that others did not notice his African American accent or appearance, less they exploit us.  Many people sought to divide us.  In a cultural and emotional sense, Sade was truly disabled.  At some points to relieve herself of his complaints she would find ways to get her message across to him.  Sometimes, to be honest, he did not appreciate her approach, and found himself upset wanting to tell her off like the blind man did once to the person with disabilities.  We encountered so many challenges, endured so many hardships on our journey together in Oke Igbo in search of an upright teacher who might guide us in the next phases of our Ifa studies and journey together.  Moreover as we neared the end of our journey, although we found some great medicine men and some great diviners who helped with our healing along the way, we still had not found a Babalawo we felt we could really trust as a teacher.  It was at the end of the trip, after discovering how much we helped each other heal, however, that we met an upright teacher.  His name is Bishop Ezekiel Soniran Adekunle Lijadu.

Throughout our trip in Oke Igbo, we heard there was a Bishop in Ondo, who was also a pioneer in Ifa studies.  To be honest, we doubted that a Bishop in Nigeria would know much about Ifa, because of the amount of discrimination and bias many Christians have toward Ifa religion in Nigeria.  It was not until toward the end of our journey that we decided to visit Bishop Lijadu and we are thankful we did.

When we met Bishop Lijadu, who is now 79 years old, over the next few days, he, unlike any Babalawo we met on this trip, sat with us for hours sharing his wide and deep knowledge of Ifa verses, Yoruba philosophy, and Yoruba history, including the noted history of his own family lineage.  We discovered that his grandfather, Bishop Emmanuel Moses Lijadu, married a re-captive slave from Brazil, left the Anglican Church to start and independent African Church based on his own self-help philosophy, and wrote two of the earliest texts on Ifa and Orunmila at the turn of the 20th Century.

We liked Bishop Lijadu, not only because of the history and knowledge he shared with us, but because over the next couple weeks, he did not try to establish his authority over us, did not ask us for money, and instead listened to our questions, and always directed us to find the answers for ourselves.  We felt that he applied the Ifa concept that each individual’s Ori comes to this world already with knowledge and power, to his work with us.  He was there to assist us on our journey and not to impose his own. Over time he became our esteemed teacher and taught us countless Ifa verses during the next phase of our training which eventuated in our initiation.  Without his dedication, sacrifice and deep knowledge of Ifa verses, we would not have been able to develop this application years later.  We dedicate this application to him, who like the wise prophet, has been a great teacher. We also pay homage to the esteemed Lijadu family lineage.  Indeed,  like the blind and the disabled persons in the verse of Ogberikusa, we hope with all humility, that the verses in this application reveal a little bit of Olodumare to you.

Folasade and Onaje