Chief Ifayemi Elebuino, world famous Ifa Priest, writer, poet, author and linguist, has knocked Nollywood for portraying ‘babalawo’ as fetish practitioners as against their true nature of diviners and healers in the spiritual sense, according to Ifa Corpus. Ifa is “an ancient religion and a complex system of divination conceptualized centuries ago, by the Yoruba people in Africa and practiced by Yoruba communities and African Diaspora in South America and the Caribbean.”
Speaking on Sunday night in a zoom conference titled, “A Conversation with Baba Elebuibon: Ifa and Yoruba Metaphysics,” on the platform of ‘The Toyin Falola Interview’, series, the High Chief stated that ‘babalawo’ is a spiritual title earned by practitioners after nine full years, broken into stages of three years each of training to master over 260 oral literature scriptures known as OduIfa. Culture, healing, spirituality, religion and administration were an all- encompassing treatise of Ifa, he said.
In the programme moderated by Prof Toyin Falola with Gbemisola Adeoti, a professor of literature in the English department at Obafemi Awolowo University and an Ifa Priest, obstetrician and gynaeologist, Dr Oluseyi Atanda, as panelists, Chief Elebuibon who spoke in Yoruba and English, said, ” those that write plays for Nollywood today have nothing about ‘babalawo’ to present on the screen. The way they present ‘babalawo’ is wrong. Babalawo is not an herbalist but a priest, a mender of the broken world. It is essential for the writers to take a good look at the Odu they want to portray before they do so. For instance, some of the incantations you hear the babalawo in the plays invoke are unnecessary. In reality, two sentences or incantation are enough to pinpoint the problem. The way Nollywood is portraying Yoruba culture is not good enough.”
He however singled out the likes of late Duro Ladipo, acclaimed Yoruba dramatist; late Hubert Ogunde, actor, playwright and theatre manager; Adebayo Faleti, a Yoruba poet, novelist, broadcaster and playwright and Akinwunmi Ishola, a playwright and scholar as exemplars of the tradition, who took time to research, learn and touch base with Yoruba elders on the nuances of the Ifa corpus before going on stage.
“Adejobi wrote Moremi but the one written and performed by Duro Ladipo is long lasting. Why? Because Ladipo, my Oga, will always research, study and consult before doing his work. Adejobi is good but you cannot compare him to Ladipo. The fire that emitted from the mouth of Ladipo’s ‘Sango’ was real fire, unlike those who used kerosene and matches. As for Ogunde, he was the son of a ‘babalawo,’ and he used his knowledge of the art in his plays. All the songs Ogunde sang were taken from OduIfa. Those of nowadays are incomparable.”
Chief Elebuibon also criticised the reported trend in making money through performance of rituals. He said rituals there are, but money would always manifest through occupational, professional and artisanal practices. “The way Ifa explains this is through an allegory. There was a tree located in Ife. On top of it were cowries (money), at the middle were strands and at the bottom, an apparel. People would gather under it after the day’s work to pick up cowries shed by the tree. But one day, a priest who rejected wise counsel got a ladder and climbed up the tree to pluck the cowries, whereupon the tree collapsed and crushed him.”
He rejected the idea that Ifa practises using blood was bad and submitted that all religions used blood, too. ” A son of God said he has redeemed the world with his blood. In some holy books, you will find sacrifices with animals. Ifa does not use human blood, if that is what people think.”
He advised couples to persevere and exercise patience in marriages rather than seeking for divorce at the slightest provocation, insisting that solutions can always be found if the right questions are asked, and help sought.
