IFA

Goddess

Ifá, called Fa among the Fon and the Ewe, designates at once a deity of wisdom and a geomantic divination system originating in Yoruba country, in West Africa. The cult is placed under the authority of the orisha Orunmila, keeper of knowledge and prophecy. The diviner, named babalawo, interprets one of the 256 signs, or odu, obtained with sacred palm nuts or a divining chain laid on a wooden tray. Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth century, through exchanges with the empire of Oyo, the Fon of the kingdom of Dahomey adopted this practice, in which the word fa evokes coolness, gentleness and balance. In the Fon tradition, the power of Fa is associated with the feminine spirit Gbadu, held to be its source and its wife, whose presence is required at the initiations. The knowledge of Ifá is handed down through a vast corpus of recited verses. In 2005, UNESCO inscribed Ifá on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.