OmoEkofa (Young girl who studies Ifa Philosophy)

11 year young Awo of Babalawo of northern Oyo State, Nigeria, reciting Ifa poetry from the Ifa Corpus (students start studying at 4yrs old). It is worthy to note that Ifa is still very much an Ancient Oral poetic form (very little has been written to date) of restating Ifa's stanzas of historical, philosophical, practical, curative and healing messages, as they have been stated and restanted for thousands of years among the Yoruba in West Africa and has, recently, as a result of the Maafa (transatlantic slave trade) of enslaved Yoruba people found in the diaspora namely Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Surinam, Guyana, Haiti and now throughout most of the world. The root was among the Yoruba of West Africa, these ancient stories spoken in poetic form often using parables, was the root of African proverbs common today, that would deliver messages onto themsleves. It is also very notable that as said Ifa is an Oral art form and is taught to children orally and retain into memory, this girl is only 11 years old and can recite many stories from memory, also to note that she is a female and to dispel the myth (in the diaspora) that girls do not study Ifa, but shown here she is orally reciting Ifa stanzas and the response from others is to also learn that Ifa stanza.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Ifa
• wisdom
• knowledge
• ancient
• religion
• poetry
• philosophy
• yoruba
• nigeria
• ATR
• Olodumare

[fjc973]

oduaworldtraders youre right in everything you said but people who don't practice the traditional yoruba religion from nigeria don't know that womens can be initiated as iyanifas and they do got a role in everything as a matter of facts we got a lot in america and they were initiated in yorubaland i'm an antropology student and yoruba priest also ifa student

[omorisa]

it has been a very bad misconception that women do not perform Itefa, they do and they learn Ifa just like men, the only difference is Odu, the old idea will disappear in time - I know some great Iyanifa and have a lot of respect for them

[faramade2]

thank you, I love it, and hope to keep our culture and religion alive

[dancint]

Thank you for this...how beautiful to see these children starting so young...I wish it was that way in the States. Our chidren need Ifa badly. Many blessings, Omilade

[blancamigdalia]

thanks a lot for this video,i love my religion,is good to know that a woman can be a iyanifa,i wan to have a real Yoruba community in USA.

[tweepixie]

@dancint Could you please tell me in which states of usa do people still practice african religionThe only place iknew they still practice it was louisiana.Sorry to ask you that but I´m brazilian and african religion and culture play a big role in our society :) And I would like to know more about the influences in the USA.

[AquilaChe]

ase!

[DEBOEFOREVER]

this is too beautiful. it brings tears to my eyes....it also shows that we in america have a lot to catch up on when educating our youth. Literacy as well as reverence can be accomplished in due time. We just have to be committed to helping each other as well as our youth out. Mefferefun the orishas every day and bless this young lady and her village.

[el7baby]

Truth beauty, Islamism

[imelda4jesus]

@supervirtuouswoman really?? ok... dont worry your going to die one time and you will know the truth, for now continue, its your life abi? okay go on..

[imelda4jesus]

@supervirtuouswoman really??

[imelda4jesus]

@efunawsome ..........oh please! read yr comment loudly, your going round in circles, anywya never mind. Geuss when you die you will understand better

[FulMetaJakit]

@imelda4jesus YOU DAmn fool christianity has cause nothing but disaster for african people world wide. you must be a krakkka or a brain dead ass nigga to spew that sheer fuckery from your lame ass brain. fucking fool.

[mabeanz08]

@oddbutcomplete dam right we know what we're doing yoruba started the whole cuban culture beans n rice drums dance ....they were dancing but not to african rythms .voodoo works through ancestors how can spainards practice this.