INTRODUCTION
The popular impression among the faithful
of ‘Ifa’ and ‘Orisa’ tradition and scholars alike is that Odu means womb, among
other meanings postulated at different time without putting the other usage of
the term into consideration. To an ordinary Yoruba person, womb to literarily
means apo ile omo i.e bag that contains foetus. Hence, one will be tempted to
ask how ‘Odu’ becomes a bag that contains foetus. Is it the same bag that
contain foetus that Yoruba’s associate with the name of God i.e Olodumare and
their progenitor?
This essay tends to unravel the reason
behind various usages of the term ‘Odu’, and its mystical interpretation, for
the purposes of putting it straight that ‘Odu’ means mystery, and womb will not
be enough to encapsulate it.
THE
CONCEPT OF ODU
In the ancient Yorubaland, till this very
moment, ‘Odu’ is variously used to mean different thing or entity. This range
from the marking system of ‘Ifa’ to being a wife of Orunmila.
ODU
AS A MARKING/WRITING STSYEM
According to wande Abimbola in his book,
‘the sixteen major Odu’ (2006), he postulated that Odu is the combination of
four signs that babalawo mark at each side on Ifa divination tray. This view
was corroborated by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, when he said on my facebook
wall that ‘the Odu are also organisational categories in Ifa, the system of
knowledge, spiritual development, and divination enabled by Orunmila and Odu
his wife. As awesome as these two scholars views are on Odu may be, they did
not explain why the name of Orunmila’s wife is be used to describe the Yoruba
marking/writing system.
Prior to colonization, Yoruba’s encode and
decode information they receive from Orunmila through ikin merindinlogun i.e
sixteen nutshells by marking it on ifa divination tray since writing is the
process of putting idea, views, opinion etc into signs and symbols e.t.c which
they also termed Odu with the understanding that it stand for what Odu really
means.
It should be noted that Yoruba’s name
things based on the function it perform e.g fridge, Yoruba named it Ero amunu
tutu .i.e technology that get stomach cold. This is because, whenever cold
water is drank, it gets the stomach cold.
ODU
AND OlODUMARE: Odu is a term that is seen in the
Yoruba name for God, and Oduduwa, who happen to be the progenitor of Yoruba
race. But, this essay will focus on the relationship between Olodumare and Odu.
Odu is the mystical attributes of God, because he is the only being that knows
all things that is known and unknown to the Irumole. Orisa and human being
alike than we know ourselves. It’s the reality of this observation that makes
Yoruba ancestors to coined Olodumare from Olo/Oni- owner, Odu-mystery,
ma/mo-know, Aare- stranger. Hence, the owner of mystery/mystical knowledge that
knows us i.e strangers in this world than we know ourselves. According to Wande
Abimbola (2006), Babalawo that possessed Odu , and usually look into it once in
a year are called Olodu. It should be noted that not all Babalawo can be
regarded as Olodu, because every Olodu must have attained some level of
mystical understanding of the workings of nature and Olodumare, OLODUMARE, ORUNMILA AND ODU AS WIFE OF
ORUNMILA
The concept of marriage, husband and wife
in Yorubaland goes beyond traditional husband and wife, as an older woman can
simply refer to and younger one as my husband. It’s used to show close affinity
between two entity and individuals. Orunmila did not have Odu as real wife, is
just a metaphoric statement used to depict when and how Orunmila seek to
possessed the attributes of Olodumare, just as another ese Ifa says he got
married to Iwa i.e good character who is also the daughter of Olodumare. Both Iwa
and Odu are attributes of Olodumare and not real woman. Orunmila got married
with those attributes, and not real woman.
ODU
AS MOTHER OF MANY CHILDREN
According to Wande Abimbola, Orunmila is
said to have eight children, of which Alare is the first. None of these eight children
of Orunmila is birthed by Odu, yet Ifa portray Odu as having many children. One
will be tempted to ask, who are the children of Odu? It’s simply you and I who
get affinity with Orunmila / Ifa through his the mystical knowledge and understanding
he possessed by the virtue of his marriage to Odu.
ODU
AS MYSTERY
According Baba Adigun Olosun, Odu is said
to be something that is dark, which we cannot see with our naked eye, while Awo
Falokun said in black stand for mystery in Yoruba traditional believe system. Corroborating
the two views along the various analogies on the usage of Odu, one will
conclude that Odu simply means mystery.
