Anger: An Ifa Overview by Oloye Fakunle Oyesanya

Have you ever felt like slapping a co-worker just because you were provoked? Or have you ever felt aggressive about yourself becaus of personal problems that haf seemed unsolvable? Or have you ever felt angry as a result of flashback of a sad event? We all have, at one time or the other, felt angry either as a fleeting annoyance or as an intense rage.

Anger is a natural and normal as other forms of human emotions but it is more instinctive and in most cases manifests aggressive response. In a simple definition, anger is an expression of strong displeasure against external or internal stimilys. Every individual is predisposed to anger but serious restraints must be exercised in expressing it. It is like a small madness, when expressed to the extreme, the effect, more often than not, is more serious than wtaht actually caused the anger.

Studies have shown that some individuals are genetically pre-disposed to anger or violence that the propensity to always want to harm, hurt or hit when provoked is in-born 

Sigmund Freud, a psycho-analyst argued that individuals are born with an innate aggressive instinct and when they are blocked, they have natural urge to bece hostile or angry. To buttress this argument, research at the beginning of the century gas pinpointed specific genes that increase their risk of social harmful behavior such as aggressiveness, anti-social behavior, suicide,etc in man.

In Ifa, it is also corroborated in a stanza of ofun-irosun whereby Ifa explains the classification of character types of an individual and personality traits exhibited by each. They are: Predominantly human ( reasonable, balance view logic, intelligence, ambivalent, low temperature). Predominantly animal ( highly mobile, stubborn, breaking the rules, rash, extrovert, high temperature, materialize.). Predominantly wood ( highly immobile, insensitive, complacent, stable, depressed, pessimistic, introvert.).

Apart from the genetically predisposition to anger that was mentioned above, several other factors contribute to the cause of anger in man. They are; hunger, ill-health, injustice. Alcoholism, intolerance, economic frustration, ridicule, disappointment/betrayal, ingratitude.

Culled from: Elerii ipin magazine (Vol.3).