Humility as a code of conduct to IFA / Orisa devotees

Humility as a code of conduct to IFA / Orisa devotees should always be at the back of their mind. Some IFA /Orisa devotes do not know how to behave in the midst of other people. Some even go as far as underestimating other people or looking down on them.



This unfair act should be stopped by whosoever that is doing such because he or she is breaking the laws set by the Supreme being (Olodumare).


Humility Is very important for every IFA and Orisa pratitioner. This article am sharing is culled from Fasina Falade's educative book (IFA: The key to its understanding). (See below):
Humility is the art of dispalying a modest view of oneself as against being arrogant or having a bloated conception of oneself while at the same time looking down to others.



An IFA follower must never behave as if all his achievements in life were through self effort alone. He must also recognized the fact that all achievements were through the Supreme Being (Olodumare) and the deities. These deities in turn use human beings as a tool when ensuring the accomplishment of one's goals and dreams. For this reason, we must pay reverence to Olodumare, the deities and fellow humans.

No knowledge or power was brought to this world from heaven, we all acquired such knowledge or ability in this world .For this reason, all those who are instrumental to the acquisition of and IFA or Orisa followers' knowledge or ability must be respected. There is no room for an IFA follower to display arrogance or look down on others. In Iwori-Ose, ifa warns against being too arrogant in several stanzas.
An example in iwori -Ose is a person that claimed to be good at swimming that he thought that no water could harm him. When he was advised to offer ebo against being drown in water, which would not be up to a cupful, he abused the Awo and Esu Odara and left. A few moments later, he took a small calabash to drink water, while drinking water, the water ran into his wind pipe and died of asphyxiation. A few seconds to his death,he remembered the advice of the Awo, it was too late for any remedy. Arrogance he died of.
It is not advisable for any IFA or Orisa follower to rely on his capability in the achievement of anything. He must cultivate the habit of lowering his self assessment at all time. This does not mean an IFA or Orisa follower should lower his self respect in bid to be humble, that will amount to self humiliation. An ifa follower must be able to make a clear distinction between self respect and self humiliation. He must not disgrace himself in the name of being humble.


In iwori -ose, Tanipeo was a prominent babalawo. He however used to carry humility to the extreme. If anyone comes to him to consult IFA, he would tell them exactly what to do. Whenever Tanipeo and any client fix a time and the client failed to honor the time which had been fixed, he would then decide to go to the client's house in order to make inquires on why the client had not sticked to time , and if possible to offer the ebo at the client's house, so that he, the babalawo, would not appear to be displaying his pride and arrogance. However, on many occasions, he would be chased out of the client's house, and sometimes with a serious beating.
Tanipeo tried to be humble but he had lowered himself self too much to the case of self humiliation.


However, in IFA, we must show self respect to Olodumare, to those who are our superior, to our colleagues, spouses , members of the opposite sex and to those who are our sub-ordinates.IFA or Orisa followers must not think arrogantly, speak arrogantly or act arrogantly to all these groups. It is by doing so that an IFA priest or devotes can be said to be humble.

Source: IFA( The key to its understanding).