Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus by 'Wande Abimbola

Review by: William Bascom

American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Sep., 1978), pp. 703-704
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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 ETHNOLOGY 703

Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960: Vol. 4, The Africa saw economic change on a scale similar
Economics of Colonialism. Peter Duignan and to the imperial epoch" and furthermore that
L. H. Gann, eds. London: Cambridge Universi- "these achievements took place during an aston-
ty Press, 1975. xv + 719 pp. $42.50 (cloth). ishingly short period of time, within the life-
span of a single person" (p. 695).
James N. Kerri This volume is highly recommended not only
San Diego State University because of the insights and detailed information
it provides on the economics of colonialism but
This book is the fourth volume in the five- also because of the new interpretations it brings
volume history series edited by Duignan and to bear on serious and often controversialissues
Gann in which a number of contributors have related to the impact of colonialism on the de-
independently examined and interpreted vari- velopment of Africa. Although the book
ous aspects of the impact of colonialism on Sub- presents some difficulty because it does not
Saharan Africa. The first two volumes of the make for easy reading, this difficulty is ade-
series focused on the history and politics of the quately compensated for by the quality of the
imperial period, while in the third volume the information it contains.
emphasis was on an in-depth analysis of the
societal problems created by colonialism in Sub-
Saharan Africa. The fifth volume is a detailed Ifi: An Exposition of Ifi Literary Corpus.
bibliographical guide on colonialism in Africa. 'Wande A bimbola. London: Oxford University
Our interest here is with the fourth volume Press, 1976. ix + 256 pp. $21.50 (cloth).
which deals with the economics of colonialism. William Bascom
The book is in four parts. The first covers the University of California, Berkeley
early patterns of the economic aspects of colo-
nialism and includes a discussion of precolonial This book is based on the author's Ph.D. the-
economies and the economic roles and main- sis submitted to the Universityof Lagos in 1969,
springs of imperialism. The second part focuses the outgrowth of fieldwork in 1963-65. It is the
on the different national styles of the colonial first major study of Yoruba divination by a
powers as these relate to the planning, policies, Yoruba scholar. After discussing Ifa as the God
development, and administration of the of Wisdom, the training and initiation of Ifa
economies of their African colonies. The third priests, and the instruments and process of
part deals with the economic mainstays of the divination, the author proceeds to an analysisof
colonies, and the fourth examines the social im- the structure and style of the Ifa verses, and
plications of the economics of colonialism. ends with a third section showing how these
The contributors reflect both interdisci- verses reveal the Yoruba world view.
plinary and multidisciplinary perspectives and As Abimbola's thesis was submitted in the
are drawn from the disciplines of history, same year that my book, Ifa Divination, ap-
economics, sociology, anthropology, and other peared, it may be useful to see how these two in-
social science fields. The theme of their analysis dependent studies compare. The major differ-
is the factors that account for the type, extent, ence is that Abimbola presents the verses as
and strength of economic development in Afri- poetic, a fact that I did not recognize until
ca during the colonial era and the problems that 1950-51 when I had access to a tape recorder. A
impeded progress. Topics covered range from second difference is that he finds a basic eight-
the outlines of the economic history of the conti- part structure of the verses, whereas I described
nent to issues involving peasant farming, min- a three-part structure. He regards Eshu, the
ing, transportation, trade, manufacturing, tricksterdeity, as a divine policeman, sometimes
labor migrations and labor relations, the acting on his own whims and caprices; I de-
emergence of new African elites, and the role of scribed him as a divine enforcer, directly
nonindigenous groups. punishing those who don't sacrifice and rewar-
The editors note their disagreement with the ding those who do, without reference to a
view that in Africa during the colonial period superior authority. He considers ori, the head,
there was growth without development and that to be a deity; I described it as the ancestral
African living standards remained stationary or guardian soul, more important than the deities.
rose only slightly in spite of increases in the Aside from other minor differences, including
population during the period. Recognizing the his unfortunate equation (note to plate 2) to ac-
fact that economic progress in the continent count for the 256 odu or figures-(24)2 = 256
began long before the colonial era, the editors instead of (16)2 = 256--the two studies are in
argue, however, that "no era in the history of basic agreement.

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704 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [80, 1978]
A significant aspect of Abimbola's contribu- of the rural sample while the urban students
tion is his presentation of some 62 verses (none remembered purely entertaining stories in 89%
duplicating mine) from his large collection, of the cases. Unfortunately, no statistical tests of
with Yoruba texts and English translations. significance are performed on these or any other
Chapters 5 and 6 present verses which describe figures.
the head as man's protector and the seat of his The best part of the book is the stories. The
destiny, and the conflicts between the deities initial classification is illustrated by a selection
and ancestors, on the one side, and the evil of traditional folktales. Unfortunately, these are
powers (Death, Disease, Infirmity, and Loss, all retailed without any clue as to how, where, or
personified) and witches, on the other. This is when they were collected, nor is there any at-
perhaps the most important section of the book tempt to discuss the representativeness of the
for an anthropologist. The final chapter pre- selection presented. Ultimately the book is
sents verses in which animals, birds, insects, redeemed by the stories written by the school
cultivated plants, and uncultivated plants ap- children. One, "Hlakaniphani, the Clever,"is a
pear as central characters, often providing "ex- three-dollar story all by itself.
planatory" accounts for their characteristics.
As Abimbola says in his preface, "Ifs is in- Body and Mind in Zulu Medicine:An Ethno-
deed the Yoruba traditional body of knowledge graphy of Health and Disease in Nyuswa-
embodying the deep wisdom of our Zulu Thought and Practice. Harriet
fore-fathers." Ngubane.Studiesin Anthropology. E. A. Ham-
mel, ed. New York:AcademicPress,1977. xvi
Content and Context of Zulu Folk-Narratives. + 184 pp. $13.25 (cloth).
Brian M. du Toit. Social Sciences Monographs, Anita Spring
58. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida,
1977. xv + 83 pp. $3.00 (paper).
Universityof Florida
This excellent ethnographyexaminesZulu
Adam Kuper world view, ideas about illness, and curative
University of Leiden, The Netherlands practices.The tightlywoven argument,laced
with theoreticalvignettesthat clarifythe an-
This little book contains a number of beguil- thropologicalstudy of illness, analyzesZulu
ing tales, in Zulu and in English, and an argu- disease causationin terms of three elements:
ment. The stories are well worth the entrance naturalprocesses,morality,and mysticalpro-
fee, but the argument is largely irrelevant to cesses. Ngubanedocumentsthe recognitionof
them, and is of slight interest. A few scene- illness as a biological process, the breaking
setting pages from du Toit succeed only in down of certainorgans.Peoplesufferingfrom
misrepresenting the state of scholarship in the organicdisorderneed the medicinalproperties
field, no doubt unwittingly. There is also a of herbals.However,illnessis causedalso by a
foreword by Absolom Vilikazi, which attacks moralvulnerability,being out of balancewith
the author's argument in a convincing and the universe. Life crises pollute people who
forthright way. mustbe cleansedby symbolicmedicines;people
The argument is that a "functional" classifi- who are caught by sorceryhave somatic and
cation of Zulu folktales would oppose ex- mysticalsymptomswhichrequireempiricaland
planatory, didactic, and purely entertaining mysticaltreatments.This delineationexplains
stories. Explanatory narratives are about ori- how it is possible to use non-Zulu (cosmo-
gins, didactic narratives have a moral sting in politan)medicines,at one point, and yet retain
the tail, and anything else is (as in Grahame the elaborateZulusystemof causationin spite
Greene?)"entertainment."Vilikazi rightly ques- of changed(modern)conditions.
tions the educational or moral significance of Ngubanelooksat curingas a rite of passage.
the stories, and opposes to du Toit's schema an Her account of the color symbolismof medi-
indigenous classification, which du Toit's text cines and their sequentialusage is one of the
tells us does not exist. The point of the classifi- clearestin the literature.A neat analysisshows
cation is to test an hypothesis, that with "mo- that black and red medicinesare administered
dernization"folktales are "secularized."Du Toit first. These are cooked and represent the
tested this by soliciting written stories from Zulu culturalevil that has to be removedfrom the
school children, comparing the content of those body. White medicines,which are uncooked
written by urban to those written by rural and "natural,"then follow. Evil is removed
children. He found that narratives which are from the imbalanced body, and health is
told primarily for entertainment represent 69% added.

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