Popular and scholarly discourse presents Odu Ifa as verses and/or texts of "oral literature." These representations highlight the sophistication of Yoruba indigenous aesthetic production and the depth and breadth of their philosophical and religious understanding. However, such renderings obscure and obfuscate a fundamental aspect of Odu Ifa for Ifa specialists: the orchestration of Divine Presence. As an iyanifa, scholar, and physician, I maintain that, among Ifa specialists, the Odu Ifa are first and foremost emanations of Divine Presence which powerfully inform and influence the mundane world. The repertoire of Odu Ifa, for an Ifa specialist, are not 'texts,' but musico-ritual performance genres, ranging from orin'fa and kiki'fa to ofo and iyere'fa . Through these musico-ritual performances the Ifa specialist evokes and directs the manifestation of Divine presence both privately, in everyday practices of scholarly-devotion, as well as publicly, in his/her healing ministry. The reduction of Odu Ifa to 'texts' is a discursive invention that has been uncritically embraced by scholars and popular culture alike. The emergent commodification, globally, of Ifa knowledge and practice capitalizes on this uninterrogated invention, promoting a dangerous fictive corollary, that these 'texts' and Ifa knowledge are synonymous. To remedy this oversight and to facilitate a more nuanced understanding and appreciation of Odu Ifa in/and Yoruba history, this paper traces a historiography of the discourse of Odu Ifa over the past century. In so doing, a compelling project of cultural nationalism by an educated Yoruba elite is revealed - from its origins as popular resistance to racism and colonialism through the cultural renaissance surrounding, and supporting, the emergent nation-state.

Taking the popular Yoruba adage "The five fingers of the hand are not the same" as the point of departure, this paper examines how difference is imagined and experienced in Yoruba culture, claiming that Yoruba culture valorizes the inclusion of difference as fundamental for social well-being. Furthermore we propose that the aya-oko relationship within the family compound is the prototypical experience, establishing the link between incorporating difference and promoting the health and longevity of the social body. Here the incorporation of 'foreigners' enhances the social capital of the compound while ensuring the vitality of the patrilineage through the production of new hybrid formations (offspring). The aya-oko-omo trine epitomizes the innovative, creative, and sustaining power that Yoruba culture and practice attribute to the incorporation of, and collaboration with, difference. This paper also examines the practices of incorporating difference within Yoruba religious practices. The incorporation of divine Presence in the scholarly-devotional practice of Ifa and Orisa priests/esses engenders a powerful porosity of being-in-the-world. Furthermore, as Yai has suggested, religious practice also produces a porosity of personal and national identity. Throughout the world, as a priest/ess to Ifa and/or Orisa, an individual becomes incorporated within a local ritual collective and, regardless of his/her national identity, also becomes a citizen of the city of origin, within Yorubaland, of his/her ruling divinity. Thus ritual practice, as both a personal and social practice of incorporating difference, is a globalizing force, enhancing the power, vitality and longevity of Yoruba municipalities, the Yoruba nation, and, ultimately, Yoruba culture.