Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings

by Maulana Karenga

Book has some markings and highlighting

Genres: Spirituality, Religion

431 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Fee Bolden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conflicted between 3 and 4 stars as a rating. It is very easy to read, unlike most Ifá literature and insightful as far as the moral teachings of Ifá from the odu, also great for beginners.

However, a lot of the texts were repetitive in essence and it read like the Bible almost because the chosen texts were dogmatic and authoritarian, it’s too obvious the author was at once upon a time very religious in an abrahamic Faith and is drawing upon those concepts to apply to the Yoruba religion.

The deities like Olodumare are constantly referred to as Lord/He when O in Yoruba is gender neutral, that said, Olodumare could be he or she.

Ifá exists within it’s own cosmology and worldview and it hurts to interpret the Ifá system with western thinking and patrification of the divinities.

[Muhammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

For most American readers, we get information on religious practices from Europeans on the television, but to read this text on Ifa for yourself makes you to understand the absurdity of some previously held notions on African religions, in particular. Although Karenga's job was not to provide an exhaustive list of Odu, he does do a good job at pointing to the ethical meanings behind many of the Odu which causes the reader to transpose those "Sayings" with "sayings" we have learned since child birth. The stories may differ, but the ethical meaning is often times, the same, if not said better in the Odu Ifa. This would be something I would add to my canon of text which inspire spiritual knowledge.

[Divine Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable.