The Hermeneutic Process in Ifa Divination

The hermeneutic process in Ifa divination consists in an oscillation between specific questions and the exploratory matrix represented by the Odu or organisational categories of the system. The client expresses a question, either in silence to the instrument used for that purpose, so that the diviner does not hear it, as described by Abimbola, or as we have observed in our fieldwork in Benin, where the system has also been significantly developed, aloud to the diviner, who then casts the divinatory instruments, the diving chain or the sacred palm nuts, in response to the query. The configuration assumed by the divinatory instruments will constitute the response of the Ifa oracle to the client’s query. This response will be expressed in terms of texts, which correspond to these configurations.