On the concept of Ori in the Orisa tradition

On aspects of the self in the Orisa tradition and the space of possibilities actualised in the contexts of human social,psychological and physical existence,whether biological,as in the body, and spatial and temporal,as in one's larger spatial and temporal environment.

What is Ori?

It is a word from the Yoruba language of the Yoruba ethnic group of southern Nigeria. It has correlative mundane and religio-philosophical significance.

In its mundane significance, it represents an aspect of human biology. In its religious and philosophical meaning,it signifies a central concept in the indigenous religious and philosophical tradition of the Yoruba, which could be described as the Orisa tradition. At this level, it is used by people who practice or study that tradition, both within and outside the Yoruba homeland and outside Africa, as in the African Diaspora of the Americas.

The word has at least two levels of meaning: one literal, another metaphorical.

The literal meaning applies to the physical head. It y signifies the physical head. It could also refer to the mind, the mind having a particularly intimate relationship with the head as the physical centre of mind.

The metaphorical meaning is a transference of the function of the head as the central point of direction in the biological structure of the human being and of the mind as the centre of human psychological functioning, to a metaphysical conception of the essence of the human being. It relates to a central point of direction of the human person, not just in terms of the body and the mind, as in the biological head, but in terms of the full range of possibilities the individual can realise in a lifetime. The Ori is the name given to the embodiment of these possibilities. It is understood as an invisible but active entity which embodies a sense of purpose and direction which influences the development of the individual whether or not they are aware of it. This ultimate sense of direction is understood to emanate from the relationship between the Ori and the Supreme Being, Olodumare, and is imprinted on the Ori at the point before the individual is born. It therefore represents a nonmaterial essence and directionality of the human being, which predates the person’s birth, and will outlive the death of their body. It constitutes the supreme point of reference in the development of the individual’s biographical itinerary.

Valuable outlines of the doctrine can be found in the books of Wande Abimbola as in An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus and Ifa Divination Poetry, and in at least one crucial poem in his Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa where the idea is expounded in the metaphorical and dramatic format of Ifa poetry. Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief by Bolaji Idowu also outlines this theory.

A priceless source of various perspectives on the relationship between this concept and the idea of free will among the Yoruba religious and philosophical specialists, the priests of Ifa, can be found in Adegboyega Orangun’s Destiny: The Unmanifested Being. A perspective on the concept’s relationship to free will may also be found in the conclusion of Soyinka’s poem at the end of his essay “Credo of Being and Nothingness” in his collection of essays Art, Dialogue and Outrage where he speaks of destiny as “self destination”. Oluwatoyin Adepoju’s MA dissertation in comparative literature at SOAS, London, explores the implications of this idea for autobiography and self-portraiture in relation to Ifa divination. His PhD in comparative literature at University College, London, which is still in progress, further engages with the concept.

The concept of Ori can also be related to similar ideas from other cultures within and beyond Africa. It is similar to the indigenous Nigerian Bini concept of Ehi and the Igbo concept of Chi. Achebe has a classic essay on chi which is useful here. It can be found in his Morning Yet on Creation Day. It could be related to the Hindu concept of Atman and the Judaeo-Christian notion of the human spirit. Plato also develops a theory that has some similarities with the concept of Ori, particularly in terms of the notion in the Orisa tradition, of the Ori choosing a destiny before birth

The English poet Wordsworth suggests ideas which have some relationship to the concept of Ori in his poem “Intimations of Immortality”. Carl Jung does something similar in his conceptions of the self and its relationship to ancestral challenges emanating from the individual family line in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Colin Wilson also develops a related conception of the self in his book Mysteries.

It must be noted, however, that there are significant points of both similarity and difference between the concept of Ori and related conceptions from other sources. It must also be noted that this concept is not perceived in a homogenous manner among traditional Yoruba religious and philosophical specialists, as Orangun shows in his discussions with Ifa priests. It would seem, however, that there is a sufficient convergence of perspectives among the specialists to enable the formulation of broad conceptions as in the picture sketched here.

In Yoruba art, the works of Babatude Lawal demonstrate the artistic significance of the concept of Ori. His essay on the hermeneutics of hair by the same title explores this. He also has a relevant essay on representing the self and its metaphysical other with that title. An essay by Rowland Abiodun on the indigenous Yoruba concept of ase also explores the ramifications of the concept of Ori for Yoruba art.

The concept could provide a springboard for philosophical exploration of its implications in relation to central philosophical questions, regardless of one’s position in relation to the idea. The notion of Ori and its associated ideas implicates questions of the nature of the human self. It also evokes questions of relationships between destiny and freewill and how these in turn ramify with questions of biological and social determinism and deliberate choice. These, in turn, relate to issues of probability in terms of the overall structure of contexts that shape human life in relation to human agency. The questions it highlights lead to considerations of the ultimate metaphysical implications of how human and physical settings as well as events, the latter emanating from outside the self and from within it, shape the course of human life. To what degree, if any, are these contexts, such as the parents we are born to, purely arbitrary, and to what degree are they the outcome of design, as with our conscious and unconscious or subconscious choices? How do we explain inborn traits, where no known person in the family line could be said to have passed on the genes that manifest in terms of those traits, as in the case of Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, who was already a mathematics prodigy at eight, in spite of not having any special mathematical training, being born to illiterate parents? For Gauss see biographies at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss;

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Gauss.html

and fact and fiction biography in Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlman, described and reviewed at http://www.amazon.com/Measuring-World-Novel-Daniel-Kehlmann/dp/0375424466 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_the_World

One response to this question about inborn genius is to correlate the concept of Ori with the concept from Western esotericism about reincarnation, where the self carries over abilities developed from one incarnation into another. These abilities, if developed to a high level in previous incarnations, manifest as precocious genius from an early age in another incarnation. But how do we assess the truth value of these ideas so as to move beyond speculation to certain knowledge?

Above: Ori,and its relationship with Orisanla evoked through an Ife head.