In A [Wounded] Verse for the Western Scholar, an old Yoruba Ida verse is referenced throughout this video. The verse’s usage as a form of viewable text is meant to emphasize the inefficacy of trying to dissect something inherently inextricable. The western scholar in this piece, is represented by a small research group that has traveled to New Orleans to visit different regions and discuss the structural, societal, and ecological struggles post Hurricane Katrina. The title of this video, A [Wounded] Verse for the Western Scholar, is self referencing my use of the old Ida verse, and is acting as a metaphor for the noble ambitions of the small research group.

For the Yoruba People of West Africa, Ifa divination is a form of communication with the divine. Ifa Divination is a complex system of numerical figures and infinite verses of memorized oral information. Defined by western culture, divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occult standardized process or ritual.  For the Yoruba, it is a way for individuals to analyze their behavior and direction in life and get the input from ages of wisdom as contained in the verses.  Ifa verses are living and growing organisms of heritage. The tendencies of Western scholars to research and tenuously document as much information from Ifa priests as possible, would be a desecration of this faith. To try to make this organism permanent in written form would be to wound it.

The following verse excerpt from odu, 71, explains the value of death and necessity of the process. According to the Ifa:

“Divined Ifa for the sages, invited the babalawos to consult on the problems of death by asking: Why should death kill people and nobody has ever overcome death? The babalawos said: Ifa has indicated that Amuniwaye created death for the good of mankind. A stagnant water becomes a pond – a pond of polluted water, a pond that can cause disease. Water takes people away freely and water brings them back freely. Let the sick return home for the cure and renewal of the body, and the wicked for renewal of character. The madman is cared for by his family. The babalawos asked: What is unpleasant about it?… They all dispersed and never regarded death as a problem any more.”