Orunmila

Orunmilá (in the scholarly Yoruba orthography Ọ̀rúnmìlà, inseparably identified in traditional theology with the Ifá oracular system itself) is the eminent deity of transcendental wisdom, cosmic destiny, ethical clairvoyance and divinatory knowledge in traditional Yoruba religion and in the Afro-Atlantic religions of the diaspora (Candomblé Ketu and Ijexá in Brazil, and the Regla de Ocha / Ifá in Cuban Santería). Described in Nagô metaphysical thought as Ẹlẹ́rìí Ìpín ('The Eyewitness of Destiny'), Orunmilá was present at the primordial moment when Olodumarê designed the cosmos and when each human being chose their existential destiny (orí) before incarnating in the physical plane (Ayé). Supreme master of the priests of divination (Babaláwo, 'Father of Secrets'), he reveals the divine wills and the liturgical prescriptions for balance through the decoding of the 256 sacred odus, manipulating the sixteen sacred palm nuts (ikin) over the carved wooden tray dusted with ierossum powder (ọpọ́n Ifá), or casting the divinatory chain of eight seeds (ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀).

6 min read · Reviewed on September 29, 2026 · How we research

The opele, the sixteen shells, the Ifá board and the colors green and yellow

Primary sources

• Wande Abimbola, Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus. translation: Ibadan: Oxford University Press Nigeria, 1976.
• William Bascom, Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa. translation: Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.
• Pierre Fatumbi Verger, Notes sur le culte des orisha et vodun. translation: Dakar: Mémoires de l'IFAN, n. 51, 1957 (monograph on Ifá and Ọ̀rúnmìlà).

Studies

• Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art. Cambridge University Press, Nova York, 2014.
• Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Oxford University Press, Nova York, 1988.
• Kwasi Wiredu, A Companion to African Philosophy. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, 2004.