Sources and Bibliography
Ifá is an oral tradition, passed from priest to disciple across centuries. That does not make it imprecise — it makes citation more important, not less. This page gathers the works we rely on and states, for each, what it covers and how much weight it carries as a source.
How we use these sources
- We distinguish documented tradition from diaspora reinterpretation, and say which is which when they diverge.
- Liturgical names, verses and attributions come from published work. We do not generate Odu names by deduction or analogy.
- Where only a secondary source exists, we say so — rather than presenting as settled what still needs confirming in the primary text.
- A digital consultation does not replace a babalawo. Sources serve study; initiation and ẹbọ belong to the priesthood.
Nigeria — Yoruba tradition
The root. The Ifá corpus, the structure of the Odus, and Ese Ifá collected in the field.
Ifá: An Exposition of Ifá Literary Corpus
Primary sourceWándé Abímbọ́lá · 1976 · Oxford University Press
The canonical exposition of the Ifá literary corpus, written by a babalawo who was also a university professor and Àwíṣe (worldwide spokesperson for Ifá). It is the reference for the structure of the 256 Odus and for the standing of the Ese Ifá as oral literature.
Sixteen Great Poems of Ifá
Primary sourceWándé Abímbọ́lá · 1975 · UNESCO
Sixteen Ese Ifá collected in the field, in Yoruba with translation. It serves to verify quoted verses: when a verse appears here, the original wording can be checked instead of repeating a third-hand paraphrase.
Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa
AcademicWilliam Bascom · 1969 · Indiana University Press
The standard empirical study of how Ifá divination works. Important for a distinction many popular sources blur: Ifá (opele and ikin, the babalawo priesthood) is not the same thing as cowrie-shell divination.
Sixteen Cowries: Yoruba Divination from Africa to the New World
AcademicWilliam Bascom · 1980 · Indiana University Press
The counterpart to the previous work: the sixteen-cowrie system, distinct from Ifá, and its journey from Africa to the Americas. We consult both together precisely so as not to conflate the systems.
Cuba — Lucumí tradition
The Caribbean diaspora: Regla de Ocha, its own nomenclature for the signs, and priestly literature.
Manual del Orihate: Religión Lucumí
PriestlyNicolás Angarica · c. 1955
A classic manual of the Cuban oriaté, written by a priest and among the first to fix in book form what circulated in handwritten libretas. A reference for nomenclature and procedure in the Regla de Ocha.
Manual de Ifá (libretas)
PriestlyPedro Arango · meados do séc. XX
Notebooks of a Cuban babalawo that circulated as handwritten copies before any printed edition. Valuable as lineage testimony — and, for that very reason, varying between copies, which makes it necessary to always state the edition consulted.
Itá: Mitología de la Religión Yoruba
PriestlyObba Ecún (Cecilio Pérez)
A priest’s work on the itá — the reading that sets an initiate’s path — and on the mythology attached to each sign in the Cuban tradition.
Orin Òrìṣà: Songs for Selected Heads
Primary sourceJohn Mason · 1992 · Yoruba Theological Archministry
Liturgical songs transcribed in Lucumí Yoruba with translation and notes. A source for the sung form of the names — which often preserves pronunciations that written spelling has lost.
Santería Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion
AcademicDavid H. Brown · 2003 · University of Chicago Press
An academic study of how the Afro-Cuban religion took shape historically, including what is Yoruba inheritance and what is diaspora innovation. Useful precisely so as not to present as "ancient tradition" what was born in nineteenth-century Havana.
Tratado Enciclopédico de Ifá
CompilationCompilação coletiva
A widely circulated Cuban compilation gathering signs, prayers and attributions. It is the fullest source for the Lucumí names of the combined Odus — but exists in diverging editions and digital versions, so any name taken from it must carry the edition and page, and be cross-checked against a primary source where possible.
Brazil — Candomblé
The Brazilian diaspora: Orisha mythology, Nagô cosmology, and fieldwork between Bahia and Africa.
Mitologia dos Orixás
AcademicReginaldo Prandi · 2001 · Companhia das Letras
A collection of 301 Orisha myths, each with its source indicated. It is the Brazilian reference for the itans we cite in our articles — and makes it possible to know when a myth has variants, rather than presenting it as the single version.
Orixás: Deuses Iorubás na África e no Novo Mundo
Primary sourcePierre Fatumbi Verger · 1981 · Corrupio
Decades of fieldwork between Bahia and West Africa, by a researcher who was also initiated as a babalawo. A source for attributes, colours, foods and correspondences between the two sides of the Atlantic.
Jogo de Búzios: Um Encontro com o Desconhecido
PriestlyJosé Beniste · 1999 · Bertrand Brasil
A study of cowrie divination in Brazilian practice, attentive to Yoruba terminology. Together with Bascom, it helps keep the boundary between cowries and Ifá clear — a frequent confusion in popular content.
Os Nàgô e a Morte: Pàde, Àsèsè e o Culto Égun na Bahia
AcademicJuana Elbein dos Santos · 1975 · Vozes
A thesis on Nagô cosmology, Asé and the relationship with the ancestors. It is the reference for concepts we use often — Asé, Orí, the structure between Àiyé and Òrun — and keeps them from being reduced to dictionary definitions.
What we do not yet claim
The traditional names of the 240 combined Odus vary between lineages — "Ìká Ogbè" goes by other names in different houses. We publish only the forms the language itself supports, such as vowel elision ("Ogbè Ọ̀sá" → "Ogbè Sá"). The irregular names of each tradition will appear here only when they can carry an edition and a page. We prefer an acknowledged gap to an invented liturgical name.