Sources and Bibliography

Wándé 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.

Wándé 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.

William 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.

William 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.

Nicolás 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.

Pedro 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.

Obba 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.

John 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.

David 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.

Compilação 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.

Reginaldo 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.

Pierre 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.

Pierre Fatumbi Verger · 1995 · Companhia das Letras

The field survey of the leaves and their uses, with the Yoruba names and the recipes collected in Nigeria and Benin. It is the source whenever leaves are the subject — whose they are, what they are for, what the tradition says of them — and what keeps us from assigning a plant to an Orixá by analogy.

José 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.

José Beniste · 2011 · Bertrand Brasil

The dictionary the page numbers in the site glossary refer to. It serves for Yoruba spelling, tones and the etymology of the terms we use — and it is what lets us say that Xirê comes from ṣiré, to play, instead of repeating a third-hand gloss. Pagination varies between editions: our citations follow this one.

Juana 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.