All There is to Know About AFA Divinations, This Will Blow Your Mind!
Afa of Ugwuja Attama, and the mbekwu shell in which they are stored.
ODU N’AFA: An Ongoing Compilation of 32 Notes on Afa as an Indigenous Knowledge (Divination) System
“Áfa and Ifá are two of many localizations of a farflung West African ‘oracle’ (information retrieval system) whose digital processor keys natural language text to 256 ordered pairs of 4-bit arrays (ordered binary sets).” - Victor Manfredi, on Áfa the Ǹri-Igbo counterpart of Ifá.
“Afa is a mystery tongue of the Dibia, unknown to all save those admitted to the requisite Afa Mysteries that require the Afa language…It is the very language which the Igbos believe the Gods, Goddesses and other Spirits speak” - John Anenechukwu Umeh (1999).
“In Afa language, Ose naabo is the two eyes with which one sees the mortal world, while Ose ora is the eye with which one sees the Spirit and the world in addition. Ose naabo has the dualities or polarities of the material world namely: anya aka nni na anya aka ekpe, i.e., right eye and left eye. Ose ora is Uche. Uche is the Super Mind/Universal Mind/Universal consciousness…Ose ora which literally means the Eye of the Sun God or the Eye of the God of Light which the Igbo’s describe as Agwu or Anyanwu.” - John Anenechukwu Umeh, After God is Dibia: Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, modern scholars and scientists are yet to realize that most of what they have wrongly relegated as myths in these elder cultures were actually innovatively expressed codifications of both quantum and post-quantum cosmologies or world-systems, which were articulated using quantum-level mathematics, as subsumed in the Ifa, Fa, Aha-Ominigbon or Afa Akpukpala mystic matrix-system of divination/oraculation in the case of many West African cultures.” - Nze Chukwukadibia E. Nwafor, Leopards of the Magical Dawn: Science and the Cosmological Foundations of Igbo Culture.
“the shell of both the tortoise and the turtle have been used by Ndi Dibia since very ancient times for several mystical purposes, including the programming of Afa Akpukpala divination portals and in a special, highly complex divination technique called Afa-Otukwu-Gbazulu-Ikwu-Nwa-Mbekwu (elemental divination that utilizes the shell of the tortoise). Otukwu is Ofu Akwu in Afa = forest–water–mineral elemental world i.e. mind and memory realm of the earth.” - Nze Chukwukadibia E. Nwafor, Leopards of the Magical Dawn: Science and the Cosmological Foundations of Igbo Culture.
“All the same, as the Afa language is a language of divinity, thus, the language of Spirit, which permeates all existence and all realms of being, accordingly, in the Afa mystic thought, the apex existential realm is given as Akwu Ofu/Ovu = Uwa Nge (Source World of all Existent Worlds) and the apex existential ontology is given as Aka Ofu/Ovu = Chi Ukwu, whose manifestation form is All-Forms and who transcends All-Senses, All-Realms, All-Entities, All-Time, All-Intelligences and All-Individuations.” - Nze Chukwukadibia E. Nwafor, Leopards of the Magical Dawn: Science and the Cosmological Foundations of Igbo Culture.
“A Dibia Afa who has been trained in the use of the Akpukpala oracle for instance, is particularly skilled in using this medium to read and interpret the unobvious expressions on the face of the Earth (Ana), the face of the four Igbo cosmic diurnal forces (Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo), the face of the Sun and the local planets (Anyanwu na Ubochi), the face of the Moon (Onwa), the face of the ancestral mothers and fathers (Okpu na Ichie), the face of diverse divinities, spirit entities and human beings (Ora Mmuo na Ora Mmadu), the face of the sky itself (Igwe), deep-space (Elu Igwe), the underworld or spirit realm in general (Ana Mmuo), the Igbo cosmic time band (Ngwugwo Oge Igbo), the face of the stars (Kpakpando) and everything else in-between as well as beyond.” - Nze Chukwukadibia E. Nwafor, Leopards of the Magical Dawn: Science and the Cosmological Foundations of Igbo Culture.
“The afa-caster is important in every place, not because he is rich or powerful like an êzê (‘chief’) or like an Onyisi or like an attama, or like anybody else, but because all people who are sick must go to him first to discover what spirit made them sick and what they must do to end the sickness. If somebody is bothered by witches who are trying to hurt him, he must go to the afa-caster, even if the person troubled is Onyisi or some other big man. If an Attama dies, or before he dies, the people must take the sticks of the lineage men and boys to the afa-caster who will find out from the afa which stick belongs to the next attama. For all the unknown things, the people must go to the afa to learn the meaning, and it is only the afa-caster who can read the afa and tell them the truth. If he does not tell them the truth, the afa will kill him.” - Austin J. Shelton, on the Meaning and Method of Afa Divination among the Northern Nsukka Igbo.
“The afa is, therefore, the means of determining what cannot be arrived at either through logic or even chance.” - Austin J. Shelton, on the Meaning and Method of Afa Divination among the Northern Nsukka Igbo.
“I found in my research that there are over 4000 stories incorporated into the Afa divination system, and it is these stories that give moral instruction, dietary advise, knowledge of the spiritual world, and even predictions for the future. There is a song associated with each story, and these songs serve as memory aids as well as provide good closure to the stories.” - Paul Swanson, on Afa Divination Stories and Music.
“Afa codes and Afa diviners are an integral part of nearly every shrine in Eweland. Many priests and priestesses of the Sea, Thunder, and Brekete divinities are also Afa initiates, and use their knowledge of Afa divination and stories to guide their own shrines’ prayers, make offerings, or in solving spiritual problems. It is in this way that Afa is the spokesman for the divinities, especially between people and the spiritual world.” - Paul Swanson, on Afa Divination Stories and Music.
“Afa divination is the system of revealing all secret knowledge whether human, mystical or spiritual.” - Robert Yao Swwor
“Afa language is unique and understandable, the ability to apply afa itself calls for some supernatural powers. On the ordinary plane, this is a language of an African science, indeed the language of African metaphysics that needs a ‘well-schooled’ individual to interpret. Such a bilingual specialist is entitled by this ability to interpret ‘afa,’ to earn a living on this practice.” - Ibe Gregory Ogbuike
“The building of the Afa language is very interesting. It is a simple arithmetic based on squares. Since the ‘elili afa’ are sixteen in number and each one must be taken sixteen times, it all means that the whole ‘asusu afa’ has 256 words as its total vocabulary. The sixteen strings of ‘elilie afa’ are as follows: aka, akwu, agali (aghali), atulukpa, ete, ijite (ogwute), obala, oha, okala, ose, obi, odii, ofu, ogoli (ogholi), otule, ulufu.” - Igbowan E. Anidiobu, on The AFA (a divination system in Igboland).
“A Dibia Afa, for example, is a diviner who is generally perceived as a skillful clairvoyant. To be a diviner is to be viewed as holding a key to the secrets of lifelines, having knowledge of the underworld, and possessing an ability to see things and transmit that knowledge to others in need. In order to become a clairvoyant, a candidate is usually called upon by the ancestral line’s diety of the art of studying and practicing clairvoyance.” - Patrick E. Ireogbu, Ph.D.
“Afa is a binary code synthesized in a number of methods. Most commonly through casting of shells, precious stones, or cowries. The results are decoded by the Dibia, and recorded in chains of one’s and zeros or ones and twos which is then later read by the Dibia to the individual as decoded and clear message from the spiritual world. All Afa communication is communication through or with Agwu. And it is therefore said that Agwu is the spirit of Afa. It is my belief that a Dibia interprets Afa for the mortal the way Agwu interprets it for the spirits or the other side. So Afa and Agwu are necessary in connecting you with the ancestors, unborn children, Chi and Chukwu itself. Almost like a phone or system of internet where two computers are communicating with each other in different dimensions.” - Derick Ofodirinwa, The Medicine Shell.
In the old days (mgbe ndigboo) the afa-caster always used the shell of Tortoise (Mbekwu) to keep the afa, because Mbekwu is the way the ndigbo learn of many true things, through the stories told about Tortoise in the olden times and even today. And even today a great sacrifice is mbekwu, because he lives in the earth, and that is the place controlled by Ane/Ani/Ana the great goddess of the earth. Sometimes in the rainy season, Tortoise digs a hole in the earth, because it is soft then, and when the dry season comes he goes into the hole in the earth and he sleeps there, waiting for the rain to come again. People can find the cracked earth in the dry season and they can dig a little bit and find him there, in the earth. People of the old times believed that a story of Tortoise always told a truth, and the afa tells the truth, so the afa strings are kept in the house of Tortoise.
Cool proverbs & axioms to ponder on:
Afa bu Uche - Afa is common sense knowledge.
Afa bu Agwu - Afa is the supernatural being force used to explain elements of the unknown.
Abanyeghi otu mmadu mara, o nweghi ike i li onwe ya - No matter how much a person knows, they can never bury themselves.
Ewu nwuru n'oba ji abughi agu gburu ya - A goat that dies in a barn was not killed by hunger.
Ife ikenya dono ana fu nwata ligolu enu Oji o ma-afu ya - What an elder sees clearly sitting on their chair, if a child climbs up the top of the tallest iroko tree, they will not see it.
Mkpi ka dibia gwara ka o gbaara ya afa uto ma o siri ya hapu afa uto gbara ya afa ndu na onye di ndu ga-etoriri eto - The medicine man told the he-goat he'll do a growth divinatio for it but the he goat replied that he shouldn't bother, rather he should conduct a divination for long life for him, that a living person must grow.
Mmuo na mmadu na-azu afia, mana ofeke amaroo - Spirit and human beings are in constant transaction, but the ignorant person does not know.
Mmuo anaro anu okwu ikpeazu - The spirits/spirit world do not hear the "second word".
Nwa Agadi Nwanyi osi asili - Wise old lady sage that knows everything and tells everything without reservation.
Okwu izizi erugo be Chukwu - The First Word or Answer has reached or been programmed into Universal Consciousness.
Ọ na-abụ ana-akuikwu mbe ana-afuikwu mmụọ - The more you strike the tortoise shell, as in Afa music, the clearer you see the spirits.
Ozu nwada to n'uzo, o gbaa n'afa - If a daughter's corpse is not brought home to the family, it will show at the fortune tellers.
Recommended Resources:
The Old Woman of Immense Wisdom: On the Mystical Science Behind the Afa Akpụkpala Oracular System | Odinani: The Sacred Arts & Sciences of the Igbo People (Article)
The Meaning and Method of Afa Divination among the Northern Nsukka Ibo | Austin J. Shelton (Article)
The language of divination poetry: A case study of dibia Njoku Nwogu (Article)
Blacksmiths, Spiders, Crabs, Cowries and Kolanut Shells: Divinatory Practices in Cameroon | Mythological Africans (Article)
Igbo Divination Poetry (Abu Afa): An Introduction | Ichie P. A. Ezikeojiaku (Article)
Afa Symbolism and Phenomenology | M. Angulu Onwuejeogwu (Book)
THE AFA (A Divination System in Igbo Land) | Igbowan E. Anidiobu (Book)
ÁFÁ, Truth or fiction? | Nnaa Mehn Tv (YouTube)
Unlocking Ancient Wisdom: How an Igbo Dibia's Insights Shape Modern Technology | Medicine Shell (YouTube)
