Mythico-History in Yorùbá Culture: A Study of Origin of Odù Ifá Corpus

Abstract

Ifá corpus is an anthology of aphorism maxims, oral poetry and riddles handed over from one generation to the other. It is a system of genealogical thought, belief ideology and philosophy of Yorùbá people. Several works on Ifá centre on its personal, thematic preoccupation, its roles in finding solution to day-today problems, and guidance and counseling and other areas; however, despite these extensive works, little attention has been given to mythico-historical consciousness in Ifá corpus; this work, therefore, fills the gap. It employs sociosemiotic theory of Saussure, a branch of semiotics adopted for interpreting each Odù (Corpus). The theory is chosen because of its foreign definition as the
scientific study of signs that take the form of words, images, sounds, or objects. Data for this study are taken from relevant verses of Ifá textual materials and content analysed in order to make valid inference through interpreter of codes of the materials. Foundings of this study indicate that Ifa functions in the context of peoples sacred belief and thought, it aids in processing their history because it signifies the origin of system of thought that inculcates what was in existence, and transmits cultural values from generation to generation.