Friday, July 24, 2015
Alliances, Detractors and Enemies in IFA Culture
Alliances, Detractors and Enemies in
IFA Culture
Who better than me to write about this? Obviously if you are not a personality you can fly under the radar; those who fall into this category include many of the wise. “One hand clapping makes no noise”, this is a sound strategy, but do not expect it only on the osogbo side “because silence is golden” the wise apply to the ire side as well. Those who think they only comment positives will ultimately attract those who do not agree, it happens. We are also judged by who our friends are and in the virtual world and this can be a significant factor. Our alliances firmly place us in the middle of all types of feuds and wars. This could be as simple as being affiliated with Ife vs Oyo in Nigerian Yoruba Land. This is like the marrying into the Hatfield or McCoy clan, it is a deep feud and if you think it is not then you don’t follow history or current events. Chief Solagbade Popoola and I were recently attacked, we laughed together because we are friends and respect each other, nope we do not agree on many things, for example I am critical of of certain aspects of the IFA Council he leads and I am Lucumi; he is Traditional Nigerian. Yet we are still friends, but understand his alliance and friendship with me probably gets him in trouble; just as mine with him causes some to disapprove. In Lucumi we do not have a rift or various araba or oba with differences of opinions. What Lucumi does share with Nigeria (and the world) are frauds and abuse; it is a problem on both sides of the Atlantic and in every tradition and in fact in all religion.
I have more than my share of enemies mostly because I am outspoken, I am a personality in our culture and I have helped expose many frauds and abusers within our culture. However if you read me, I am not a judge; exposing fraud is different than judging fraud; neither do I punish, that is Eshu’s responsibility; just like it is Olorun’s, the ogboni, various councils, araba and oba to judge. Of course being white does not help me in our culture either; race is an ugly subject and Olodumare, Olorun and Olofin do not care what color we are and neither do the Orishas. Our ori has many colors and races as it grows from one life to the next; but the fact is many white men have poor reputations and some are criminals as well as my enemies. The other problem is two of these have built massive false pyramids of false ashe by giving false ceremony and ceremonies to others they are not qualified, don’t have ashe for or permissions to perform. Philip Neimark and Falokun are criminals and I have helped expose them for their crimes. What happens is their minions (followers) see me as their enemy too. (of course you probably would too if you were in denial that you paid for a false ceremony or received a false service!). Orunmila has protected me though because the wise know I do no consultas, I do no public ceremony (either lead or participate in), I have no godchildren or clients, and that makes me different because unlike most; I am not selling anything. Sure I have my book in English and Spanish but I make about 5:00 per copy and that is not going to buy much is it? Most of my articles are free and available to everyone free of charge. That is the huge difference between me and them.
Even though these two are the biggest criminals in IFA culture, they are not 100% evil, they do make contributions. Whether it is to fool people I do not know, because the most dangerous criminals are those who fool the public, a man may be a good father and still be an axe murderer. Or a man may give to charity and still be a rapist. Most of the crime in IFA seems small compared to these two because of their large networks. The followers of one Nigerian author who is dead accused me of killing him by my reporting on his dificulties with the ogboni... yeah, my words! It is laughable and this fellow I actually helped and he publically thanked me! His minions tried all kinds of brujeria (spells/juju) and guess what? None worked and they are welcome to keep trying my protections are strong and right is on my side. I am not even going to mention his name, because he is dead and sure he too was an author, wrote some pretty good books; but that did not excuse him for his abuses and the ogboni agreed and told him to cease and desist, not me, the ogboni. There are other frauds, small fries like Ofae (who we call Ofake) or Ayaba Ocha Bi. These women lack Lucumi credentials. Bi has academic credentials but not Lucumi or Nigerian ones of significance, they spout off on their little blog radio show and fool people, so they have a few minions too. Jaap (another whitey) is a leading independent, but independents lack ashe and power, still he fools a few and makes some contributions in between his attacks on me. There are other small fries throughout the culture like Apena Adam Peretz who gave several false tefa’s (making Awo) when he certainly was unqualified after a brief two years as an omo awo. There are plenty of self-serving sites like The Mystic Cup who have questionable credentials and sell bogus ashe and stuff but still occasionally produce a somewhat clean article, although most have serious issues, like circumventing Orunmila.
These small fries are really not even worth mentioning, but they all do damage to our culture even if they make a few contributions like the rapist or child molester who fools his wife and neighbors. Yep if you are a personality who is outspoken or aspire to be one you are going to have detractors, enemies and your alliances can have a negative effect on your persona. All the groups on Facebook will have an effect, especially if you are commenting or acting like you are an expert when you are not. Me, I prefer to let others call me an expert, I view myself as a perpetual student with much to learn. My focus is on helping educate those new and outside our culture, making the complex simple for them. Yep, I will continue to expose the frauds I find. My Lucumi credentials are available for all to see and easily verifiable. I am a senior, tenured, Lucumi Baba Awo and member # 247 on The Commission (Cuba’s ruling body for Lucumi); you can view the 2015 list on my page at Academia here: https://www.academia.edu/11683726/The_Commission_Cubas_list_of_Babalawo_2015_connected_to_Cuban_Lucumi_La_Comisi%C3%B3n_Lista_de_Cuba_de_Babalawo_2015_conectado_a_Lucum%C3%AD_cubano
If you wish, I invite you to ask me for references, I have these in every tradition from my own Lucumi to Nigeria to Brazil, luminaries like The araba of ode remo in Nigeria or Baba Adigun Olosun, Oba Pichardo in Florida, Chief Popoola I have already mentioned, I could go on, but you get the idea, so just ask. Yep being outspoken is a double edged sword and has a price; remember that the next time you rush to judgement or make a comment.
Blessings and Ashe,
Lucumi Baba Awo, ogbe osa
Charles Spencer King
Who better than me to write about this? Obviously if you are not a personality you can fly under the radar; those who fall into this category include many of the wise. “One hand clapping makes no noise”, this is a sound strategy, but do not expect it only on the osogbo side “because silence is golden” the wise apply to the ire side as well. Those who think they only comment positives will ultimately attract those who do not agree, it happens. We are also judged by who our friends are and in the virtual world and this can be a significant factor. Our alliances firmly place us in the middle of all types of feuds and wars. This could be as simple as being affiliated with Ife vs Oyo in Nigerian Yoruba Land. This is like the marrying into the Hatfield or McCoy clan, it is a deep feud and if you think it is not then you don’t follow history or current events. Chief Solagbade Popoola and I were recently attacked, we laughed together because we are friends and respect each other, nope we do not agree on many things, for example I am critical of of certain aspects of the IFA Council he leads and I am Lucumi; he is Traditional Nigerian. Yet we are still friends, but understand his alliance and friendship with me probably gets him in trouble; just as mine with him causes some to disapprove. In Lucumi we do not have a rift or various araba or oba with differences of opinions. What Lucumi does share with Nigeria (and the world) are frauds and abuse; it is a problem on both sides of the Atlantic and in every tradition and in fact in all religion.
I have more than my share of enemies mostly because I am outspoken, I am a personality in our culture and I have helped expose many frauds and abusers within our culture. However if you read me, I am not a judge; exposing fraud is different than judging fraud; neither do I punish, that is Eshu’s responsibility; just like it is Olorun’s, the ogboni, various councils, araba and oba to judge. Of course being white does not help me in our culture either; race is an ugly subject and Olodumare, Olorun and Olofin do not care what color we are and neither do the Orishas. Our ori has many colors and races as it grows from one life to the next; but the fact is many white men have poor reputations and some are criminals as well as my enemies. The other problem is two of these have built massive false pyramids of false ashe by giving false ceremony and ceremonies to others they are not qualified, don’t have ashe for or permissions to perform. Philip Neimark and Falokun are criminals and I have helped expose them for their crimes. What happens is their minions (followers) see me as their enemy too. (of course you probably would too if you were in denial that you paid for a false ceremony or received a false service!). Orunmila has protected me though because the wise know I do no consultas, I do no public ceremony (either lead or participate in), I have no godchildren or clients, and that makes me different because unlike most; I am not selling anything. Sure I have my book in English and Spanish but I make about 5:00 per copy and that is not going to buy much is it? Most of my articles are free and available to everyone free of charge. That is the huge difference between me and them.
Even though these two are the biggest criminals in IFA culture, they are not 100% evil, they do make contributions. Whether it is to fool people I do not know, because the most dangerous criminals are those who fool the public, a man may be a good father and still be an axe murderer. Or a man may give to charity and still be a rapist. Most of the crime in IFA seems small compared to these two because of their large networks. The followers of one Nigerian author who is dead accused me of killing him by my reporting on his dificulties with the ogboni... yeah, my words! It is laughable and this fellow I actually helped and he publically thanked me! His minions tried all kinds of brujeria (spells/juju) and guess what? None worked and they are welcome to keep trying my protections are strong and right is on my side. I am not even going to mention his name, because he is dead and sure he too was an author, wrote some pretty good books; but that did not excuse him for his abuses and the ogboni agreed and told him to cease and desist, not me, the ogboni. There are other frauds, small fries like Ofae (who we call Ofake) or Ayaba Ocha Bi. These women lack Lucumi credentials. Bi has academic credentials but not Lucumi or Nigerian ones of significance, they spout off on their little blog radio show and fool people, so they have a few minions too. Jaap (another whitey) is a leading independent, but independents lack ashe and power, still he fools a few and makes some contributions in between his attacks on me. There are other small fries throughout the culture like Apena Adam Peretz who gave several false tefa’s (making Awo) when he certainly was unqualified after a brief two years as an omo awo. There are plenty of self-serving sites like The Mystic Cup who have questionable credentials and sell bogus ashe and stuff but still occasionally produce a somewhat clean article, although most have serious issues, like circumventing Orunmila.
These small fries are really not even worth mentioning, but they all do damage to our culture even if they make a few contributions like the rapist or child molester who fools his wife and neighbors. Yep if you are a personality who is outspoken or aspire to be one you are going to have detractors, enemies and your alliances can have a negative effect on your persona. All the groups on Facebook will have an effect, especially if you are commenting or acting like you are an expert when you are not. Me, I prefer to let others call me an expert, I view myself as a perpetual student with much to learn. My focus is on helping educate those new and outside our culture, making the complex simple for them. Yep, I will continue to expose the frauds I find. My Lucumi credentials are available for all to see and easily verifiable. I am a senior, tenured, Lucumi Baba Awo and member # 247 on The Commission (Cuba’s ruling body for Lucumi); you can view the 2015 list on my page at Academia here: https://www.academia.edu/11683726/The_Commission_Cubas_list_of_Babalawo_2015_connected_to_Cuban_Lucumi_La_Comisi%C3%B3n_Lista_de_Cuba_de_Babalawo_2015_conectado_a_Lucum%C3%AD_cubano
If you wish, I invite you to ask me for references, I have these in every tradition from my own Lucumi to Nigeria to Brazil, luminaries like The araba of ode remo in Nigeria or Baba Adigun Olosun, Oba Pichardo in Florida, Chief Popoola I have already mentioned, I could go on, but you get the idea, so just ask. Yep being outspoken is a double edged sword and has a price; remember that the next time you rush to judgement or make a comment.
Blessings and Ashe,
Lucumi Baba Awo, ogbe osa
Charles Spencer King
