Fake IFA Priests are taking over America-gctid255501

[Tenkamenin]

http://www.theyoruba.com/2017/11/re-fake-ifa-priests-are-taking-over-america/

There  has got to be introduced, a way to discern who is who nowadays in Yoruba traditional religion. When I read the  headline FAKE IFA PRIESTS ARE TAKING OVER AMERICA and saw the name of the Ifa priestess crying out , I was surprised by the photo it led me to. Not to say she's wrong, but just like you can no longer assume the ethnicity of a person going by their Yoruba name anymore, so also you cannot tell who's a real properly initiated Ifa Priest too by their title. The system that produced the fake priests running around America which is being decried, produced her too.



And it's  still churning out loads more real and fake priests daily.... Some people have even said the ethnicity of mass produced Ifa priests leans heavily on the White eureurasiaan side.



We have one or two exceptions of lighter skinned Ifa priests who immerse themselves into the community , learned the language and appear to genuinely have the interest of safeguarding West Kmtyw Orisa/Ifa traditions at heart (sometimes even challenging homeland Yoruba folks of different faith , and diaspora folk, on their negative online utterances about West Kmtyw tradition), but most are into heavily marketing online, Ifa tools, books, selling divination, Yoruba herbs and spiritual paraphernalia, under the banner of being initiated priests.



Anyway, the issue here is fake priests and evidently you cannot judge by race on this. As a matter of fact, on social media now it's many times white and diaspora  Ifa folks calling out fake Ifa priests of West Kmtyw ethnicities because of the proliferation of Yahoo Yahoo (online fraud) Babalawos compared to genuine Yoruba Babalawo with online presence. This unbalanced representation on social media means  you would be forgiven for thinking only the Western Ifa priests are authentic.


The major players in the international Fake Ifa Priest mill are those in Yorubaland selling titles;  the Westerners , mostly white, buying those titles; and the Yahoo Yahoo boys in Nigeria pretending to be Babalawos offering to sell via inbox  anything spiritually related.

Ironically, though the Yahoo Yahoo Babalawo modus operandi is cruder than the eureurasiaan Ifa priests with online botanica, following etc , the essence is the same – everyone is peddling wares- cash /Western Union/PayPal for Yoruba spiritual stuff.  The westernised form of gbanjo gbanjo is more readily accepted by the Olorisa online community

So where do we draw the line? Who draws the line?



You cant tell by the race who's real or fake, you can't tell by their Yoruba name, you can't tell by whether they sell online or not, you can't tell by whether they have a spiritual title or not.

How will the uninformed discern? Some say use your intuition/commonsense but those seeking guidance are doing so because their own intuition/common sense seems insufficient... i.e. They are in need of guidance and maybe desperately unsure of their own common sense.

This is why we need the elders of West Kmtyw Olorisa and Ifa community taking the lead in stemming this flow of instant Ifa Priests. Because the factory is in the homeland . Up till now they have been silent especially on social media even though it  is a fertile ground for scammers. Because of this vacuum we now have a  faceless Facebook page masquerading as Yoruba Traditional Elders Council proclaiming fraudulent priests in a vendetta like manner using criteria that only they know about, whipping up frenzied loyalties from all sides, and making a mockery of the West Kmtyw Olorisha community as a whole.
We need the elders of the West Kmtyw Olorisa community  to also make it easier to access genuine West Kmtyw Babalawos from wherever in the world one is. Otherwise people fall prey to  homeland and diaspora Yahoo Yahoo!'s, and between those two groups  whoever shouts 'fraud' the loudest will be seen as the righteous ....

Alaafin has been taking some steps to institute order, including intervening in some of the more blatant abuses, but surprisingly his moves met with some opposition from the top echelons of the Ifa community. Are we to assume these blurred lines and the rampant chaos benefits the top layers of Ifa Orisa community in Yorubaland in some way? It can only lead to the ruin of the whole West Kmtyw tradition as the dollars are more in the hands of charlatans and the Ifa community in the homeland is like majority of Nigeria is deprived....

Reality is that whichever branch of the Yoruba traditional religion, Lucumi, Santeria, West Kmtyw etc that is able to eradicate this shameful problem of charlatans and make genuine practitioners more accessible worldwide will most likely be the choice for  future converts. No one desires to be scammed

[Tenkamenin]

Anyway, the issue here is fake priests and evidently you cannot judge by race on this. As a matter of fact, on social media now it’s many times white and diaspora Ifa folks calling out fake Ifa priests of West Kmtyw ethnicities because of the proliferation of Yahoo Yahoo (online fraud) Babalawos compared to genuine Yoruba Babalawo with online presence. This unbalanced representation on social media means you would be forgiven for thinking only the Western Ifa priests are authentic.

I can't agree with with the author on that point.

The best way to discern in general, is to learn an Kmtyw language and its culture.

[Tenkamenin]

Mpaninfoɔ se, "Ɔkɔmfoɔ gyimi a, na ne bosom nso agyimi." or a Diviner has a stupid divinity.

All in all use common sense.

[Nana]

White "ifa priests" are fake. You can tell that much.

[Agya Yaw]

Tenkamenin;255502 wrote: I can't agree with with the author on that point.

The best way to discern in general, is to learn an Kmtyw language and its culture.

That's it. I was going to post the same after reading the first post then saw yours. We are losing context big time when we don't know the language. Now imagine a Babalawo not knowing the language yet is doing a divination for you? How can they truly intrepret/explain/teach Ifa and not know Yoruba? (@Obadele Kambon I know I have misspellings above, Babalawo & Yoruba :-)) I don't have my Yoruba keyboard on the computer I'm using.

[Tenkamenin]

Agya Yaw;256675 wrote: How can they truly intrepret/explain/teach Ifa and not know Yoruba? (@Obadele Kambon I know I have misspellings above, Babalawo & Yoruba :-)) I don't have my Yoruba keyboard on the computer I'm using.

A few weeks ago on FB, a brotha mentioned being robbed by an IFA Priest, and I referred him to Abibitumikasa to learn Yoruba. It saddens me to hear these stories because usually when our people are visiting these "diviners" they're doing so as part of their journey into consciousness, so, unfortunately, they're incredibly vulnerable.

[Agya Yaw]

Tenkamenin;256743 wrote: A few weeks ago on FB, a brotha mentioned being robbed by an IFA Priest, and I referred him to Abibitumikasa to learn Yoruba. It saddens me to hear these stories because usually when our people are visiting these “diviners” they’re doing so as part of their journey into consciousness, so, unfortunately, they’re incredibly vulnerable.

I think that's another problem. many people on the road to "consciousness" just believe and do anything "a diviner" says to do without asking questions. Lots of questions. Some of these "diviners" intimidate these "willing subjects" into handing over buckets of money or doing some crazy ish. And some of these "willing subjects" are too willing.

I can say my first experience was interesting in that I knew going in I was not going to do anything I was not comfortable doing. I didn't see the practicality of doing what I was told I needed to do, so I didn't do it. There are "spiritual folks out there cashing in on our peoples vulnerability and naivete. But there frauds everywhere in all aspects of life.