Old post an analysis of Obi

Aboru Aboye Aboshishe,

I'm in the midst of learning a new way of throwing Obi (the kola nut) but I recently had an exchange on another board which I now no longer post to, where a priestess actually unprovoked, wished "Okana" on me because she didn't agree with my views. She did so, because I suggested it was ironic that in a previous post, she started with "alaafia" which means peace, before writing a very negative post. Since she didn't understand yoruba, she figured the opposite of alaafia was Okana instead of saying Ibi or (osogbo for the lucumi) or some such thing.

I'm thankful to her, because it got me thinking about what Okana meant and where it came from. I used to think simply that it came from the yoruba word Okan, meaning one, for the one white side showing, but as I started to study Ifa, realized that was not the total picture. Okana, is actually a modification of the Ifa odu Okanran. In the diloggun system, Okana is 1. Now the reason I believe this comes from Ifa is that in Ifa, even though Babalawos never read only one leg of a "letra" like the santeros/olorishas, they read two legs, the way you mark Okanran as an odu is:

II
II
II
I

as in three pieces brown and one white. (of course to be fair, if it's marked the opposite direction, it's obara) What's more interesting is you'll often see this also called Okanasode, which all Babalawos will recognize as the Odu Okanrans'ode or the alias for the Odu Okanrana - ogbe. Now, okanran ogbe is actually marked thus:

I II
I II
I II
I I

and has it's own stories associated with it, which aren't all bad. Though in the lucumi system, there is a story of Okanran obge which talks about a child with large ears and long story short, the motion made by the Babalawo is to cover ones ears, which some of the older Olorishas will say is something you do when this is cast in Obi.

I have always had thoughts on the other names as well:

Alaafia = peace (in Yoruba) matching the peacefullness and coolness of all white side of Obi upwards. The corresponding odu in Ifa would be Ogbe.

Etawa = I've always pronouned it with an e (dot underneath) where Eta means three in yoruba (3 white sides are up), and wa with the accent down on the a means "to exist" so, three exist. Ita, with an I, is third day, which in Fama's dictionary she also notes is third day divination as in Ita Ifa or Ita Osha.

Ejiife = this is a harder one, it corresponds to no odu but can be broken down eji-two and ife can mean love or the holy city of Ife. It's possible it could mean the love created by two, signifying the balance of light and dark, or the literal love created by two, signifying man and woman, as the Yoruba are very centered around the family and marriage with man and woman, the two opposites, creating a whole.

Oyekun - Odu Oyekun meji, which if you look at only one leg of how it's marked in Ifa is:

II
II
II
II

or equivalent to all faced down, which is fairly self explanatory in the sense that you can physically see the resemblance. As an odu, Oyekun Meji is not all negative, but it is the Odu in which Iku was introduced to the world, and as such I can see the negative interpretation.

O dabo
Ifalola