They often say, 16 is the number of cosmos- you can’t be sure as the cosmos is a mystery and even it’s study doesn’t lead to certainty. The merindinlogun offers us a unique perspective to how we can unravel the mystery of the cosmos- 16 was the number irunmole who descended
16 was the number of irunmole that descended to earth and then there was one- Oshun (The 17th member and only female of the irunmole who descended ) wasn’t given as given as much importance because of her gender.
The Irunmoles got to work immediately they got to earth, theirs was to build the earth to what it is. Oshun, the female force was ignored because of her gender by the other irunmoles and they wouldn’t let her help out- the result for the other irunmoles was failure.
The plans and all the irunmoles did failed. They were worried, had no idea why they were failing at all tasks. Earth was chaos and the irunmole consulted with Olodumare. Olodumare, the all in all, the possessor of all wisdom told them the truth- they all failed for one reason
Olodumare told the irunmoles they failed because they ignored Oshun, the female force in their plans of creation. They had forgotten that Olodumare in his infinite wisdom had given the power of procreation and creation to the female
So the male irunmoles failed for ignoring and not assigning any role to Oshun. This is the standard for the African worldview for feminism. Africa isn’t a Patriarchy like most people will like to speculate. If ever there was a place patriarchy reigned supreme, it was Europe
If according to the Merindinloogun, 16 male irunmoles failed because they didn’t assign tasks to Oshun because they saw her as a lesser gender, then how is the Yoruba tradition patriarchal in nature. The force and essence causality in Yoruba is ascribed to females- awon iya
This shows you the power of the female in the Yoruba traditional scheme of this. The power of causality is ascribed to the females known as iya osoronga. It tells you how much respect the Yoruba tradition has for the female gender.
There are many who will say why don’t we have Mamalawo and Babalawo, it is because originally the Odu ifa was given Orunmila by a female and it is from the Odu that all form of wisdom and solutions come forth- the Odu is metaphysical term for the womb
So it is assumed that all women possess an Odu. How then is someone with an Odu allowed to handle the ifa Odu? Truth is, women bequeathed wisdom to the male folks. The aspect of solutions and way out of difficult situations was given to the gender respeonsible for procreation
So it was females who thought or gave men the wisdom to wriggle out of difficult situation by giving us the Odu. This is another worldview that the Yoruba traditional believe postulates- it is isn’t any different from what is already believed generally
If you want to be successful as a man and look for solutions out of a difficult situation, look to the owners of Odu and the powers of causality- ‘the iyas’. Don’t look down on a female because of her gender because your plans will fail. Behind every successful man is a woman
This my thread for 2019. Happy Gregorian new year to you all! @threadreaderapp unroll
