Revered Ifa priest, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon says the popular belief in some quarters that human body parts can be used in a ritual that generates wealth is a lie.
Elebuibon, who is the Araba-Awo of Osogboland, noted that no genuine Ifa priest will indulge in such practices.
He spoke in an interview with Saturday Sun while answering a question on the prevalence of youths going into internet fraud (aka Yahoo Plus) which allegedly involves blood rituals.
Elebuibon, who is an international scholar-in-residence at San Francisco State University in California, United States, blamed the West for brainwashing people into believing falsehood about African traditional religion.
He also decried the money-by-all-means mentality prevalent among Nigerian youths, while castigating elders that encourage the phenomenon.
He said:
From time immemorial, oogun (charms/spiritual powers) has been a great phenomenon among people of the world, but in the African continent there is a great belief in rituals and powers beyond disputations. Most times, when people discuss about money ritual (oogun owo), they always link it to the traditional African religion and portray it as a demonic religion that promotes human sacrifice and bloodshed. This is due to the years of brainwashing by the West and the numerous misconceptions about rituals and the African religion.
According to the Webster New World Dictionary, Ritual means having the nature of or done as a rite. Ritualism is the observance of forms or rites. Therefore, what one keeps doing everyday is a ritual; it doesn’t have to be spiritual. Unfortunately, what we see in our society today is quite alarming. The way our youths are on the pursuit of money by any means raises a big concern, yet some elders in the community also contribute to this problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong in money ritual but any money that one seeks or gets by the use of force or violence is totally wrong. The kind of money made from such violent acts is blood money (owo eje) and is impure in all ways, no matter the perspective.
Yoruba people are the ones who make oso or osole. There is nothing wrong with osole. There are many herbal medicines and spiritual works that give luck and prosperity to business people in their various occupations. It also enhances profit maximization.
Oso comes in various forms and has levels of intricacies. Some are used in the middle of the night while others require the person to wear special attire such as a complete white outfit (to signify purity) and stand out among all others. There is nothing harmful about this. It is one of the many practices of our ancestors that enable them live a more comfortable and enjoyable life.
The point that people often miss is that Osó in the Yoruba language means wizard. A person who has become a wizard in a particular field or occupation has achieved the highest level of mastery and success. When a student excels and is incredibly brilliant, he/she is regarded as a book wizard. It is as simple as that.
One of the major problems we have today is that some people claim that the major ingredients that constitute an effective Osóle requires human body parts or requires one to take the life of another. This is totally false.
The true Yoruba babalawo or traditionalist do not engage in such horrific acts, because they consider life to be very precious and their main purpose of being a traditionalist is to save lives and not take them. However, over the years, our society has been infiltrated by certain groups from some other areas that have been known for such acts. They have lived among us for years and have mixed with us. This causes them to be mistaken for babalawo.
There have been many instances where Christians or Muslims have been caught with human body parts or arrested for killings with the purpose of enrichment and are portrayed by the media and the police as babalawo. This is totally wrong, Real babalawo do not kill or maim for the purpose of money. Since the inception of money, there have been various people who have attempted to amass great wealth without working hard and earning wealth but have chosen to get rich through bloodshed instead. They bought into the so-called blood money schemes, but these have always ended disastrously.