Afa

What it is

Afa is the art of divination practised by the Igbo, whose homeland lies in the south of Nigeria. Within Odinani, their religion and body of thought, it stands as one of the chief routes by which a person, a family or a whole community puts questions to the spirit world. The casting and reading are done by a specialist, the dibia afa, and inquirers hold that through him the spirits show what lies behind a trouble. The name itself points to the work: afa grows out of an Igbo verb meaning to identify, because the diviner's task is to name the root of an illness, a loss or a doubt. Anedo, writing in 2008, described the practice as foretelling what is to come or bringing hidden things to light by supernatural means.

Where it comes from

Afa grew up among the Igbo of southern Nigeria as part of Odinani, their own religion and philosophy. Its name carries regional speech: in Nsukka Igbo, where f and h trade places, the word is heard as eha or aha, and the system also answers to the names Igba Afa and Afa Ugiri. Scholarly record reaches back decades. A doctoral dissertation on afa was presented at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 2008, and earlier books placed divination inside Igbo thought: Umeh's After God is Dibia appeared in 1997, Onwuejeogwu's study of the Nri kingdom and its hegemony in 1981, and Isichei's history of the Igbo in 1976.

How it is done

A casting, agb'áfa, literally 'cast the word', is performed by the onye n'agb'áfa, the person who casts. Visitors come prepared: they are expected to make special sacrifices to the guardian spirits, and some dibia further require that they greet no one on the way and keep strict silence until the work ends. Where a case involves poison or grave sickness, the dibia first questions his visitor at length to learn everything he can about the affliction, then consults his charms. The signs that emerge are read by a diviner taught to interpret them.

What it is for

Consultations covered the decisions of whole lives. Afa was asked about sickness, quarrels and farming choices, about marriage and travel, and about who should hold political leadership. The thinking behind it, as Anedo recorded it, is that every event, natural or accidental, has a cause that must be traced, and the diviner is the one who traces it. Answers are believed to arrive from the spirit world through the dibia's reading, which is why families and communities as well as individuals bring their questions.

Who does it

The diviner is the dibia afa, also called Ogba Afa, 'interpreter of afa'. He is trained under masters and keeps strict rules whenever he casts. Odinani teaches that the calling comes from Agwu, the spirit who owns healing, medicine and divination: Agwu is said to summon the dibia to the work and to possess him in it. The dibia is held to bridge the two sides of a consultation, carrying the questions of the living to the ancestors and spirits who answer them.

Peoples and places

Afa belongs to the Igbo and runs through their social life, from the household to the community. The dialects mark it. In Nsukka speech f and h swap, giving the forms eha and aha, and the spirits called alusi in Nri speech are known as arụsị elsewhere. The practice sits inside Odinani, the tradition that binds Igbo religious life together, and its terminology, from dibia to chi and Chukwu, is Igbo through and through.

What people believe

The cast rests on a populated cosmos. Chukwu stands at its head as supreme creator, the wellspring of existence, and each person carries a portion of his force as a personal spirit, the chi. Ala, goddess of the earth, anchors Igbo morality. The alusi are spirits served in Odinani, each with charge over some sphere of life, and the mmụọ are the departed of the lineage, who still deal with the living. Agwu, spirit of health and divination, presides over this craft and moves the dibia. Human life, in this view, unfolds in constant exchange with these forces, so no misfortune is merely accidental: it has an author, and afa is the means of naming it.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Anedo's doctoral work, presented to Nnamdi Azikiwe University in 2008, defines afa as foretelling things to come or uncovering what is secret, done by supernatural means, and preserves an Igbo maxim: every happening, natural or accidental, has a cause, and the diviner is the one who names it. Longer-standing scholarship frames the art by emphasis. Umeh (1997) reads divination as part of Igbo cosmology and what he calls sacred science; Onwuejeogwu (1981) situates Igbo religion within the Nri kingdom and its hegemony; Isichei (1976) gives the general history of the Igbo people within which the practice is set.

Compare and confuse

The same art answers to several names: Igba Afa, Afa Ugiri, and in Nsukka speech eha or aha. It is closely tied to neighbouring terms in Odinani: the dibia, the ritual specialist; chi, one's personal spirit; Agwu Nsi, the spirit behind the divining; Chukwu, the creator above all. Beyond the Igbo it takes its place among the many arts of African divination.

Questions people ask about Afa

Good reading and sources

• Afa (Igbo divination) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data