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Yoruba belief that, ―kò sí àìsàn tuntun lábẹ ọ r n” (there is no new disease). The belief that there is no new disease, strengthens the view that the Ifá literary corpus contains all the possible referrals needed for diagnosis and treatment of all diseases. Diagnosis in this study was found to follow the traditional principles of transference of the wisdom of the past to bear on the experience of the present. The content of Ifá literary corpus (odù) served as basis for the prescriptions that brought about the recovery that was observed in the patients that were interviewed for this study. The recovery of the patients made it possible to regard Ifá divination as a formidable diagnostic and treatment procedure for àmódi.

According to Maclean (1974) ―the real value of African medicine lies not in its materials but in the methods and concepts which underlie their use. It is characterized by its ability to supply meaningful answers to questions which are relevant to patients and practitioners alike‖ (p. 30).

In each of the patients that were observed, the vehicles for the communication of the diagnosis were the stories told of the problem faced by a protagonist, and how he resolved or failed to resolve it. These stories were believed, hence the identification of the patients with the protagonist and the following of almost the same steps as the protagonist in the story (Olatunji, 2005:123).

The disease aetiologies that were observed in this study are not new to healthcare practitioners (both Western and African), but they are also not easily accepted. The findings of this study helped to realize that the existing objections to these disease aetiologies do not make them less real, as people still get diagnosed and treated within the context of this belief.

This research re-affirmed the strong belief of the Yoruba in the personalistic causes of diseases. The disease aetiologies diagnosed with the use of Ifá divination in the course of this study include: Ìjà Èsù - attack from È ù (patient „A‟), Èèwọ43 - taboo (patients B, C, D & E), Orí - one‘s personality soul (patients F, G, H, &

S44), Ìwà-búburú -bad character (patients I, J, K, L, M, N & O), Ayé/àjẹ - witches (Patient P, Q, R & S), Àì-kò-béèrè - lack of divination (patient T) and Ìrírí ayé - life experiences (patients U, V & W).

43Interview with Awo Ifalowo Ifakayode Oyasogo on the 7th of March 2011. He narrated a story to buttress the belief that èèwò can cause diseases. He said there was a pastor who had children that died one after the other. Their death occurred once they attained some certain months, they had different kinds of tests, but only after divination did they find out that they were from a family of Osun devotees and this meant that, they were forbidden to eat guinea corn, they were also not supposed to have their bath with hot water. The children died once they were switched from breast milk to pap made from guinea corn. This story was known because a son of the pastor who was in his late twenties refused to eat guinea corn with Awo Ifalowo Ifakayode Oyasogo, this made him conclude that he must be from an Osun family. It took the explanation of the father, for the young man to know that that was why he had to abstain from guinea corn and hot water, so as to stay alive.

44 Patient S fits into orí (one‘s spirit) and ayé/àjé (witches) disease aetiologies respectively.

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In a similar way, this study observed that treatments for cases of àmódi are possible on two grounds: the preventive and the curative grounds. The preventive include: ẹ bẹ /ìyọ nú àjẹ/àwon àgbà (appease of supernatural powers/witches), só ara fún èèwọ (avoid taboos).45Ìwà pẹ lẹ, (good character /gentleness), Ìmọ ìwàn ara ẹni (not going beyond one‘s bounds), Ìkóra ẹni ní ìjánu (one being cautious), etc. All these are believed to have the ability and function to protect one from àwon ìyà mi.

Ẹbọ (sacrifices) are required to satisfy whatever is needed for one‘s safety.46 Egbò-igi ìyọ nú/ẹ bẹ àwon àgbà, tí wón fi ma nfi ènìyàn se ọmọ (herbs that protect against the attack of evil forces) are required to physically shield and repel the attacks form witches. And Esè nbálè/Ìkọsẹ-wáyé (divination at birth to find out what a child will become) helps to know/reveal the taboos of the new child so as to prevent the breaking of these taboos and the consequences that may follow.

At the level of curative treatment, three levels of procedure are followed for the treatment of àmódi. These are: Ebo l‟ègbón (sacrifice being the oldest), Òògùn/àkóse-ifá l‟àbúrò (medicine being younger), and Ogbón-inú l‟omo iyèkan on lénjẹ lénjẹ, (inspiration being the youngest).

Ebo treated the spiritual and psychological aspects of the patients. Òògùn/àkóse-ifá treated the physical aspects of the patients and Ogbón-inú complemented the first two. Treatment is possible in Yoruba healthcare system because, kò sí àrùn tí kò seé wò (there is no disease that cannot be treated). There is a distinction between àìsàn ara (physical disease) and àrùn tí ò gbó òògùn (a disease that cannot be cured with medicine alone) (Jegede, O. 2009:23).

A traditional Yoruba person or babaláwo believes that, there is need to interpret situations with an awareness of the reality of spiritual principalities and powers. ―The ancestors, the gods and the spirits of place, plants and animals, all have an influence on his present existence and are capable, conversely, of being manipulated to his advantage‖ (Maclean, 1974:31). The Yoruba traditional medicine is properly understood in its cultural context, because the way in which people respond to illness is inevitably related to the whole religious and philosophical framework in which existence is understood.

This study clearly draws attention to the fact that illnesses can be caused by both natural/explicable and supernatural/inexplicable causes and these must be brought to bear in the process of diagnosis and treatment in order to achieve total healing. All the twenty-three (23) patients were diagnosed to have been afflicted by supernatural/inexplicable causes, after which treatment commenced. At the completion of their treatments, they all confirmed full recovery. Beside each patient‘s testimony of wellness, final divination - Ó tán nb‟ókù? (is this all or there is more?), was used as confirmatory tests in each of the cases studies.

45 There are foods, actions and places to be avoided by certain people.

46 Ifaleke Ifatunmibi (Awise Osogbo), interview on the 8th of March, 2011. Eku mà ré o, òrò eku kò kíí ku díè, kí òrò mi má kú díè o; Eja mà ré o, oro eja kìí já díjú, kí òrò mi kó má se jádíjú o etc.

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5.2 Recommendations

Given the reality of Àmódi and the findings of this study as enumerated in chapter four, the researcher makes the following recommendations:

First that diagnostic tools used for chronic illnesses be expanded to include Yoruba traditional methods.

This will help to capture broader disease aetiologies as found among the Yoruba.

Second, that more studies be done in the area of àkóse-ifá so that more light will be shed on the healing elements found in the prescriptions. This is important as the findings of this study show that àkóse-ifá is composed of natural therapeutic elements, which can provide strong basis for amazing discoveries in the area of traditional healthcare.

Third, that there should be a renewed effort to uphold cultural values like ìwà rere which have the potential to prevent àmódi.

5.3 Conclusion

Every healthcare provider must, of necessity, be sensitive to the concerns of his/her patients.

He must realize that his patient has desires, beliefs, habits and patterns of association with his neighbours and the environment, all of which influence his health. The sun which shines on him, the rain which falls on him, even the composition of the very ground beneath his feet –all have a bearing on the quality and volume of sickness which may assail him during his lifetime. This type of approach is particularly important in an African setting (Oyediran and Brieger, 1989:2).

With the findings of this study, that is, the experience of illness observed in the patients and the experiences of recovery, one can categorically say that there exists disease patterns and aetiologies that are strange and not known to the Western healthcare paradigm. These disease patterns and aetiologies make diagnosis and treatment impossible using Western methods of healthcare, thereby making it imperative to search for healthcare within the healthcare paradigm that understands the manifested diseases and related aetiologies.

This study shows that Ifá divination operates in an alternative world-view, different from the Western paradigm. Ifá divination is not alone in this approach to healthcare, ―homeopathy, naturopathy, and oriental medicine use different concepts of disease, based on an alternative world-view that is not easily translatable or compatible with scientific medicine. It has been difficult or impossible to map these systems onto conventional medicine or vice versa‖ (Fulder, 2005:5). This difficulty has not taken away the recognition that they have earned for themselves.

The pain and problems caused by àmódi are real and not imagined, this reality cuts across borders and interpreted differently because of the structure of the healthcare paradigm that is used in diagnosing the

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existing individual cases. Within the Yoruba paradigm, àmódi is not limited to psychosomatic disorders.

Difficult or strange conditions that do not respond to Western healthcare methods are called àmódi - diseases or conditions that are not easily understood or diagnosable.

With Gureje‘s (2004) observation that cross-national differences occur in somatic distress and that the pattern of these differences does not follow clear cultural lines even though the role of culture cannot be excluded, one cannot but begin to examine cultural responses to the problem of àmódi.

In most cases, the treatments of àmódi have no physical or direct link with the diseases being treated.

Many have called the use of Ifá divination as a method of treatment magic, this study found the contrary.

One can more certainly say that Ifá divination as a method of diagnosis and treatment is àsà, the way of life or the custom of the Yoruba people. If the principle of true diagnosis holds true, that is, if diagnosis indicates the imbalance in the operations of the body and points out what needs to be corrected, then Ifá cannot be dismissed since patients got healed from the diagnosis and prescribed treatment Ifá divination provided.

This is not the first time that ethno-scientists are studying methods of healing used for diseases that Western method cannot heal, Meveni (1997) suggested that ―syndromes treated with music therapy… are those which Western pathology would place in the class of psyche-based ailments and on the psychosis neurosis‖ (p. 10).

The fact that àmódi conditions and the diagnosed disease aetiologies are real makes Ifá divination relevant in the search for holistic diagnosis and treatment for àmódi. One could say that, if these diagnoses were wrong, the treatments would have either resulted in the patients being worse off than before they went to the babaláwo or even dying in the process of treatment.

This study joins the previous attempts to appeal47 for Yoruba traditional medicine to be investigated and used as a means of meeting the demands of healthcare, because Ifá divination was found to be a formidable diagnostic and treatment tool for àmódi among the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria. Its ability to distinguish between similar symptoms of àìsàn ara and àmódi no doubts transcends the practice in Western medicine.

47 This appeal has been made by people like Good, C.M.; Hanter, J.M. & Katz, S.H. 1979.; Ademuwagun, Z.A. 1969.; Osuntokun, B.O. 1975.; Macleans U. and Bannerman, R.H. 1982.; Unschuld, P.U. 1976.

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