Origin Attested throughout the Ifa oral and, from the twentieth century, written corpus; the verses themselves carry no single composition date, understood within the tradition as accumulated over many generations of Ifa priests.
Iwa, character, is held in Yoruba thought to be the very stuff of existence itself, praised in the Ifa divination corpus as older and more valuable than beauty or wealth. Iwa-pele, gentle or good character, names the ideal toward which a person's conduct is meant to grow: honesty, patience, respect for elders and the orisa, and restraint in speech and anger. The Ifa literary corpus ties good character directly to a person's destiny, teaching that even a person born to a favorable fate can ruin it through bad iwa, while good character can steady an otherwise difficult one.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodAttested throughout the Ifa oral and, from the twentieth century, written corpus; the verses themselves carry no single composition date, understood within the tradition as accumulated over many generations of Ifa priests. 1 Place of OriginYorubaland, in present-day southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. 1 Origin of the NameYoruba iwa, character or existence itself, qualified by pele, gentle or soft; the compound names a temperament rather than a single act. 2 Attributed Author / CompilerTraditionally transmitted through Ifa priests (babalawo) as part of the corpus attributed to Orunmila, the orisa of wisdom and divination; not the work of a single named human author. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailPraised throughout the Ifa literary corpus as prior to and more valuable than beauty or wealth, and tied directly to destiny (ori): even a favorable destiny can be ruined by bad iwa, while good character steadies a difficult one. 1 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceGood, gentle or measured character, the ethical ideal the Ifa corpus holds a person's conduct should grow toward: honesty, patience, respect for elders and the orisa, and restraint in anger and speech. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Originates in Language
Held Differently
Sila (Ethical Conduct), Virtues Both traditions treat cultivated ethical conduct as the substance of a person's spiritual standing, though Ifa holds iwa as bound up with an individual destiny chosen before birth, while sila is cultivated conduct within the Buddhist path toward liberation from rebirth; the two frameworks differ but converge on character as the measure of a life.
Sources
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