Wisdom of Ifá

Eric M. Bridges is professor of psychology at Clayton State University. Sheila Smith McKoy is the president of Smith McKoy & Associates and has also served as a tenure faculty member and a senior academic leader, most recently at the University of San Francisco.LaJuan Simpson-Wilkey is associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of University College at the University of North Georgia.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Eric M. Bridges, Sheila Smith McKoy and LaJuan Simpson WilkeyChapter 1: An Interview with Dr. Wándé Abímbólá by Eric M. Bridges and Stephen Agyemang-KoehlerChapter 2: Ori and Ifá: Navigating a Contentious World by Eric Adewusi MasonChapter 3: The Earth Itself is Sacred: Nature’s Personification in the Ifa/Orisha Religion by Raisa ParnellChapter 4: Place, Space, and Identity Formation at Oyotunji Village by Kenja McCray and Antionette B. Brown-WaitheChapter 5: “To Harness my Own Power: Ifa, Gender, and Healing by Sheila Smith-McKoyChapter 6: The Osun Effect: Beyonce, Ifa, and the Complexities of Black Women’s Empowerment by Funlayo E. WoodChapter 7: Looking Back to Look Forward: Applying Akan and Yoruba Science in Sankofa Afrofuturist Pedagogy (SAP) and Practice by Khalilah AliChapter 8: Describing Inexplicable Aché by Vanessa Navarro MazaChapter 9: Christianity and Ifa: African Spirituality in an American Context by LaJuan Simpson Wilkey and Stephen Agyemang-KoehlerChapter 10: When Mouths Can No Longer Fight and Breasts That Swing Like Ifá: The Wisdom of Ifá on Preventing World Hunger, War, and the Life Sustaining Virtues of The Female Breasts! by Jo Anna Hunter, priest name Ìyánifá OmótinúwéChapter 11: “A Bastard People… Singing and Crying in the Wilderness! Ifá and the Chance at Legitimacy for Diasporic Africans in America by Michael LindsayConclusion by Sheila Smith McKoyAbout the Contributors

The Wisdom of Ifá: An Ancient Paradigm for the Twenty-First Century and Beyond is a brilliant work of scholarship that illuminates the enduring relevance of the Ifá divination system as both a body of knowledge and spiritual resource. The contributing scholars draw on robust research to explore and reimagine howIfá addresses and is shaped by the challenges of modern society. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in African religion and what ancient philosophies, like Ifá, can teach us about our place in this world.