Hebrew, Arabic, and European Faiths are not superior to African Traditional Religions, says Reno Omokri, urging respect for ancestral African spirituality

The man in the first photo is an Ifá priest I met on the Island of Trinidad. He is brandishing his Ifá Ileke beads, which he uses for prayer, divination, and meditation.

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The gentleman in the second image is a Catholic praying with the Rosary.

Fact-check me: As a Catholic, you use the Rosary. But then using prayer beads to count prayers predates Catholicism.

It originated from various pre-Christian religions and is not mentioned in Scripture. Yet, you use it.

But then you say the beads used by an Ifá priest are fetish. How is a Rosary better than the Ileke beads used by African Traditional Religions, especially by Babalawos and Iyanifas? The Ifá Ileke is older than the Rosary.

You, as an African Christian, reject African Traditional Religions that are far older than Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You describe your own cultural beliefs using derogatory terms like ‘Jazz’, ‘Juju’ or ‘Otumokpo’, and look down on them.

But do you realise that Christmas, Easter, Santa Claus, New Year’s Day celebrations, and the days of the week, from Sunday to Saturday are all from Roman pre Christian tradition religions?

Yet, you, as an African Christian, accept these Roman traditional beliefs and practice them as Christianity, yet you reject your own traditional religions and belief system.

Are you aware that the names Jesus, John, James, Peter, Jude, and many other names do not even feature in the New Testament? Please fact-check me.

Yes, you see those names in the New Testament translation in English, French and other European languages, but if you read the Scripture in their original languages, these names are not there.

In fact, the letter J was not even invented until 1524.

There is absolutely nothing demonic about Ifá Traditional African Religion.

All of those names are European substitutes for the original Jewish names in Scripture. And some of them actually come from European pre-Christian traditional religions.

Jesus is actually Yeshua in Hebrew, John is Yohanan, James is Yakov, Peter is Cephas, and Jude is Yehuda.

Yet, you bear these ‘Christian’ names with pride as an African.

But you refuse to bear Ifakayode, Ifawehinmi, and Ifamakinwa, because they are demonic.

I can see your mind rushing to concoct defences for your European masters. But it will never do the same for your ancestral religions. That is why African languages and customs are dying out!!

Pray, have you even ever studied Odu Ifá? Many people who condemn it know little or nothing about it.

I am a scholar and an avid traveller. There is hardly anywhere on Earth I have not been to study religions because of my love for God, and I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing demonic about Ifá Traditional African Religion.

And many of the precepts of Ifá are in the Bible and others, like the Ifá method of divination, are reflected in modern science by way of Binary mathematics.

As an African, and especially as a Lukumi, embrace your culture and still be a Christian or Muslim. There is nothing evil in Ifá.

Ifá is not witchcraft, sorcery, or idol worship. It is a system of casting of lots. If you read 1 Samuel 14:42, the Israelites used casting of lots to find out the truth during a crisis of confidence.

If you study Acts 1:26, the disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) cast lots to choose Mathias as a successor to Yehuda (Judas). In Quran 37:141, prophet Yunus (Jonah) is recorded casting lots.

Why are all these instances of casting of lots good, but Ifá is bad? Study Ifá. They do not consult satan. Ifá believes in the One True God, who is the Ori Tsé (Head Creator), known as Olodumare. This Oritsé has children known as Orișa.

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Is that not what we read in the Jewish Tanakh, the Bible and the Quran? Of one God, who has angelic beings beneath Him, in a divine echelon, which has Archangels, like Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic), and lesser ranking angels.

Source: Read more at punchng.com