One Calabash Throws Smoke

Otua fufu
Ofu stole in order to take care of Otua
They said it was trial by ordeal
Cast divination for Oye, the dry season
Oye should offer a calabash and 2,200 cowries
One calabash throws smoke to inconvenience the people of the whole world
Oloyemuyin
Dry season alone brings dry land to us
Oloyemuyin
It is inside a calabash where the smoke of Oye resides
Oloyemuyin
When it is opened the smoke covers the whole world
The calabash is in Oloyemuyin's house

- Holy Odu OtuaOfun

Today, few people are aware of the mile wide dust storms that terrorize many places of the world, particularly China. Even fewer remember the historical context for dust storms as indicators of environmental degredation and total economic collapse. But if you reserach the dust bowl phenomena around the world, you will quickly appeciate the significance of what Ifa is teaching in the verse above.

When our values become distorted to the extreme, and we put material gain before natural law, the result is self destruction. There is a PBS documentary called the Dust Bowl that tells the story brilliantly. It chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the “Great Plow-Up,” followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation.

For the documentary, Dayton Duncan interviewed 26 living witnesses to the destruction of the Dust Bowl era. All were children in the 1930’s, and are now in their 80’s and 90’s. They recount hauntingly vivid memories of choking dust and crushing drought. Then, the threat was the collapse of American agriculture alone. But in today's global economy, what happens here is felt in far away places and vice versa. What is therelationship between Chinese dust storms and the incursion of Chinese migrants into the African continent? What is the Chinese impact upon Yourubaland and its environs? More importantly, given the reality of food and water security in relation to the dust bowl phenomena, what are you doing to capture water and grow your own food?

If you're like most practitioners of Orisa Lifestyle, these are foriegn concepts. You worship the spirit of water as Oya, Yemoja, Osun and Olokun, but you have no idea where your water comes from. You worship the spirit of agriculture thrpugh Orisa Oko but you have absolutely no idea of where your food comes from, nor how to produce some of it yourself. You pray for ire owo but you are completely unaware of true wealth and ways to generate local currency.

The Orisa Lifestyle Acamedy is creating pathways to spiritual development by helping you get outof the shrine and get into the garden, into the community into and global conversation on the future of life on this planet. Please join us in helping bring about the Good Condition.

Obafemi Origunwa, MA