Statement of Purpose

This essay is an effort at exploring the significance of the Ifa system of knowledge and divination developed by the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria in relation to autobiographical theory, and the application of this correlation to the visual and verbal art of the 19th century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. We examine Ifa in terms of autobiographical theory in order to indicate how the convergence of these forms of discourse could provide analytical models applicable to the study of life narratives across spatiotemporal and cultural boundaries, exemplified, particularly, by the manifestation of the autobiographical impulse in the letters and selected paintings of van Gogh1.

1 The central works on Ifa are William Bascom, Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Men in West Africa(Bloomington: Indiana UP,1969)p.3. Some of the other book length texts on Ifa as practised in Nigeria are, Wande Abimbola, Ijinle Ohun Enu Ifa,Apa Kiini,vol.1(Collins:Glasgow,1968), Ijinle Ohun Enu Ifa,Apa Kiini,vol.2(Collins:Glasgow,1969), An Exposition of Ifa Literary Corpus (Ibadan:OxfordUP,1976),the pioneering analytical text, Sixteen Great Poems of Ifa (UNESCO,1975), Ifa Divination Poetry(NewYork:Nok,1977); Ifa Will Mend our Broken World:Thoughts on Yoruba Religion and Culture in Africa and the Diaspora(Roxbury, MA : Aim Books, 1997); Judith Gleason, with Awotunde Aworinde and John Olaniyi Ogundipe, A Recital of Ifa:Oracle of the Yoruba(New York,1972); Christoph Staewen, Ifa;African Gods Speak (Hamburg: Christoph Stewen,1996);Cromwell Osamaro Ibie,Ifism;The Complete Works of Orunmila,vol.1(Efehi:Lagos,1986) ), with nine volumes published and another nine anticipated, Ibie’s work promises to be, for some time, the most comprehensive recording in writing of Ifa texts.;Van Gogh’s complete letters are available in three volumes as Vincent van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh ( Boston: New York Graphic Society,1981). All quotations from the letters will be entered in the following order and using the following signs: CL for Complete Letters, Lt, representing a particular letter, followed by a number for the numbering of the letter, as well as VL followed by a number for the volume number and the page in the specific volume.