This is an art piece that investigates the linkage of African time telling and divination practices. In a video made by Mumbipoetry, African understanding of time is explored to have no future, rather anchored in the past and immediate present. This is crucial information as it expands our knowledge of what time can be and decolonializes our understanding of time - yielding to further investigative works on time across various tribes in Africa. Through my studies of Igbo tradition, I deduce that time is a memory, of which can be accessed through divination.

Igbo traditions affirms the concept of reincarnation. A theme that can be found in various African spiritual cultures. Reincarnation tells us that we have existed before, we are existing now, and we will exist again and again. Thus, we are not restricted by the notion of a moving time that has a beginning and an end. Rather, a time that captures a memory of a spirit. Time here is one of many lifetimes and parallel universes.

Igbo divination, also known as Áfá, is a practice that a Dibia uses to get messages from gods on behalf of the individual asking. A Dibia is a knower, a seer and the person who accesses the records of time. They bring forth this information to the community after an Áfá has been done. Áfá can be performed at various stages of one’s life, however holds the greatest weight upon a new soul’s arrival on earth. Áfá is then used to tell the journey of this child through earth. How they would excel, how they would stumble. Who will aid them in their becoming, in their restructuring. Áfá is the memory of the gods, as well as the memory of the child. 

In Igbo, “Áfá” also translate to ‘name’ in some Igbo dialects. This is significant as the naming of a child is important in order to capture the correct essence of the spirit that just arrived. An accurate recording and accessing of time, if you will.

In this art work, I use a black cloth in the same way a Dibia will use it to do their Áfá readings. In the same way cowrie shells - also known as eyes of the gods- are utilized as a communication means. Here, you see 16 cowrie shells, an intentional numbering that aids to accessing Áfá . In the squares, we are introduced to the visions of the Dibia, some present in literal forms, while others are received in symbols. Of which the Dibia will intuit its meanings and deliver the message to the child’s community.

Afa is a sacred practice of African time, used to access memory, used to access time.

Inspiration & References:

a) Mumbipoetry’s video on African time. Mbiti’s work on time was referenced in the video. See: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNisdVSs6aQ/?hl=en
b) Afa divination in Igbo culture.
See: https://sloaneangelou.blog/journal/16-afa-words-with-their-regular-igbo-english-terminologies
c) Current research on the Igbo word “Afa”, exploring time through an ancestral lens.