I was born in Cuba. I came to the United States in 1970. Women and gay men were not permitted into the priesthood. I was recently initiated as a babalawo. So my knowledge of IFA is limited. However, since I was very young, I was thought that IFA was exclusively for men. This believe was further reinforce when I went to Cuba to become a babalawo. I been studying as much as I can from books and other information I've been able to obtain on the Internet. One of the website I found was the 'IFA Association of N. America'(or something like that) in Seattle. The head babalawo there is Phillip John Neimark who has written a few books on IFA (some, quite good). On his website he noted that he brought in a gay men into the priesthood. I've heard of women in Africa (never in Cuba) that have become priestess in IFA. But, I've never heard of a gay men being accepted into the religion. Shame on you Mr. Neimark. You took this men's money and made him a babalawo that will never be accepted in any way shape or form in the Hispanic community that practises Santeria in the large US cities.Have done an injustice to this man.

aboru, aboye, abosise-o my name is fa'kolade ogunrinde awoyade. i went through igbodu in ode-remo-ijebu in 1998 in the egbe of late Baba Alashala Awoyade's compound. I feel that times has changed just like it has with most religions. women are given certain rites into societies where long ago were unheard of. then why are we allowing them to be initiated into Ifa' and they can't see odu? If i am correct, when we (Awo's) receive our odu aren't we told not to look into odu? We can only feed odu in a very dark place and if we disobey and look inside that calabash........our osun staff must fall to the earth huh (mean we havve commited suicide)? there are some women who even have some of the elements of odu in there Ifa's. this must be addressed with our elders in Yorubaland and then and only then will we take a stand. do they become apetebe's when they have cofa? some women have even become iyanifa's. head of all apetebe's. i really do see any senior women here in america qualified to have such titles nor have ifa'. i could be wrong now. even certain so-called Awo's calling themselves Awo's are questionable. odabo

Bascom has done an excellent job of presenting some of the sacred Ifa verses. Also, women looking to become initiated into Ifa should continue to search for the right baba mentor to take them under their wing. I am a babe in the woods as far as this religon is concerned however, I managed to find a very good baba mentor whose sister-in-law is an Ifa priestess. When I mentioned about women not being able to get initiated they laughed.