Memory vs. Booklearning

I am particularly interested in a thread of conversation on the list that contrasted "Memory versus Booklearning". I find that that contrast is beside the point. Let me start by saying that I teach college and I find getting people to really KNOW something to be a real challenge. I see knowledge as something internal to a person. You learn something; it means something to you and you use it in your life. Knowledge of Ocha is like that. Very few people, I have found actually know things like we try to know Ocha. In terms of booklearning, or rather book owning, there is a fallacy that one knows what is in a book one owns. Memorization can produce the same effect. The difference is that instead of the information being in a book, one can parrot it. Neither then can produce real knowledge.

On the other hand, real knowledge can come through books and through memory, if one internalizes it and reflects on it. Some cultures are oral, they do not have a system of writing. However, and this is crucial, such cultures DO HAVE thinkers, philosophers and intellectuals. One example would be a Navajo Singer and more important to us other examples would be Babalawos and Awo Orisha. Ifa and Merindinlogun are oral literatures (oratures) in origin. Such an orature was kept in the heads of its practitioners, some who thought about it and some who did not.

The notebook was an outcome of contact with written languages. Many of the books I see in print in Spanish and some in English appear simply to be edited (sometimes unedited) notebooks. Other books are some people's understandings (or misunderstandings) of the religion. There is a considerable amount of chaff mixed in with the wheat. It takes the guidance of a knowledgable godparent to help with separating the valuable from the valueless and sometimes the downright dangerous.

I tell my own godchildren to go out and learn what they can by listening or reading, however, I reserve the right to evaluate the information they get that way. Hopefully, I can help them to use such information so that it improves their understanding and their lives.

The bottom line, learning can come orally and learning can come from books but real knowledge comes from using your head on the information and making it a part of your understanding and your life.

- Olamide

Iya Olamide is a priestess of Yemoja with nearly two decades of ocha. The vitality and wisdom that is always evident in her writing has made her a favorite contributor to the Orisha Mailing List. She currently resides in Houston, Texas.