I'm not the Babalawo police

One of the more challenging experiences early in my career came when I received a call from a client who owned several large, upscale, retail operations in Chicago. After the normal greetings were disposed of, she said: " Philip," she was one of the very few people outside of my mother that called me 'Philip' rather than 'Phil', "you once told me that there was no question that Ifa could not answer." "That's true," I answered. " Well, " she went on, " I need you to find out who stole money from the safe in our office."

It was certainly an unusual request. and, my first thought was "I'm not the Babalawo Police." Nevertheless, it was a statement I had made, and it was one I believed. For several years this particular client had seen Ifa perform wonders for her business, health and relationships. now she wanted it to be Sherlock Holmes!

"Have you contacted the police?," I asked. "Yes, and they are looking into it," she replied," but I prefer that you find out who it was." "You realize," I responded, " that even if Ifa does pin point the individual, it will hardly stand up in court. I think we'd be hard pressed to find a judge that would convict someone based on the Babalawo's word." "Don't worry," her voiced smiled, " you tell me who it is and I'll do the rest."

So, I asked her to fax over a list of her employees (she was convinced it was someone who worked for her). When the list came I was dismayed. She had 117 people working for her! The task seemed overwhelming. How in the world was I supposed to divine for 117 people about the incident? Well, the answer was fairly simple: Pick up the Opele and begin! And, so I did.

It was a long and arduous task. At the end, there were three candidates that seemed most likely. I called my client and informed her that after hours and hours of divining, I had narrowed it down to three people. I will always remember her response: " Philip, you said you could find the answer to any question. I'm not interested in 'most likely', I want to know who got into my safe!"

Well, she had me. She had me on two levels. First, it was a statement I had made and believed. Second, it was my own fears about such a task that were making me hedge my bet. " Okay," I responded, " It was Mr. xxxxx who stole the money," naming the individual who had been identified as primary by the divination.

A pause followed. Then her voice clearly came through the phone: " Excellent Philip, he was one of only three people with the combination!"

I was both relieved and exasperated. "Why didn't you just give me the three names and saved me a lot of time and you a lot of money?," I asked. " I wanted to see if you could do it," she relied and rang off.

How did it turn out? Well, the individual who was named was on a vacation out of the country at the time I divined. My client was going to await his return and then ask him to take a polygraph test, which, she assumed he would either refuse or fail. Then she would fire him. It didn't go quite that smoothly. You see, he never returned to her business or Chicago. That was enough confirmation for me and for my client. Ifa had indeed identified the culprit.

Blessings,

Oluwo Philip Neimark

Click here to return to classroom