Newsletter · Published August 16, 2026
Ẹ káàbọ̀ sí kiláàsì wa! Welcome, royal descendants. As we move through the heart of summer, we are filled with gratitude for the growth unfolding across our temple communities. This month we celebrate student-led learning, new cohorts, and the deeply personal journeys that remind us why we study — not just to speak, but to reconnect with the heart and spirit carried within the words.
🌱 Ifalobaorisa Temple DC: Students Take the Lead
At Ifalobaorisa Temple DC, our students are stepping into a new kind of ownership over their learning. In our latest session, the instructor shifted from the usual lecture format to a student-led investigation and oral presentation model. Students Tamara and Sharmayne were assigned a research-based homework task, due at the next Tuesday class, in which they will independently investigate Yorùbá vocabulary using AI tools and present their findings aloud.
- 5 new places in Yorùbá land (beyond class materials)
- 5 new societies/communities (e.g., Egbe) not covered in worksheets
- 5 new family roles outside those already taught
- 5 sentences incorporating family, community, and place terms — dictated aloud in class
The Ifá Scribe Companion has been designated as the primary tool for research and pronunciation practice. During the session, Tamara's account tier was reset to premium to restore Companion access, and Sharmayne was guided through registration. Students are encouraged to collaborate — with classmate Carlos if possible — rather than work alone, and the instructor will provide real-time feedback on tonal accuracy and grammar during their presentations.
"When students investigate the language themselves, they don't just memorize — they discover. That discovery is where true fluency begins." — Olùkọ́
🎉 New Cohort: Chief Terry & Friends
We are thrilled to welcome the Chief Terry cohort, which launched its classes on August 14th. Chief Terry, Adonis, and a husband-and-wife team — four students in total — committed to the program following our April Ifá Scribe demo. Their journey begins with the foundational units, and we look forward to watching this new community grow together.
📖 Awolonile Temple: Storytelling as Spiritual Technology
In our one-on-one sessions with the Awolonile cohort, we have been exploring storytelling as spiritual technology within Ifá philosophy. In Week 25 (Unit 8), we dove into the vocabulary of fate and the five stages of the Ifá narrative arc:
- Ìbẹrẹ — The beginning/precedent; establishes protagonist and journey.
- Ìṣọrú — The friction/problem; the blockage (death, sickness, loss, want).
- Ìbísẹ — The crossroads; the act of taking a step, where human agency lives.
- Àbájáde — The consequence/outcome; result of compliance or refusal.
- Ìmúra — The seal; ends with praise song (success) or warning proverb (failure).
A central insight of the session: the Orí (head/destiny) is the protagonist of every Ifá story, and Ifá diverges from fatalism because ìbísẹ — lifting the foot — is where free will operates. We also explored key vocabulary including Ìtàn (story/history), Rúbọ (to offer sacrifice), Kọrúbọ (refusal to sacrifice), and the tonal distinctions between tì (past perfective) and tí (relative/conjunctional).
💬 Voices from Our Students
We are deeply moved by the testimonials our students have shared. Linnea, from the Awolonile Temple cohort, wrote to us about how learning Yorùbá has become a deeply meaningful and spiritual journey:
"Learning Yorùbá has become a deeply meaningful journey for me. It's grown into something far beyond learning vocabulary and memorizing phrases. It's opened a doorway into something that feels deeply personal and spiritual. I'm not simply learning a language; I'm building a relationship with the heart and spirit carried within the words — the àṣẹ, the life force and creative energy that connects all things from the beginning." — Linnea
Linnea also shared a discovery that deeply touched her: about eight years ago she took a DNA test, and recently learned her ancestral origins trace back to Yorùbá Africa. Following her heart's fascination with the mysteries of life led her here — and later coincided with her own ancestral roots. She practices by listening to and repeating phrases, songs, and conversations, and has even begun setting up her monthly calendar with days, numbers, and the Òrìṣà associated with each day to align with her Orí.
"I know I still have so much to learn, but I'm grateful for every step forward — and even for the stumbling blocks, because they make me more determined and in the end bring a sweeter victory." — Linnea
In another session, Linnea shared a delightful lesson from a homework assignment. She created the sentence "The beautiful flowers smell good" — and discovered that in Yorùbá, the language itself made her think more deeply about who is actually doing the action:
"Flowers don't smell. They give off a scent/fragrance. They don't smell anything! Our noses do! So easily we say things like this or that smells good when really... things give off/release scents, aromas and fragrances. I was trying to build a sentence with the grammar structure, but the language itself made me think more deeply about who is actually doing the action." — Linnea
These reflections remind us that language is never just vocabulary — it is a doorway into a worldview, a relationship with the ancestors, and a deeper understanding of ourselves.
💻 The Digital Toolkit: Ifá Scribe
The Ifá Scribe Companion continues to support our students between live sessions. A key guidance from our recent sessions: the app is best used with real, acquired chants — from the temple, Ifá articles, or chant books — for breakdown and understanding, rather than for generating new chants, due to the risk of hallucination. We encourage students to bring their authentic materials to the Companion for deeper study.
🛡️ A Commitment to Excellence
Behind the scenes, we continue our ISO-conscious quality audits and are adding page numbers to course worksheets to make printed materials easier to organize — a thoughtful suggestion from our students. We remain committed to a learning environment that is secure, private, and continuously improving.
Ready to take the next step? Join our live sessions or book a private consultation for focused pronunciation and grammar support.
Bring this into practice
The Yorùbá Language Program pairs live instruction, private lessons, and digital tools so language recovery becomes a repeatable practice rather than a loose intention.