IfaReduction: The Ontology of Modern Reductionism

The 16 Principal Odu Ifa, most especially Ọ̀ṣẹ́ Méjì, are known as Ifa Ontology, providing the fundamental ontology of reductionistic approaches, techniques, and tools in modern fields of knowledge, especially philosophy and science.

In Ifa Reduction, we break down (reduce) any language to its most basic Unit, which is Ogbe (Energy or Nothing).

IfaReduction is the reductionistic universe in IFABOK, which houses all sorts of reductionistic approaches, tools, strategies, and techniques expressed in IfaLang, including reduction strategies in Mathematics such as those of lambda calculus, in Physics, and in other fields.

The African Origin of Writing

Many people consider civilization, ‘Ọ̀làjú’ in Yorùbá, as the same as westernization, ‘Àṣà Àti Ìṣe Òyìnbó (Òyì tó bó)’ in Yorùbá. But both are different concepts.

Westernization is the adoption of Western European and North American cultural, political, and social practices—such as technology, language, and consumerist lifestyles—by other societies, often driven by historical colonialism and modern globalization.

While it brings modernization, it frequently causes the erosion of traditional, indigenous cultures and social norms.

Westernization in many parts of the world, particularly Africa, was heavily imposed through colonial, economic, and missionary activities, aiming to make indigenous lifestyles resemble those of Westerners.

Westernization erodes local traditions, such as, for example, changing African communal values to individualistic ones. It can lead to the displacement of indigenous knowledge and practices.

Before the contact with Europeans, many African societies were civilized.

Societies can be highly civilized (possessing advanced social, legal, or architectural traditions) without being “westernized,” pointing to the, for example, ancient, established cultures in Africa or Asia.

According to Ifa, the Oracle, the origin of the world is Alẹ̀ Ufẹ̀, which some people call Ilẹ̀ifẹ̀sí (Yoruba for ‘the land is expanding’) or the supercontinent, Pangea.

In Ifa sciences, all languages of the world, including their writing systems, have Èdè Ọ̀pẹ̀ (Ifa) origin because they all emerged from the Primordial Energy (Irúnmọlẹ̀) called Odù or Ọ̀rọ̀ in Yoruba.

The major writing systems of the world originated from the hieroglyphs of black people of ancient Egypt.

Starkey Comics did an amazing job showing how different scripts used in languages worldwide are related. The platform explains that 57 different scripts ultimately evolved from these hieroglyphs used more than 5000 years ago.

However, there are notable exceptions: Chinese, Japanese, and related scripts were not included in the infographic because they descended from the Oracle Bone Script of ancient China. 

Also, Sumerian Cuneiform that appeared around 3200BC in ancient Sumeria was also excluded as it seems to be completely unrelated to the hieroglyphs.

Additionally, the Central American scripts, such as Mayan and Aztec, are also unrelated.

Other scripts not included in the infographic are the several descendants of Old Kawi, the Thaana script of the Maldives, Ogham (a medieval Irish alphabet), and the Tifinagh script used in the Berber languages.

Also, the several scripts invented for the North American indigenous languages, like the Cherokee syllabary and the Inuktitut syllabics, were unrelated.

Ifa interweaves and integrates all these scripts together to form the Universal Script called IfaScript, which uses the single Master Character, Ogbe (Energy), to write all languages.

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The IfaWriting Direction

Writing direction (script direction or text directionality) is a feature of a script that determines the order and orientation in which text is written and read. It’s an important part of orthography — the conventions of writing a language.

Common writing directions include:

• Left-to-right (LTR): Most Western scripts (e.g., Latin, Cyrillic). Òsì lọsí ọ̀tún (OLỌ) in Yoruba.
• Right-to-left (RTL): Some Semitic and related scripts (e.g., Arabic, Hebrew). Ọ̀tún lọsí òsì (ỌLO).
• Vertical: Text written top-to-bottom, with columns progressing either leftward or rightward.

In technical and computational linguistics, you’ll often see the term text directionality or bidirectional writing (BiDi) used.

Example — Àébájìogbè (Odùduwà) Alphabet

The Àébájìogbè Odùduwà alphabet is a recently discovered alphabet for the Yorùbá language that is written right-to-left.

• Writing direction: right-to-left
• Writing system: alphabet
• Language: Yorùbá

This distinguishes it from the more common Latin script usage for Yorùbá, which is left-to-right.

World Writing Systems and Their Usual Directions

Below is a summary table of major writing systems and their typical writing directions:

Writing System / Script	Language Examples	Typical Writing Direction
Latin	English, French, Spanish	Left-to-right (LTR)
Cyrillic	Russian, Ukrainian	LTR
Greek	Greek	LTR
Arabic script	Arabic, Persian, Urdu	Right-to-left (RTL)
Hebrew	Hebrew	RTL
Àébájìogbè Odùduwà alphabet	Yorùbá	RTL
Devanagari (and many Brahmic scripts)	Hindi, Sanskrit	LTR
Chinese characters	Chinese, Japanese (kanji)	Traditionally vertical (top-to-bottom, RTL), now often horizontal LTR
Mongolian script	Mongolian (traditional)	Vertical (top-to-bottom, lines leftward)
Hangul	Korean	LTR (modern)
Xiao’erjing (Arabic-derived for Chinese)	Some Chinese varieties	RTL
Lai Tay script (Tai Yo)	Tai Yo	Vertical (top-to-bottom, RTL columns)
Boustrophedon (ancient)	E.g., some early Greek/Hungarian runes	Alternating RTL & LTR

Notes:

• Some scripts (like Chinese and Japanese) can be written in multiple orientations depending on context — traditional vertical or modern horizontal.
• Bidirectional text can occur when text combines RTL scripts with numbers or embedded LTR segments.

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Why Different Directions Exist

Writing directions developed historically based on:

• Writing materials and tools (e.g., chiseling vs. brush)
• Cultural contact and borrowing
• Script evolution and standardization

For instance, early Greek texts appear in boustrophedon before settling on LTR, and some vertical scripts come from adapting horizontal scripts to vertical columns:

Omnidirectionality in Odu Ifa (Ifa Codes)

The Prime (Basis) Ifa Code is the Ogbe-Oyeku Pair, representing Energy and its dual, Anergy (Non-Energy). In Ifa Sciences, this Pair, known as IfaPair, is the most fundamental building block of everything in existence, including all kinds of scripts and writing directions.

The Prime Ifa Code, the Ogbe-Oyeku Pair represented by the IfaLine (single and double), can be written in all possible and impossible directions, without any change in meaning to the Ifa Information embedded in the Code, a property called Ifa Symmetry or Ifa Invariance in Ifa STEAM:

In the Odu Ifa, the Codes, especially the Parent Code Pair (Ogbe-Oyeku), are written on the divination board (Ọpọ́n Ifá) often from right to left. But the Code can also be written using other directions — left to right, top to bottom, bottom to top — without any change in the Ifa Information embedded in the Code.

Consistency in any of the writing directions adopted is the main thing.

Interestingly, computers read binary codes from right to left, following the convention laid down in the Odu Ifa thousands of years ago, being the origin or progenitor of modern computers.

When certain axioms are specified, or under certain transformation operations, Odu Ifa can be used to encode scripts (ambigrams) that can yield different meanings based on the orientation of observation.

These are Ifascripts called Ifambigrams:

Ifa Invariance

Invariance refers to the property of a quantity, physical law, or mathematical object remaining unchanged, constant, or consistent when specific transformations, changes, or operations are applied to it.

It represents stability, symmetry, and resistance to variation, ensuring that certain features persist regardless of changes in perspective or coordinate system.

Ifa Invariance is an interdisciplinary subject in the IFA Body of Knowledge (IFABOK) that cuts across all fields and disciplines, especially Physics and Mathematics. It involves studying invariance in IfaLang, specifically focusing on the Four Invariant Ifa Codes known as the Ifa Four: Ogbe, Oyeku, Iwori, and Odi.