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Di purpose, di audience wey dem design am around, and di difference between wetin dis project be and wetin e no be, talk am plain for both direction.
For almost two hundred years, na pipo wey don already decide for dia mind wetin Yorùbá tradition be, na dem write di account wey spread pass.
Church Missionary Society land Yorùbáland for di 1840s with theology wey no get any box for religion wey no be Abrahamic except demonic. Samuel Àjàyí Crowther 1843 vocabulary, and di Bible translation wey follow am, turn Satan to Èṣù, wey be Yorùbá òrìṣà of di crossroads, of communication, and of making sure say exchange balance, and wey no be devil at all for di tradition own terms. Dat one translation choice, wey di most influential Yorùbá churchman of di nineteenth century make, put di name of Yorùbá deity for di mouth of every Yorùbá-speaking Christian as di word for evil, and e still dey dia till today.
Di framing no stop for di nineteenth century. E run forward through mission school for mid-century, enter Nigerian Pentecostal spiritual-warfare movement from di 1970s, and enter Nollywood, where babaláwo na di regular villain and shrine na horror set. Millions of Yorùbá pipo now dey collect dia first, and plenty times only, account of dia own ancestors intellectual life from source wey dem build to spoil am.
Di correct account dey. E dey inside Bascom on Ifá divination, Abímbọ́lá on di literary corpus, Verger on di Atlantic transmission, Peel on di missionary encounter itself, Ogundiran on archaeology, Abiodun on aesthetics, Barber on oríkì, and several hundred others. But e almost fully lock up inside university library, inside monograph wey price pass wetin ordinary reader fit pay, inside journal wey dey behind paywall, and inside prose wey dem write for other specialist.
So di material no be di problem at all. Na di assembly be di problem. Nobody don put di documented account for one place, for plain English, with di sources attached, at length wey fit really answer question, free, for ordinary reader wey get reason not to trust wetin dem don already tell am.
To gather di documented record of Yorùbá culture, history and thought into one free reference work wey person wey no be specialist fit read and wey specialist fit check, dey cite every claim, dey mark every gap, and dey show every disagreement instead of quietly settling am.
Say any Yorùbá person, anywhere, wey wan know wetin im heritage really be, fit find out for one afternoon, from source wey show im working and no ask anything from im faith.
For order of priority. Di design build around di first one, and di rest inherit am.
Di reader wey dem teach say dis thing na demonic
Na dem be di main audience. Dem dey come with guard up, dem no just dey browse, and dem dey check whether e safe to even look. Di citations wey dey for surface, di confidence ratings wey dey up before you scroll, and di plain visual style wey no get any mystic flavour, all of dem dey to signal, before you read one word, say dis na reference work wey get proper apparatus, no be shrine and no be argument.
Di diaspora reader wey dey reconnect
Plenty times na second generation, plenty times dem no sabi di language, plenty times dem dey face wall of online material wey be either devotional, or commercial, or somebody just invent am.
Di student and di scholar
Pipo wey need orientation wey diacritics correct and citation correct, into area wey near dia own field, plus road wey go carry dem enter di primary literature.
Di practitioner
Òrìṣà practitioners for Nigeria and for di Americas wey want accurate general reference wey dem fit hand somebody wey get question, wey pipo write am without claiming any of dia standing.
Reference corpus
Long documents with glossary of every Yorùbá term wey appear anywhere inside dem, plus structured records wey cover Odù, òrìṣà, places, dated events and one concept graph. Di current figures dey for di organisation front page.
E get source from beginning to end
Every serious claim carry inline marker wey point to named source for di file own Sources block.
E carry confidence mark
Every document carry confidence rating. Material wey dey contested, dem flag am as contested instead of smoothening am into consensus wey no dey exist.
E dey free to read
Forever, for individual pipo, without account.
Dem write am for correct Yorùbá orthography
Full diacritics, tone marks and subdots everywhere, because ọkọ̀, ọkọ and ọ̀kọ̀ na three different words and writing all of dem as oko dey destroy information.
E dey talk plain about wetin e no know
Dem mark gaps as gaps. Di structured records carry clear list of attributes wey di corpus refuse to assert because e no fit verify dem, and dat one na di single most checkable commitment for dis site.
Na di negative half be wetin reader wey guard dey up dey really check, so we talk am as plain as di positive one.
E no be devotional resource
E no dey ask anybody to believe anything, e no dey tell anybody wetin to practise, and e no dey argue say Yorùbá tradition na true.
E no be attack on anybody faith
E no dey argue say Christianity or Islam na lie. Most Yorùbá pipo today na Christian or Muslim, and di corpus document how e take happen without giving opinion on whether e suppose happen.
E no be defence work, and e no dey romantic
Yorùbá states sell pipo into di Atlantic trade, di same trade wey also scatter dem. Human sacrifice happen for specific documented nineteenth-century forms, and European observers wey get interest for exaggeration exaggerate am well well. Di claims wey dey spread about Egyptian origins and about Yorùbá pipo inventing binary computing no get evidence behind dem, and we address dem straight. Reference wey no fit talk dat kain thing no go dey trustworthy on anything else.
E no be divination service
E no dey do reading, e no dey interpret cast, e no dey identify anybody Odù, and e no dey simulate any part of Ifá practice. Di Odù material dey document di structure and di scholarly record. E no dey tell reader wetin one Odù mean for im own life.
E no be initiate work, and e no dey talk as if e be one
Di pipo wey compile dis one no be babaláwo, no be priests, no be elders, and no be custodians of di tradition. Dat kain standing belong to initiated pipo and to lineages. Nothing here dey claim am.
E no be authority wey dey overrule living practitioners
Where documented account and di account of living lineage no gree, dis corpus record di documentation and note say na documentation. E no dey judge between dem.
E no be charity foundation, even with di name
Ìpilẹ̀ṣẹ̀ mean foundation for di structure sense, base, di ground wey thing take start from, no be for di philanthropy sense.