Spiritual Journeys: A Study of Ifá /Òrìṣà Practitioners in the United States Initiated in Nigeria 
Tony Van Der Meer 
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1345&context=etds

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yorùbá Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa. The epistemology of the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice. This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data.The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and opportunities for this branch of practitioners in the United States who were initiated in the Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in Nigeria?

 Some of the main findings indicate that the opportunities include: opening doors intellectually and spiritually about African philosophical thought and ethics were that: it instills a sense of spiritual discipline; it lays the foundation, giving confidence that one can achieve what they set their minds to; and, it offers spiritual technologies and systems that are liberating and relevant in the Unites States in terms of identity, direction, and purpose. 

Some of the challenges included: a rugged Nigerian experience, and cultural change; a transformative experience from the initiation rituals; understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; and, the contradiction of Africa being the idea of utopia. The challenges in the United States also included: understanding and learning the Yorὺbá language; understanding the different systems of practice in the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief
system; the role of women as Ifá priests; ecological concerns in disposing ritual sacrifices;
accessibility to traditional (African) ritual items; issues of acceptance, inclusion, and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, and sexual identities from other systems of Ifá/Òrìṣà practice; and, developing new communities of practice base on the experiences of this newest branch of practitioners.