The Yoruba Binary (Base 2) Numeral System

For several millennia, the Yoruba have been using the binary system before the German mathematician - Gottfried Leibniz formalised in 1679.

It is based on the Yoruba philosophical duality of Ibi and Ire (Evil and Good)

These days, the Binary Numeral System (Base 2) is well known in Mathematics and digital electronics and the system underpins how computers work by representing numeric values using just two digits - zero (0) and one (1)

In Computing, a Bit (i.e. BInary digiT) is the smallest unit of storage and can either be 1 or 0

A Nible (also called half Byte or semi-octet) is the grouping of four Bits e.g 0 1 0 1

Below are the first sixteen: Decimal == Nible == Yoruba
numbers...

00 == 0000 == Ogbè
01 == 0001 == Ọ̀̀ṣá
02 == 0010 == Òtúrá
03 == 0011 == Ọ̀̀wọ́nrín
04 == 0100 == Ìrẹtẹ̀
05 == 0101 == Ọ̀̀fún
06 == 0110 == Èdí
07 == 0111 == Ọ̀̀kànràn
08 == 1000 == Ògúndá
09 == 1001 == Ìwòrì
10 == 1010 == Ọ̀̀sẹ́
11 == 1011 == Òtúrúpọ̀n
12 == 1100 == Ìrosùn
13 == 1101 == Ìká
14 == 1110 == Ọ̀̀bàrà
15 == 1111 == Ọ̀̀̀̀yẹ̀kú

A Byte (also known as an octet) is the grouping of eight Bits (or two Nibbles) together e.g 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1
In Yoruba, a Byte is called "Odù"

On most computers, one Byte is required to store one letter of the English Alphabet and with 8 Bits, we can easily make up to 256 different patterns.

To represent the letter "A" (i.e. 65 in decimal) on a computer, we use the binary digits 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 which is also "Ọ̀̀sá-Ìrẹtẹ̀" in Yoruba.

This is the foundation of the Ifá́ Philosophy created by Òrúnmìlà thousands of years ago.