System
What is Afa?
Afa (Igbo; also Igba Afa) is a traditional binary-cast divination system of the Igbo people of southern Nigeria. Four strings of half-shells are cast as two pairs, producing two of sixteen secret words; meaning lives in the pair — one of 256 double words. The Igbo root of afa means to name or identify: the Dibia Afa names the broken relationship and the transformation that restores it, not a fortune. It is the Igbo skin of the same eight-position engine as Yoruba Ifá. Divination Nexus offers Afa as an open Ask after a Western first card — one invitation, not a costume.
What job does it do?
Ask. Epistemic badge: diagnostic.
What is traditional, and what is our interpretive layer?
The four strings, sixteen secret words, 256 double words, and the Nri diagnostic frame are traditional. Mapping onto the 12 Inner Alignment Dimensions, and offering Afa as one open Ask after a Western first card, is our interpretive layer.
Traditional mechanic, tables, and named sources live in the vault file Celestial-Afa.md.
What is it not?
It is not a tropical Western natal wheel. It is not a fake cast from a date unless the engine is honestly computational. Harm-capable historic verdicts are documented, not performed.