IBEJI: Twin Birth and the
Culture of the Yoruba
This article does not intend to make you change your
religion or orientation, but to explain the concept of Yoruba belief in the
area of multiple birth or twins in Africa, it does not even represent the
religion of the writer, it is just a simple way to present the fact as it was
and probably is in the land of Oduduwa in West Africa, this writer, fondly
called “the Oracle” will advise you to see it purely as an academic exercise
for critical thinking only, note, as we progress, we may interchange Twin for
Ibeji both are the same.(omi eko is also eko) Lol.
The population of Yoruba nation in Nigeria could be closer
to 40 millions at home, and the culture of the Yoruba is widely spread all over
the world, mostly in the South America and North America, their gods and
traditions are having spiritual influences on over eighty millions blacks all
over the world, according to Dallas Museum of Arts.
Most of the world studies on twin birth gave credit to the
Yoruba as the highest source of multiple birth in any part of the world, this
is indeed a world record, 4 to 1000 births is the record for multiple births,
in Yoruba land, it is 45 out of 1000, surprisingly, in the City of Igbo Ora in
Oyo State it is 150 out of 1000, meaning Igbo Ora is the world largest supplier
of twin birth, which why it is called the Twin Capital of the world.
An academic research by the University of Lagos Teaching
Hospital in 1972 revealed the type of dietary of the women in Igbo Ora, most
importantly, the type of Yam tuber (ewura) and genetic formation of the people
of Igbo Ora, with just 60,000 population, a city about fifty miles North of
Lagos, but the studies of University of Lagos did not take place before that of
a British gynecologist, Patrick Nylander, between 1972 and 1982 which recorded
an average of 45 to 50 sets of twins per 1000 live births in the SouthWest,
however, recent studies indicated the record of Igbo Ora in Oyo State is under
threat by two Cities in other parts of the world, Kodinji in India and Candido
in Brazil.
With the above brief introduction of the tribe of Yoruba and
relationship with twin birth, maybe we can examine where and how the twin birth
originated, the concept before and how they became deities or minor gods among
the Yoruba. Like most of the tribes in the Nigeria, particularly Igbo and
Ibibio, multiple births were considered evil or abnormal, and those children
were killed. From the records of Rev. Samuel Johnson (1897) he said, Yoruba
history of Killing twins was equal to every tribe in West Africa, and Richard
Lander said it was the practice in 1700.
There were two versions as to why the primitive killings
stopped, one was associated with the order of King Ajaka the brother of King
Shango the god of Thunder who abolished the killing of twins after his wife
gave birth to twins and he carved the first known effigy for the twins called
Ere Ibeji” which is why most of the shrines of Shango till today are often
lazed with the effigies of Ibeji and they are called sons of thunder, the
second version says, those allowed by the gods to keep their twins became
wealthy and the opinion of the people changed and they started seeing the twins
as spiritual blessing and normal sexual intercourse as against the negative
notion of unwanted strange birth.
Ishokun, a small town now merged as a sub area of the
present Oyo town was assumed to be the source of the first known Ibeji in
Nigeria at least among the Yoruba, because they were unusual and tiny at birth,
they were not considered normal birth, they were seen as monkeys which was why
they called them Edun, a local word for apes or monkeys. (Edun Agba ri igi refe
refe or rekereke depending on the local dialect of the people) for these
reasons, they praise them as Ejire ara Ishokun ( the strange biths two from
Ishokun)
The first to come out of the twin at birth is called Taiwo,
Taye, Taiyelolu or Tai depending on which ever way it is comfortable with the
parent, the first is not the elder by the doctrines and the belief of the
Yoruba, the second Kehinde in a modern way, now Kenny is actually called
Akehinde gba Egbon, meaning, the last is actually the senior of the two.
Usually the Kenny’s are the cool headed ones as against the fast and hot
tampered Taiwo or Taye, one is usually introverted while the other is usually extroverted,
to reveal the personalities of the twins. The Yoruba believe that Kehinde must
have sent Taiwo to come out first to see if the world is okay for the two of
them which must be a sign of authority over the first one, however, till now two notable twins among the Yoruba
are the Oyewole twins from Abeokuta in
Ogun State and each one of them wrote the books on Introduction to Physics and
Chemistry respectively in in the seventies or late Dr. Tai Solarin, an educationist,
who established Mayflower College in the the same Ogun State.
William S Arnett (1994) says the Ibeji are gateways for
perpetual manifesting of anything they agree too. Similar to the number 2 or
the concept of the twin towers, the Ibeji represent passages and gateways to
new realities and even alternate realms. Earlier times, new-born twins, or
Ibeji, as they are called, were believed to be evil, monstrous abnormalities
however, Yoruba people of Nigeria believe that twins are semi-divine and
possess special powers. If a twins dies, the parents consult a diviner who may
decide that an ere Ibeji (Effigy) should be carved as a substitute for the
deceased child.
William S A Arnett (1994) says further, that these twin
effigies are placed on a family altar, and are bathed, fed, taken to the market
place, dressed, and played with, just as a living child would be. These actions
are intended to please the soul of the deceased twin so that he or she will
bring good fortune to the family. Though associated with individual deceased
children, ere Ibeji are not portraits and Ibeji are shown as physically mature
adults in the hopes that the child’s spirit will return in another life and
grow to adulthood”
