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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”