In mythology, twins are often depicted as yin-yang complementary beings with a bond stronger than what can be gained between ordinary siblings. While twins are met by a range of emotional reactions spanning from fear and repugnance to hope and joy, when born into traditional African societies, the agreed notion is that twins have a preternatural origin. Few phenomenon on the planet is as fascinating as twins being born and consequently, twins appear in the mythologies of many cultures including the Yoruba. Most mythology favors moralistic stories attached to multi-births but the Yoruba have traditions that are intertwined with their myths. While in some mythologies twins are seen as ominous or opposingly auspicious the Yoruba can see them as both. With the correlation found between high frequency and high perinatal mortality of twins there is little surprise that the Yoruba have developed special beliefs and customs related to twins.
Many cultures have mythic or folkloric explanations for how twins are conceived. In Greek mythology, some twins were conceived when a woman slept with both a mortal and a god on the same day. One famous example of Greek twins has a star constellation; Gemini named after Castor and Pullox. When the mortal twin brother died the immortal one sacrificed half is essence so that they both could live. This story accompanies a range of other diverging tales that scale from the tumultuous tragedies of Artemis and Apollo to the heroic adventures of Heracles and his brother Iphicles. Twins are not merely outlying figures in the foundational tales of Greek mythology but they are the overwhelming majority of moralistic characters in sprawling, fragmented adventures that helped a culture explain the mundane.
Despite the abundance of tales, Greek twins are of heterogeneous significance; they have many different kinds of relationships with humans and nonhumans, with their twin siblings, their parents and with other twin sets. Though it is clear that the ancient Greeks revered twins there is little evidence that there were many sets of multiples born in actuality. There are not any corresponding traditions for Greeks to adhere to when twins are born. While stories have been shared down from ancient Greece to the 21st century they lack a grounded vitality in everyday life.
One of the more popular myths around Native American twins are about Hahgwehdiyu and Hahgwehdaetgah. They are the twin sons of the Iroquois sky goddess, Atahensic, who are all part of their creation myth. It is common in several Native American cultures for women to avoid eating twin fruits like double almonds and bananas because it was thought to increase the likelihood of twins. Avoiding a multi-birth was preferable because of a strong fear and high probability of losing both the mother and unborn child. If the twins and mother survived a great feast is held and the babies are worshipped. If the twins are identical one is deemed mischievous and the other pensive but both are feared because they carry an authority with the tribe. If they twins are fraternal they are groomed to become tribal leaders but have less fear attached to them.
Both the Ancient Greeks and Native Americans also expressed twins were attributed to superior virility of the father and inner strength of the mother. While having twins was rare in both cultures, one tradition revered twins while the other feared them. One thing that makes the Yoruba so special is that there is a balance of both opposing responses. Furthermore, the Yoruba traditions follow the family through life or ritualise the bereavement process when one or both of the twins die.
In traditional African societies it is believed that twins are able to award happiness, health and prosperity upon their family. Opposingly, since they can also bring about disaster, disease and death, they will be treated with all supreme respect, loving and care. Their upbringing is therefore far more tentative than that of other children. Parents are uniquely tasked with finding a way to protect and please the children but not spoil them either. Big parts of that process are praying and worshipping, Ibeji in particular but also the other gods and goddesses for guidance.
Occupying Southwestern Nigeria, the Yoruba are a substantial group of people that have baffled geneticists for decades. This very large tribe holds the record for the most natural multi-births with the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4 % of all maternities). Unfortunately with the high birth rate comes a high mortality rate and because of this high perinatal mortality rate these pregnancies have contributed to the integration of a unique twin belief system within the African traditional religion of this tribe. One is based on the concept of a supreme deity called Olodumare or Olorun, assisted by a series of secondary gods (Orisa). While immortality and reincarnation of the soul based on the ancestors is heavily part of the Yoruba religion, the twin children belief system is sewn into it. Twins are therefore given specific names and are believed to detain special supernatural powers. As part of this refined tradition, the Yoruba have produced numerous artistic wooden statuettes called Ibejis that represent the souls of deceased newborn twins and are involved in elaborate rituals. These rituals are so embedded into the minds and hearts of the Yoruba traditional beliefs that the lore found their way into the religious traditions of descendants of African slaves imported in the West Indies and in South America.
Within today’s Yoruba religious affiliations, more than 40% of the population are of the Islamic denomination, less than 40% are Christians with the remaining 20% exclusively practising the traditional animist Yoruba religion. Regardless, most Yoruba people belonging to the Islamic or to the Christian faith also cohere in one way or another to the traditional religious beliefs. The duality in belief systems are to mind the health of the whole being, one belief system for the body, the other for the immortality of the soul in order to be reincarnated. Both of which is essential to the Ibeji twin belief.
After the creator Olorun or Olodumare the Yoruba pantheon is diversified into numerous gods or Orisas. The resemblance with the realm of ancient Greek mythology and Native American gods and goddesses is eerie in how each major component in the life of a mundane human is justified by a corresponding deity. The main Orisas are (Orisa Devotion as world Religion, 106):
Shango: god of thunder and lightening whose emblem is the double axe (Yoruba territory is subject to the second highest frequency of thunderstorms in the world, after Java);
Shopona: the god of smallpox, very powerful and much feared;
Eshu: the troublemaker, the magician and sorcerer who has many faces and may behave either favourably or balefully;
Ogun: god of iron and war and anyone who works with iron (smiths, hunters, carvers, taxi drivers, etc.) is a worshipper of Ogun;
Obatalla: Olorun’s plenipotentiary who created the cripples while being drunk.
Besides these main figures, there are many secondary Orisas. The belief in reincarnation is linked to the Yoruba ancestor belief. Jantzen writes in his essay, Ibeji Zwilling Figuren, he discusses parts of how the belief system works,
In Yoruba religion, it is thought that about two generations after death, every human soul has a chance to return to earth in the body of a newborn, mostly within the same family. The welfare of any family is entirely dependent on that of its ancestors. Therefore, regular prayers are said and sacrificial gifts are laid in front of a special family shrine devoted to the ancestors(Jantzen & Bertisch, 1993)
Like many African frameworks that were physically and figuratively buried due to slavery and resurfaced overtime, the Yoruba have developed select and secret religious communities. One part of the more apparent parts of the tradition is endowed with strong powers based on the use of black magic, voodoo and powerful drugs. Thompson in his journal Black gods and kings he writes,
“The most prominent of these groups is the Ogboni organisation which, in the past, could even force an offender to drink a cup of deadly poison. In their very popular festival that takes place once a year, the Egungun worshippers represent the spirits of the departed by masks, in order to connect the living to the dead. Other such organisations are the Gelede and Epa societies which are well known for their display of elaborate masks.†(Thompson, 1971).
In ancient times, the Ogboni instructed the Yoruba to reject and even sacrifice newborn twins (Leroy, 1995). Contrarily the Ogboni changed their own minds over time and the historical scales were tipped so that twins are nowadays not only well accepted but welcomed, their birth is an occasion of great rejoicing. However the possibility of the twins being feared or revered is constantly balanced between the parents and the tribal priest. This balancing process starts with naming the twins.
The firstborn twin, is always named Taiwo, whether a boy or a girl, meaning ‘having the first taste of the world’, whereas the second is always named Kehinde, meaning ‘arriving after the other’. Interestingly enough being born first Taiwo is considered as the younger twin. The elder is Kehinde who is supposed to send out his partner first to see what the outside world looks like. As soon as Taiwo has given a signal by crying, Kehinde will know it is safe to follow. Kehinde is usually more careful, more intelligent and more reflective, while Taiwo is the opposite and believed to be more curious and adventurous.(Olaleye-Oruene, 1983; Stoll & Stoll, 1980).
After twins are born the parents are visited by, Babalawo, the Ifa priest of the community on the third day. Chappel writes, “Through the interpretation of the Ifa oracle which includes no less than 1,600 sayings, he is able to drive out whatever evil spirits may threaten the newborn twins.†He will dedicate the twins to the Orisa Ibeji god of twins and if deemed necessary will appoint for them an additional patron such as Eshu or Shango. Contrary to these latter prominent deities, the specific god of twins is a minor Orisa who is never figuratively represented. (Chappel, 1974; Courlander, 1973; Thompson, 1971).
The Babalawo communicates to the mother a series of instructions on how to treat her twins: which colours they should wear or avoid, which food is recommended or prohibited, which animals are dangerous for them, etc. (Olaleye-Oruene, 1983; Stoll & Stoll, 1980). The powers of the Babalawo, like the Ogboni hold the ability to give the order to let one of the twins starve to death if there is a chance that the baby is possessed by evil spirits that can’t be exorcised.
As the Yoruba believe that twins share the same combined soul, when a newborn twin dies, the life of the other is imperilled because the balance of his soul has become seriously disturbed. To counteract this danger a special ritual is carried out. Stoll writes about the steps taken in one or both of the twins die in her article titled Ibeji,
“After consulting the Babalawo, an artisan will be commissioned to carve a small wooden figure as a symbolic substitute for the soul of the deceased twin. If both twins have died, two of these figures are made. These effigies are called Ere ibeji (from ‘ibi’ = born and ‘eji’ = two; ere means sacred image). By virtue of his immortal soul hosted by his ibeji, the departed twin remains as powerful as the living one. The ibeji(s) will have to be cared for by the parents or later on by the surviving twin. Therefore, these figures are symbolically washed, fed and clothed on a regular basis, according to a popular Yoruba saying “dead ibeji expenses are expenses for the livingâ€.
According to these customs, the mother enjoys certain privileges even if both her twins have died (Stoll & Stoll, 1980).
Also according to Stoll its high frequency among Yoruba people might also depend on dietary components such as the consumption of special species of yams containing oestrogenic substances. Because of a high rate of premature delivery and the lack of adequate medical care and health infrastructures in traditional Nigeria, the perinatal mortality of twins is extremely high. This explains why great numbers of ibeji statuettes are manufactured in Yorubaland and start to accumulate on the domestic altars of certain families (Stoll & Stoll, 1980).
Some share the point of view that the ibeji belief provides a means of helping Yoruba people to cope emotionally with this high perinatal loss of twin babies (Leroy, 1995). At least once a year in some areas, Yoruba mothers of deceased twins dance with their twin effigies, either held tightly in the palms of their hands or tucked in the wrapper about their waist. On these same occasions, the mothers will also sing special songs in praise of the twins. The effigies are often elaborate and beautifully decorated.
Ibeji statuettes are among the best-known Yoruba wooden carvings. Despite the fact that the carvings represent deceased babies, those whom they represent are never referred to as dead. Rather they are said to “have travelled†or “gone to the marketâ€. Ibeji effigies appear as wooden erect adult beings about ten inches tall. Following a general pattern, they nevertheless show marked stylistic differences according to the region of origin. These differences are especially apparent in the shapes of the heads, facial expressions, tribal scarring, and hairdos or head covers. In some regions, this design may appear as a zigzag lightning pattern in honour of the god Shango (Thompson, 1971). In this context, it is interesting to recall that worldwide, twins have been linked to thunder. Even in the Bible, Jesus Christ called the twin apostles James and John “Boanerges†meaning “sons of thunder†(Leroy, 1995).
Depending on the mythology, religion or ancient culture traditions surrounding twin children vary greatly. The Yoruba stand out in a multitude of ways spanning from how they twins are named and celebrated to the sheer quantity of twins born in the region. Stories of twins that are well-known such as the Greek or Native American myths have a dated or distant view that pale in comparison to the tenacity and vitality of the African celebrations associated with twin births.