TWINS - IBEJI HISTORY

I always wanted to have twins and since my grandmother is a twin and my husband is Yoruba, I probably have chance for that .Why do I think so?

I recently found out that the Yoruba have the highest rate of twinning in the world, at 45-50 twin sets (or 90-100 twins) per 1,000 live births. People believe possibly because of high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen which may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side.  Yoruba oral traditions say that twins, ibeji, can bring either joy or despair to their family. 

In olden days twins were forbidden and anybody having them had to kill them before it came to the notice of the oba [local ruler]. Isokun, near Porto Novo, in Dahomey, was the first place where twins were allowed to stay, and this was because Isokun was not, at that time part of the kingdom of Oyo. When these twins were born the parents did not know whether to kill them or to let them live because they were not in their own country and it was not the custom in those parts to kill twins as in Oyo. So they consulted the Ifa oracle. Ifa said that they should keep the twins, but they would have to dance around the town with them every five days. This they did and everyone took pity on them and gave them gifts. In this course of time they became so wealthy that people began to say it was the twins who had made them rich. This story eventually reached the ears of the Alafin at Oyo. He was convinced by what he heard that these twins were lucky children, so he said it was all right for the parents to keep them and not kill them as was the custom.

Twins became very important for the Yoruba and they usually tend to give special names to each twin.The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named Tayewo, which means "the first to taste the world", this is often shortened to Taiwo, Taiye or Taye. Kehinde or Kehin for short, is the name of the last born twin. Kehinde is sometimes also referred to as Akehindegbegbon which is short for Omokehindegbegbon and means, "the child that came last gets the rights of the eldest".





This story was told by Chief Ajanaku, Araba of Lagos (the head of Ifa priests in Lagos) to T. J. H. Chappel in 1964 during a field study in the Yorubaland.