Yoruba twins

'Ibeji means twins in the Yoruba language

The Yoruba are a major African ethnic group, in their culture twins are traditionally very important beings. In the Yoruba language ibeji literally means twins. Carved wooden figures made to house the soul of a dead twin are also called 'ibeji'. These wooden figures, six to ten inches high and carved with the family mask, are often well tended. The Yoruba people believe that this care and tending helps ensure the survival of the other twin. In the Yoruba traditional orisha or orisa veneration there is a deity that represents twins called 'Orisha Ibeji' or 'Orisa Ibeji'.

Origins

While the birth rate of monozygotic twins is relatively constant worldwide, about 4 per 1000 births, that rate for dizygotic twins varies widely. The incidence of dizygotic twin births in much of Africa is significantly greater than in the United States, with the highest incidence among the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, with a frequency of 45 per 1000 births . [the corresponding rate in the United States is approximately 8 per 1000 births]

Practice

Traditionally, when twins were born, the parents would visit a 'Babalawo', (meaning, 'father of mysteries', in the Yoruba language), to find out their wishes. The first of the twins to be born is traditionally named Taiyewo or Tayewo, (which means 'the first to taste the world'), This is often shortened to Taiwo, Taiye or Taye. Kehinde (sometimes shortened to Kenny) is the name of the last born twin.

It is said that Kehinde sends Taiyewo to check out what life is like on earth and to tell him (or her) whether it is good. Therefore, Taiyewo goes as sent by Kehinde, and becomes the first child to be born. He then communicates to Kehinde spiritually (believed to be from the way he cries) whether life is going to be good or not. The reply determines if Kehinde will be born alive or be stillborn. Both return to where they came from if the reply from Taiyewo is not good enough for both of them.

The Yoruba traditionally say that Kehinde (also called Kenny), is the true eldest of the twins despite being the last to be born, because he sent Taiyewo on an errand, a prerogative of one's elders in Yorubaland. Kehinde is therefore referred to as Omokehindegbegbon (which means, 'the child that came last gets the eldest'). However, the first born twin is also sometimes reffered to as Taiyelolu or Tayelolu which is short for Omotaiyelolu and means, 'the child that came to taste life excels'.

Since in Yoruba tradition, each person is one soul in the long line of ancestral souls, twins are complex, sharing the same soul - but one of the two is the spiritual and one the mortal soul. Since there is no way to determine which has the mortal soul and which the spiritual soul, if one twin should die, a carving is commissioned to represent the deceased child. Only the sex and the lineal facial scarifications (if the child had any) are specified and are faithfully recreated in the carved figure. Taiyewo, is believed to be mostly the quiet, calmer, and introverted of the twins, while Kehinde is mostly believed to be the extroverted one.

External links

• The Yoruba
• By a youth of that region