Double Vision: The Hand-Carved Sculptures Which Honor the Yoruba Special Connection to Twin Children

When a Nigerian art enthusiast, exhibition organizer and art trader received a pair of Yorùbá twin statuettes – ère ìbejì – in 2022 as a token for a successful business transaction, it signaled the start of a new passion. Although he had seen before a handful of ìbejì carvings in his uncle’s collection of African traditional art, the present resonated deeply with him, a twin himself.

“I have constantly been aware of ìbejì but I will say my dedicated research was definitely a 2022 moment.”

“I have been collecting them ever since,” states the collector, who trained as a legal professional in London. “I buy back from foreign auctions and additionally every time I locate someone in the country who owns them and desires to part with them or get rid of them, I acquire them.”

These Cultural Significance of Ère Ìbejì

The ère ìbejì are a material representation of a unique spiritual, traditional and artistic custom among Yoruba people, who have among the globe's top birth rates of twin births and are significantly more prone to bear twins than Western populations.

The average twin rate of the Yoruba community of Igbo-Ora in the nation's Oyo state, is an exceptionally high twin ratio, versus a worldwide average of about 12 per 1,000.

“In Yorùbá culture, twin children occupy a position of deep sacred and communal significance,” says a researcher who has studied ère ìbejì.

“This community are reputed to have an elevated rate of twin births in the world, and this occurrence is viewed not merely as a natural occurrence but as a indication of divine blessing.

“Twin siblings are seen as bearers of good fortune, prosperity and protection for their families and communities,” he says.

A Tradition of Venerating Twins

“If a twin passes away, carved wooden figures [ère ìbejì] are crafted to accommodate the spirit of the departed infant, ensuring ongoing veneration and safeguarding the wellbeing of the living twin and the wider kin.”

The figures, which are additionally sculpted for alive twins, were treated like real infants: bathed, anointed, nursed, clothed (in the identical dresses as the twins, if alive), adorned with beads, chanted and prayed to, and carried on female backsides.

“I'm attracted to artists who engage with the concept of twinship signifies: duality, loss, companionship, continuity.”

They were carved with stylised characteristics – with protruding eyes, their faces often scarified, and given adult traits such as reproductive organs and bosoms. Most importantly, their skulls are large and hugely coiffed to represent each sibling's spirit, creation and destiny, or orí.

A Resurgence Effort: This Ibeji Initiative

This tradition, however, has been largely lost. The ìbejì figures are scattered in overseas museums all over the globe, with the newest originating in the 1950s era.

So, in February 2023, the enthusiast launched the Ibeji Initiative to revitalise the living history of the tradition.

“This initiative is an educational and advocacy platform that introduces traditional art to modern audiences,” he says. “Twinship is global, but the Yoruba response – sculpting ère ìbejì as containers for spirits – is distinctive and should be preserved as a living dialogue rather than frozen in collections overseas.”

In late 2024, he curated an ìbejì-centred exhibition in partnership with a London gallery.

The project involves collecting original ère ìbejì, exhibiting them and pairing them with selected contemporary artworks that continues the tradition by examining the concepts of duality. “I am attracted to artists who seriously interact with what twinhood represents: dual nature, absence, fellowship, continuity,” the collector states.

He believes curating modern art works – such as three-dimensional works, artistic setups, paintings or photography – that share creative and conceptual parallels with ère ìbejì repositions the age-old tradition in the current era. “[This project] is a space where contemporary artists produce their personal interpretations, carrying the conversation into the now,” he adds.

“I am very satisfied when individuals who once ignored heritage works start to collect it because of the initiative,” notes the collector.

Future Goals and Worldwide Impact

Next, he aspires to release a publication “to make the ìbejì tradition accessible to academics and the broader public”.

He says: “Though rooted in Yorùbá culture, the Ìbejì Project is for the world. Similarly to how we examine different cultures, others should research our heritage with equal seriousness.

“The aspiration is that they will no longer be seen as institutional oddities, but as components of a living, dynamic traditional legacy.”