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When a Nigerian art enthusiast, curator and art trader was gifted a pair of Yorùbá twin statuettes – ère ìbejì – in recent years as a reward for a fruitful art deal, it marked the start of a fresh obsession. While he had previously encountered a handful of ìbejì carvings in his uncle’s collection of traditional African artifacts, the gift resonated deeply with the collector, a twin himself.

“I've always been conscious of ìbejì but I will say my passionate investigation was certainly a recent development.”

“I’ve been collecting them since then,” states he, who trained as a lawyer in the UK. “I acquire from international sales and also whenever I find anybody in the country who has them and wants to give them away or dispose of them, I take from them.”

These Traditional Importance of Ère Ìbejì

The ère ìbejì are a physical representation of a distinctive sacred, cultural and creative custom among Yorùbá communities, who possess one of the world’s highest birth rates of twins and are more than four times more prone to bear twins than Western populations.

The average birthrate of the Yoruba town of a Nigerian town in Nigeria’s southwestern region, is an exceptionally high twin ratio, versus a worldwide average of about a much lower figure.

“In Yorùbá culture, twin children hold a status of deep spiritual and communal significance,” explains a researcher who has studied ère ìbejì.

“The Yorùbá are reputed to have one of the highest twinning rates in the world, and this occurrence is viewed not merely as a natural occurrence but as a sign of heavenly favor.

“Twins are seen as bearers of good fortune, prosperity and safeguarding for their families and communities,” the expert adds.

The Custom of Honoring Twins

“If a twin dies, sculpted representations [ère ìbejì] are created to accommodate the soul of the departed infant, guaranteeing continued reverence and safeguarding the wellbeing of the living twin and the broader kin.”

The figures, which are also carved for living twin pairs, were taken care of like real infants: bathed, anointed, nursed, clothed (in the same garments as the siblings, if alive), adorned with ornaments, sung and worshipped, and transported on female backs.

“I am attracted to creators who interact with what twinhood represents: dual nature, loss, partnership, continuity.”

They were carved with artistic characteristics – with protruding eyes, their faces often scarified, and given adult features such as genitalia and bosoms. Crucially, their skulls are big and immensely coiffed to represent each twin’s spirit, creation and fate, or orí.

A Resurgence Effort: This Ìbejì Initiative

This tradition, nevertheless, has been largely lost. The ìbejì sculptures are scattered in foreign institutions all over the world, with the newest originating in the mid-1950s.

So, in February 2023, the enthusiast launched the Ibeji Initiative to reinvigorate the lived history of the custom.

“This initiative is an educational and awareness platform that presents traditional art to new viewers,” he explains. “Twinhood is universal, but the Yoruba reaction – sculpting ère ìbejì as vessels for spirits – is unique and should be kept alive as a ongoing conversation rather than static in collections abroad.”

In October 2024, he curated an ìbejì-centred exhibition in partnership with a UK-based gallery.

The initiative involves gathering original ère ìbejì, exhibiting them and juxtaposing them with selected modern art that continues the tradition by examining the themes of duality. “I am attracted to creators who seriously engage with the meaning of twinhood embodies: duality, loss, companionship, continuity,” he states.

He believes curating modern artistic pieces – such as three-dimensional works, artistic setups, canvases or photography – that possess creative and conceptual similarities with ère ìbejì repositions the age-old tradition in the current era. “[The Ìbejì Project] is a space where contemporary creators produce their own responses, extending the conversation into the now,” he says.

“I am very satisfied when people who once dismissed traditional art begin to acquire it because of the initiative,” says the founder.

Upcoming Goals and Global Impact

In the future, he hopes to release a book “to render the ìbejì tradition available to academics and the wider public”.

He states: “Though based in Yoruba culture, the Ìbejì Project is for the world. Just as we examine different societies, others should study our heritage with the same dedication.

“The aspiration is that they will not be seen as museum oddities, but as components of a living, breathing cultural heritage.”