🔗 Share this article

When an African art enthusiast, curator and dealer received a set of Yoruba twin statuettes – ère ìbejì – in 2022 as a reward for a successful business transaction, it marked the start of a new passion. Although he had seen before a few of ìbejì sculptures in his uncle’s assemblage of traditional African artifacts, the gift struck a chord with him, being a twin.

“I've always been conscious of ìbejì but I will say my passionate research was certainly a 2022 moment.”

“I have been gathering them since then,” says he, who studied as a legal professional in London. “I buy back from international sales and additionally every time I locate anybody in Nigeria who has them and desires to give them away or get rid of them, I take them.”

The Cultural Importance of Ère Ìbejì

The ère ìbejì are a physical embodiment of a unique sacred, cultural and creative tradition among Yorùbá communities, who have one of the world’s highest birth rates of twin births and are significantly more likely to bear twins than Europeans.

The typical birthrate of the Yorùbá town of Igbo-Ora in the nation's Oyo state, is 45 twins per 1,000 births, versus a global average of about 12 per 1,000.

“In Yorùbá culture, twin children hold a position of profound sacred and social importance,” explains a researcher who has studied ère ìbejì.

“This community are reputed to have one of the highest rate of twin births in the globe, and this phenomenon is viewed not only as a natural occurrence but as a indication of divine blessing.

“Twins are seen as bearers of prosperity, wealth and protection for their families and communities,” the expert adds.

The Custom of Venerating Twins

“When a twin passes away, sculpted representations [ère ìbejì] are crafted to house the spirit of the departed child, guaranteeing continued reverence and protecting the welfare of the living twin and the wider family.”

The statuettes, which are also sculpted for living twin pairs, were taken care of like actual babies: washed, oiled, breastfed, dressed (in the same dresses as the siblings, if alive), decorated with beads, sung and worshipped, and transported on female backs.

“I'm drawn to artists who engage with what twinhood represents: dual nature, absence, companionship, continuity.”

They were sculpted with artistic features – with bulgy eyeballs, their cheeks often marked, and given mature traits such as reproductive organs and breasts. Most importantly, their heads are large and immensely coiffed to symbolise each twin’s essence, origin and fate, or orí.

A Revival Initiative: The Ibeji Initiative

This custom, nevertheless, has been almost entirely forgotten. The ìbejì figures are scattered in foreign institutions around the world, with the newest originating in the mid-1950s.

So, in early 2023, the collector launched the Ìbejì Project to revitalise the lived history of the tradition.

“The Ìbejì Project is an informative and advocacy platform that presents traditional art to new viewers,” he says. “Twinhood is universal, but the Yoruba reaction – sculpting ère ìbejì as containers for spirits – is distinctive and should be preserved as a ongoing dialogue rather than frozen in collections abroad.”

In late 2024, he curated an ìbejì-focused show in partnership with a UK-based gallery.

The project involves gathering authentic ère ìbejì, exhibiting them and juxtaposing them with selected modern artworks that continues the heritage by exploring the concepts of twinness. “I am drawn to artists who seriously engage with the meaning of twinhood embodies: dual nature, absence, companionship, endurance,” he says.

He believes curating contemporary art works – such as three-dimensional works, installations, canvases or photos – that possess artistic and thematic parallels with ère ìbejì resituates the age-old custom in the present. “[This project] is a platform where modern artists create their personal interpretations, carrying the conversation into the present,” he says.

“I am most pleased when individuals who once ignored traditional art start to acquire it due to the Ìbejì Project,” says the collector.

Future Ambitions and Worldwide Impact

In the future, he aspires to release a book “to make the ìbejì heritage accessible to scholars and the broader public”.

He says: “Although based in Yoruba tradition, the Ìbejì Project is for the world. Just as we examine other cultures, others should study ours with equal seriousness.

“My hope is that they will not be seen as museum oddities, but as part of a living, dynamic traditional legacy.”