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When a Nigerian art enthusiast, exhibition organizer and dealer was gifted a set of Yoruba carved twin figures – ère ìbejì – in 2022 as a token for a fruitful art deal, it signaled the start of a fresh obsession. While he had previously encountered a handful of ìbejì sculptures in his relative’s collection of African traditional art, the present struck a chord with him, a twin himself.

“I have always been conscious of ìbejì but I must admit my passionate investigation was certainly a recent development.”

“I’ve been gathering them since then,” states he, who studied as a legal professional in London. “I acquire from foreign auctions and additionally every time I locate anybody in Nigeria who has them and desires to part with them or get rid of them, I take from them.”

The Cultural Importance of Ère Ìbejì

The ère ìbejì are a material embodiment of a distinctive sacred, traditional and creative tradition among Yorùbá people, who possess one of the world’s highest birth rates of twins and are significantly more likely to bear twins than Europeans.

The typical twin rate of the Yoruba town of a Nigerian town in the nation's Oyo state, is an exceptionally high twin ratio, versus a worldwide average of about a much lower figure.

“Among the Yoruba people, twin children occupy a status of profound spiritual and communal importance,” explains a researcher who has studied ère ìbejì.

“This community are reputed to have an elevated twinning rates in the globe, and this occurrence is viewed not only as a natural occurrence but as a indication of divine blessing.

“Twin siblings are regarded as carriers of prosperity, wealth and safeguarding for their families and communities,” the expert adds.

A Tradition of Honoring Twin Spirits

“If a twin passes away, sculpted representations [ère ìbejì] are created to accommodate the soul of the deceased child, ensuring continued reverence and protecting the wellbeing of the living twin and the wider kin.”

The figures, which are additionally carved for living twins, were treated like real infants: bathed, anointed, nursed, dressed (in the identical garments as the twins, if alive), adorned with beads, sung and worshipped, and transported on women’s backs.

“I'm drawn to artists who engage with the concept of twinhood represents: dual nature, absence, partnership, continuity.”

They were sculpted with stylised features – with protruding eyes, their cheeks often marked, and given adult traits such as genitalia and breasts. Most importantly, their skulls are big and hugely styled to symbolise each sibling's essence, creation and destiny, or orí.

A Resurgence Initiative: The Ìbejì Project

This custom, however, has been almost entirely lost. The ìbejì sculptures are dispersed in foreign institutions around the globe, with the most recent dating from the 1950s era.

So, in February 2023, the enthusiast launched the Ìbejì Project to revitalise the lived history of the tradition.

“This initiative is an educational and awareness program that introduces traditional art to new audiences,” he explains. “Twinhood is universal, but the Yoruba response – carving ère ìbejì as containers for souls – is unique and should be preserved as a living conversation rather than static in museums abroad.”

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

The initiative involves collecting original ère ìbejì, displaying them and juxtaposing them with selected contemporary artworks that continues the heritage by exploring the concepts of twinness. “I'm attracted to creators who seriously interact with what twinhood embodies: dual nature, absence, fellowship, continuity,” he states.

He believes curating modern artistic pieces – such as sculptures, installations, paintings or photography – that share creative and thematic parallels with ère ìbejì resituates the ancient tradition in the current era. “[The Ìbejì Project] is a platform where modern artists create their own responses, carrying the dialogue into the now,” he adds.

“I'm most satisfied when people who previously ignored traditional art begin to acquire it because of the Ìbejì Project,” says the collector.

Future Ambitions and Worldwide Influence

Next, he aspires to publish a book “to make the ìbejì heritage available to academics and the wider audience”.

He states: “Although rooted in Yorùbá culture, the initiative is for the globe. Similarly to how we study other cultures, others should research ours with the same seriousness.

“My hope is that they will no longer be viewed as museum curiosities, but as part of a living, breathing traditional legacy.”