A common subject of the Yoruba art of Ile Ife and Benin is twins.
To the Yoruba people of the African Kingdoms twin children were special. There are variations in the
tradition, some believing that twins
brought good fortune, and others that twins were evil omens. Generally those seeing twins as evil are
the older traditions.
Orisa
Ibeji was the deity protector of twins, and harming a twin might
bring down his wrath. One common element of the traditions
is that it is important to treat twins well, offering them special
treatment.
The
Ibeji tradition seems to originate with a story that twins were
first brought to the Yoruba by monkeys. One tradition has it that
only monkeys had twins before that, and that it was a punishment.
