Double blessing or trouble? Here’s how African communities handle twins

Yoruba, Nigeria

Before the Yoruba revered their twins and even gave names such as  Taiwo which means “the first to taste the world” and Kehinde, “the child that came behind gets the rights of the elder,” they once considered twins a burden to bear.

For the longest time, twins would be killed to the point that traditional leaders decided to consult Ifa, a system of prophecy. The result: Shango, the diety, abhorred the killing and that the twin’s mother should dance to the spirit of Ibeji every five days.

RELATED STORIES

4 traditional reasons African women are not allowed to drum

At this St. Lucian festival, Creoles celebrate age-old African culture that survived slavery and colonisation

The shocking reason women are not allowed to eat cow meat in parts of Eswatini

The captivating Fete Gede festival of Haiti where the living is possessed by the dead

This reduced twin infanticide and the community instituted a number of rituals to guide the raising of twins.