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When an African art enthusiast, curator and dealer received a set of Yoruba twin statuettes – ère ìbejì – in 2022 as a token for a successful business transaction, it marked the beginning of a new obsession. While he had previously encountered a handful of ìbejì sculptures in his uncle’s collection of traditional African artifacts, the gift resonated deeply with the collector, a twin himself.

“I have constantly been conscious of ìbejì but I will say my dedicated investigation was definitely a 2022 moment.”

“I’ve been collecting them since then,” states the collector, who studied as a legal professional in the UK. “I buy back from foreign auctions and additionally every time I find someone in Nigeria who has them and desires to give them away or get rid of them, I acquire them.”

These Cultural Importance of Ère Ìbejì

The ère ìbejì are a physical representation of a distinctive spiritual, cultural and creative custom among Yoruba people, who possess among the globe's top birth rates of twins and are significantly more prone to bear twins than Western populations.

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

“In Yorùbá culture, twins hold a position of profound sacred and communal significance,” explains a researcher who has studied ère ìbejì.

“The Yorùbá are known to have one of the highest rate of twin births in the world, and this phenomenon is interpreted not only as a biological occurrence but as a indication of heavenly blessing.

“Twin siblings are regarded as carriers of good fortune, prosperity and safeguarding for their families and communities,” he says.

The Tradition of Honoring Twins

“If a twin dies, sculpted representations [ère ìbejì] are crafted to accommodate the spirit of the deceased infant, ensuring continued reverence and safeguarding the wellbeing of the living sibling and the wider kin.”

The statuettes, which are also carved for alive twin pairs, were treated like real babies: bathed, oiled, breastfed, clothed (in the same dresses as the twins, if alive), decorated with beads, chanted and worshipped, and carried on women’s backs.

“I'm drawn to artists who interact with what twinhood signifies: dual nature, loss, companionship, permanence.”

They were sculpted with stylised characteristics – with bulgy eyes, their faces often marked, and given mature traits such as genitalia and breasts. Crucially, their heads are big and hugely coiffed to represent each sibling's spirit, origin and fate, or orí.

A Revival Effort: The Ìbejì Initiative

This custom, however, has been largely forgotten. The ìbejì figures are dispersed in foreign institutions all over the world, with the newest dating from the 1950s era.

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

“This initiative is an informative and awareness platform that presents traditional art to new viewers,” he explains. “Twinship is global, but the Yorùbá response – sculpting ère ìbejì as vessels for souls – is unique and must be preserved as a living dialogue rather than static in museums overseas.”

In October 2024, he organized an ìbejì-focused exhibition in collaboration with a London gallery.

The project involves collecting authentic ère ìbejì, exhibiting them and pairing them with curated contemporary art that continues the heritage by exploring the concepts of duality. “I'm drawn to artists who seriously engage with the meaning of twinhood represents: duality, absence, companionship, endurance,” the collector states.

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

“I am very satisfied when individuals who once ignored traditional art begin to acquire it due to the Ìbejì Project,” says the collector.

Upcoming Ambitions and Global Impact

Next, he hopes to release a book “to make the ìbejì heritage available to academics and the wider public”.

He says: “Although rooted in Yorùbá culture, the Ìbejì Project is for the globe. Similarly to how we examine other cultures, people should study our heritage with equal seriousness.

“My hope is that they will no longer be viewed as museum oddities, but as components of a vibrant, dynamic cultural heritage.”