Nigeria, twins and a love-hate relationship

Upon our arrival in the self-proclaimed twin capital of Nigeria to investigate the proliferation of multiple births in the small rural town of Igbo-Ora, we are greeted by the news that a woman has just given birth to a pair of healthy babies in the local clinic.

His mother is a twin: his twin brother is in the living room taking pictures of the new arrivals, his nephew and niece. Surrounding the bed are the babies’ grandmother, who is a twin, and her great-grandmother, who has given birth to two sets of twins.

“That’s how we do it here. We give birth to twins. That makes our city special,” the grandmother of the five-hour-old twins tells the BBC.

“We are proud and we love them. We love our twins. They bring us success,” he said.

“People are disappointed if they don’t give birth to twins.”

It is true that Igbo-Ora, in southwestern Nigeria, appears to have a larger than usual number of twins; Walking around town it’s easy to see pairs of younger twins, who tend to wear matching clothes.

The global average twin birth rate is around 12 per 1,000 births, but in Igbo-Ora it is reported to be around 45 per 1,000.

In Yoruba culture, which predominates in the southwest of the country, twins are a blessing and their names are predestined.

Regardless of gender, the older twin is called Taiwo, meaning “the one who tests the world”, the younger is called Kehinde, meaning “the one who came after”.

The next day at Igbo-Ora Secondary School we discovered that these names tend to dominate the list. When we ask a group of about 1,500 students during morning assembly to raise their hands if they are twins or if they have a twin in the family, almost everyone raises their arm.

So why are there so many twins in the area?

According to oral folklore, the village was founded in the 14th century by an exiled prince of the Oyo Kingdom, who was told to make specific offerings to the Yoruba gods in pairs and in return, the village was blessed with twins.

However, many locals attribute their fertility to a dish called “ilasa”, made from okra leaves. These spinach-like leaves are added to a pot of boiling water along with salt and spices, carob and melon seeds.

The reason behind Igbo-Ora multiple births is a real topic of study in Nigeria.

Only a minority of twins born in Igbo-Ora are identical, when one egg is fertilized and then divides.

Most are not identical, meaning that several eggs are released and fertilized at the same time.

Researchers are investigating whether natural chemicals in local foods, such as ylase or perhaps even local yam, could cause women to produce multiple eggs.

Professor Akinola Kehinde Akinlabi, Chancellor of the Igbo-Ora-based Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, believes genetics may have more to do with this.

The academic, who is a twin and father of twins, says that someone born as a twin in these places will not find it difficult to find a wife or husband.

“Twins are revered almost as deities who bring good fortune and protection. People present twins and their families with gifts, money and offers of help. All of this encourages people to marry those from families that have had twins,” he tells the BBC.

The city’s traditional ruler, known as the oba, is anxiously awaiting the results of scientific studies.

Jimoh Olajide hopes that in a country that loves to set Guinness World Records, Igbo-Ora will soon be officially recognized for its phenomenal fertility, as almost every household in the city has at least one set of twins.

“My vision for this city is that we have the world record for the highest number of multiple births in the entire world,” says Oba Olajide, who of course is the father of twins.

“What will come next will be tourism, hotels.”

With this in mind, the city launched an annual international twin festival several years ago.

Professor Akinlabi hopes that focusing on twins will also lead to investments in the wider community to address issues such as its aging and ill-equipped health centres.

The situation of the twins is such that despite the adoption of Islam and Christianity in this area, the traditional Yoruba worship of them still prevails.

Kehinde Adeleke, our local guide and a younger twin, takes us to witness a ritual offering, including palm wine and beans, to the twin gods at a shrine in her family’s community.

“I feel especially blessed as a twin,” says Adeleke, who has two children but has not yet had multiple births.

“I’ll be disappointed if I don’t have twins; what I need are twins,” he admits amid the drumming and singing of the ceremony.

Such attitudes were completely anathema to some members of the minority Bassa-Komo community, near the capital, Abuja. The twins for them have been a source of fear.

In the mid-1990s, Nigerian missionary Olusola Stevens heard that villagers in this remote, undeveloped area thought the twins were evil and were dying mysteriously.

Such beliefs were not unknown in Nigeria, especially in the southeast of the country, where different communities once killed twins, although such practices ended long ago.

Pastor Stevens, who lives in Gwagwalada, about 600 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Igbo-Ora, decided to investigate.

“We started going from community to community asking, ‘Where are the twins?’ The normal answer was that the gods had killed them, in fact, in some cases, the mother did not breastfeed them and they died naturally,” she says.

The missionary discovered that babies were sometimes given a plant concoction that prevented them from gaining weight.

It is not clear exactly why such children were considered unlucky, but it is possible that in the past they were linked to deprivation and a higher risk of maternal mortality.

Pastor Stevens and his team began rescuing these children and established The Vine Heritage Home orphanage, which currently cares for about 200 children.

To change attitudes, they began providing villages with medical care and wells to access clean water.

The orphanage also works with charity Action Aid on an EU-funded outreach programme, while the government has also carried out a major awareness-raising initiative.

Therefore, many residents of the Bassa-Komo community keep their twins, but if the parents are still worried or in trouble, they hand them over to the orphanage and go to visit them there.

In fact, 27 of the children grew up and accepted invitations to return to live in their family’s village, although it is not always an easy decision for them.

“The first time I saw my biological father was when I turned 18. I was angry because he abandoned me,” says Olufemi Stevens, known by his nickname “Boy Wonder.”

She grew up in the orphanage after her mother died in childbirth, but she is glad she was brave enough to return home: “When they saw me they realized that these children are not bad.

“And when I came back I was amazed to see some twins with their own mother. My plan is to go back and set up a school for them; education is the key.”

In some ways, the orphanage children are highly sought after because they have received a level of education that is unattainable by most in their own community.

Pastor Stevens acknowledges that the twins will never be as welcome as they are in Igbo-Ora, but he is hopeful that one day their services will no longer be needed.