But the sheer number of twins corresponds to another cultural phenomenon: twins are revered in Yoruba culture as gifts from God, dual entities protected by spirits and possessed of magical powers.

Twins are common in the Yoruba ethnic group that dominates this part of Nigeria. A 1970s study by a British gynecologist found that around 50 sets of twins were born out of every 1,000 births in ...

Together, they produced Ibeji, a pair of sacred twins. To this day, twins are special to the Yoruba and mistreating them is said to bring about misfortune. In history, Shango was one of the first ...

In Yoruba culture twins are so common that they are traditionally given specific names. They are called either Taiwo or Kehinde depending on whether they were born first or second. But even for ...

"There's hardly a family here in Igbo-Ora that doesn't have a twin," said visiting Yoruba king Oba Kehinde Gbadewole Olugbenle, himself a twin. Yoruba culture reveres twins and their first names ...

"There's hardly a family here in Igbo-Ora that doesn't have a twin," said visiting Yoruba king Oba Kehinde Gbadewole Olugbenle, himself a twin. Yoruba culture reveres twins and their first names ...

Yoruba culture reveres twins and their first names are traditionally fixed -- Taiwo meaning 'one that tastes the world' for the eldest child, and Kehinde meaning 'one that came after' for the ...