Â鶹Éç

These figures were given to me as a personal gift in 1961, by HH the Ataoja [Chief] of Oshogbo, Oba Adenle the Second. He told me they had come from the family shrine of a family that had converted to Islam and therefore removed their pagan images from their home. Oshogbo is a Yoruba town in western Nigeria.

"Ibeji" means "twin". In traditional Yoruba culture, twins are regarded as sharing one soul. If one twin dies in infancy, the family have a wooden figure carved, to symbolise the dead twin. They tend this image as if it were alive: feeding, bathing, clothing, caressing it, and performing rituals on significant occasions, to restore the balance of the soul.

My 2 figures are both female. Carved in wood, similar in appearance (one slightly smaller than the other), apparently from the same carver. The hair is represented by narrow vertical lines, blue-painted. No tribal markings on the faces. The surface has a polished sheen (apparently from much handling), and there are traces of red ochre powder in the carved body incisions. Each figure has a necklace of tiny blue and red ceramic beads. One also has bead bracelets and anklets. The eye pupils are represented by iron nails.