Igbo-Ora: Nigeria’s ‘twin town’ with world’s highest birth of twins

There are few things as fascinating as seeing two different people who look the same, walk the same, and have the same mannerisms. It’s even more so when they do it intentionally, like Fred and George from Harry Potter. One can only imagine how their parents could tell them apart when they were babies, especially when it was time to feed them. Did they feed one first and then tag him fed before moving on to the next one, so there was no mixup? How are they even sure they hadn’t mixed them up growing up, and the kid they think is Fred is actually George and vice versa?

The Weasleys aren’t the only people with this problem, and at least theirs is on a smaller scale. Igbo-Ora, a town in Nigeria will make you feel like you’re seeing double. You rub your eyes and look again, but the images persist. This is because you are.

Table of Content hide 1Welcome to Igbo-Ora 1.1The source of their twins 1.2The Annual World Twins Festival

Welcome to Igbo-Ora

The twins’ capital of the world. That’s the welcome message on the banner that greets you as you arrive at this town, and it isn’t a futile claim. A historical town in Oyo State, the most important tale among its indigenes, is that the town itself is a melting pot of twin births. And truly, it is renowned among neighbouring communities in Oyo State, Yoruba land, Nigeria, and Africa due to the multiple birth record of twins and triplets in virtually every generation, so much that it is attracting the world, especially researchers.

Twins are common in the Yoruba ethnic group, so much that they are traditionally given specific names, either Taiwo or Kehinde, depending on who came out first or second.

But even for Yoruba people, Igbo-Ora is considered to be exceptional. In fact, a study conducted from 1972 to 1982 by Patrick Nylander, a British gynecologist, showed an average of 45 to 50 sets of twins per 1,000 births in Nigeria’s South West. A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) article also revealed about 158 twins per 1,000 newborns in Igbo-Ora compared to five twins per 1,000 newborns in Europe. That’s about thirty times more!!!

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In an interview with Businessday in 2021, the now late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, said that Yoruba twins are a special gift from God and are heralds of good things, possessing unique gifts.

“Twins are unique creations that are very important, and we Yorubas also count them worthy; God created them in unique ways,” the Alaafin explained. “Yorubas believe that giving birth to twins brings happiness to the family. That is why everybody wants to associate with them either having them as children or as an associate. This makes them have adoring names that are different from all other children.”

The source of their twins

Many theories and causal agents have been attributed to Igbo-Ora’s twin phenomenon, a mystery that has continued to confound researchers for decades, making them scratch their heads in puzzlement.

During the Businessday interview, Oba Jimoh Titiloye, the Olu of Igbo-Ora said that it might be caused by the environment or the food that the people eat.

“In Igbo-ora, nearly every household has a history of giving birth to twins or other multiples, and people have attributed the predominance of twins in Igbo-Ora to a meal, Amala and Ilasa, morsel meals that combine yam powder and okra leaf soup,” he said. “Yams contain gonadotrophins, a chemical that helps women produce multiple eggs.”

“There was a particular Alaafin of Oyo, Alaafin Oluaso, whose seven wives gave birth to male twins who in turn gave birth to 54 children and that Alaafin built a palace for all of them,” the Alaafin said, buttressing the Oba’s point.

However, obstetricians and gynecologists are quick to debunk this claim and believe the cause of the phenomenon lies elsewhere since the same kind of yam is eaten in other places all over the world, and they aren’t swamped with twins like Igbo-Ora. Accordingly, another plausible reason may be intermarriage occurring over the years, which has caused gene pooling and concentrated it in that environment.

The women who sell piles of okra leaves at a town market are quick to disagree, though, saying that local traditions regarding how the leaves are consumed are important. For example, a stew made from the leaves should be eaten immediately and never stored.

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The Annual World Twins Festival

Of course, there’s a festival. Yoruba people are known for owambe, and that’s even when it isn’t a prestigious phenomenon being celebrated. The celebration is known as the Annual World Twins Festival. In this landmark event, the local communities come to their twinning neighbour to pay their respects to the phenomenon that has become a cultural norm.

The festival is organised annually by Twins World Creations, in partnership with the Igbo-Ora Community Foundation, to exhibit the community’s tourism and cultural potential, which are worth enlisting in the Guinness Book of Records. The presence of over 3000 sets of twins from different parts of the country, including the regular presence of the Alaafin of Oyo (who is the festival’s grand patron), Eleruwa of Eruwa, and some traditional chiefs from Oyo, is part of what makes the annual event unique.

Last year’s festival took place from October 3 to 9, 2021, and saw people from all walks of life converging to celebrate in the ancient town. Taiwo and Kehinde Oguntoye, the Ibadan-born twin ambassadors and founders of the festival, confirmed that being twins has brought a lot of opportunities and opened several doors to them. The festival was aimed at impacting the state and Nigeria at large.

“We are of the opinion that the twin festival can be used to boost the economy of Nigeria,” they said. “This means that twinning can be used to promote and develop tourism potential in Igbo-Ora. This festival, which started 10 years ago as Naija Twins Festival, was repackaged recently for global participation. Hence, the World Twins Festival is designed to position Oyo State as the foremost twins tourism destination in the world and initiate the development of the twins festival as a unique sponsorship property to create activity around Igbo-Ora towards attracting pilgrimage to the land of twins or world twins capital, as well as improving the economy of the town and neighboring areas”.

The twins added that the major challenge facing twins in Nigeria is economic as most families who give birth to twins are not financially stable enough to cater to them.

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Themed Twinning for Global Medical Breakthrough, last year’s festival was devoted to the celebration of the medical team of the National Medical Centre, Abuja, who successfully separated the conjoined Martins twins in 2020. The week-long festival commenced on Sunday, October 3, with a special church thanksgiving service at the Methodist Church, Igbo-Ora, followed by a traditional cleansing of the town called Iwure.

Other activities included a debate competition among twin students in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in Ibarapa land, a twins’ traditional/cultural games day on October 7, which featured an exhibition of local games for twins by the community, circus performances, a twin parade and talent show, and other performances by twins and other people of multiple births.

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