told by Heather Arnott
"Gladys, did I tell you the news? Randy and that wife of his, Jill, are having babies. Yes, babies. Not one, but two. That woman is crazy if she thinks she can handle more than one infant at once. She thinks she is going to keep her job too. I told Randy when he married her that she was never going to give him a minute's rest, and now look what she has done. Two children at once, why would anyone bother? And beyond that, it is a bad omen. You know it rained on their wedding day? Well, it did. They have a black cat too, just tempting fate."
"Why are twins a bad omen, Eileen? I think it's great news! Now you have two grandbabies to play with. And with Jill trying to keep up her career, you'll get to see them even more frequently. I just wish my Amy would hurry up and get started with the babies, John's boys are almost grown and I'll need some babies to keep me young. I think you are going to be double blessed."
"Haven't you ever heard of the twin brothers from Nigeria, Gladys? Two babies at once are no blessing, that close bond that people always talk about between twins is nothing but trouble waiting to happen. No two people should be that involved in each other's lives, nothing good can come out of it."
"No, I guess I haven't heard of that story."
"Well, before Nigeria was a country, it was the homeland of a whole bunch of Yoruba tribes. You've heard of the Yoruba, right? They were a bunch of African tribes that later became important to the cultural development of the Caribbean and parts of South America. Anyway, they had a king. Osaka, Atari...Ajaka, that's it! King Ajaka of the Yoruba. He had lots of wives, all those African kings did. I can't imagine why any man would want more than one wife, they can never even do everything they are supposed to for one. Though, it might be nice to have all those other wives around. It would give you someone to talk to, because Heaven knows husbands are no good for that. Well, Ajaka had this one wife he really liked, she was probably his favorite. Now in about the seventh month of her pregnancy, everyone noticed how big she was getting, and this worried Ajaka. Sure enough, his fears were grounded: she had twin boys. Now the Yoruba thought this could mean two things: either the twins were a bad omen or the mother had slept around on old Ajaka and was pregnant with two men's babies. Either way, death."
"You mean for the twins?" asked Gladys.
"Well of course, aren't you listening? The best thing the Yoruba could do was kill those babies, and sometimes the mom too. I mean obviously, the gods were not happy. But the kids weren't killed, neither was the mom. The poor king was so silly with infatuation for that wife of his that he had her and the babies taken away from the town where they could live secretly. But you can't go against what the gods say, look at what happened to that Oedipus boy. The twins grew up big and strong with only each other as friends. Of course, they were close; really, I think they were too close. It's not good just to have one friend. I mean I have lots of friends..."
"Who?"
"Don't change the subject, Gladys. Eventually, the boys' mama dies and she tells them about their birth. That's what happens when a woman has no one to talk to, she starts blabbing her secrets to just anyone. Soon after, the boys hear that their father has died and has not left any heirs. Well, the boys think that they should go claim the throne. They throw rocks to see who will actually claim the throne and the younger guy wins. Now, obviously the older brother should have been first in line for the throne, so that is just another strike against them. So, the boys get to the capital and tell everyone who they are and why they came. Right away that younger boy is set up as king and older brother starts to get jealous. I don't know why they didn't expect this, I guess they just thought they loved each other too much for that. Shows what they knew!
One day the two boys, I guess I should say men, were walking along the river near town. And what does older brother do? Splash, in he pushes his little brother and down the king sinks. Well, older brother calmly walks back to town and tells the people that his twin got tired of ruling, what with the people getting into wars and having other crises all the time, and simply left the country. Sure, he'd be willing to rule the country since his brother deserted them. Well, some time goes by and then the new king is walking by the river where he killed his brother and a fish swam up and said 'Your brother lies here.' The king reaches in and kills the fish, assuming that that will be the end of that problem. About a week later, a big old royal procession is going by, with rare animals and the whole bit. This time, the whole river jumps up and says 'Your brother lies here,' and everyone looks into the river and sees the dead king's body. Now the people hate their king and promptly abandon him. The older brother doesn't know what to do, so he kills himself with poison. Do you see what I mean, murder and suicide, just because they were twins?"
"Well, that is just one example," said Gladys. "I'm sure that was just a freak occurence."
"Oh yeah, well let me tell you the story of Romulus and Remus..."
To Romulus and Remus
To Liza and Mawu
To the Hero Twins
To Castor and Pollux
To Hopi Creation
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Author's Note: Most of the story is my interpretation of Ogumefu's story. The parts about Yoruba culture are from Lyon's work. Gladys and Eileen are my creation.
Bibliography:
"The Twin Brothers"
Originally published in M.I. Ogumefu, Yoruba Legends (1929)
Website: Nigeria section, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0780.html#nigeria
"Why the Yoruba No Longer Kill Twins"
By Dr. D. Lyons
Website: Twin Myths from Around the World
http://www2.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/ndi/twinmyths.html
Image Information:
Yoruba Twin Statuettes.
Website: African Art from the Bayly Museum
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ray.aa/African.html