Twins

Christine Vo

"The representation of Igbo peoples as practitioners of twin abomination is very much part of a historical process in which missionary and colonial interest in twin killing as a sign of African atavism played a significant role," (Bastian 1).

Women missionaries were the most common twin killers in the Igbo tribe.

The Igbo people killed twins in their culture because it was considered an abomination to give birth to more than one person at the same time.

They also thought that due to multiple births, there would be conflicts between the missionaries and their would-be Igbo converts.

The Igbo tribe thought that only animals could have multiple births, and that humans should have only single births.

Twins were usually either killed immediately after being born, or abandoned in a forest. The mother of the twins went through rituals of cleaning to rid her from the twins' contamination.

Twins are no longer killed today.

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/10950157



Zachary Port


 * The Igbo people practiced twin murder, by murdering twins and putting their bodies in the ojoo ofia, meaning bad bush, outside of the towns.
 * Europeans published information about Igbo twin abomination.
 * Missionaries went to Nigeria to try ending the twin abomination.
 * Most Westerners' religions were against killing any people, which includes twins, while the Igbo religion was against twins.
 * The missionaries united to argue with the Igbo people about whether twins are a gift from God or the wrath of Ala/Ani.
 * Igbo parents of twins joined the missionaries.
 * The British went to Nigeria to colonize the Igbo and stop the twin abomination.



Pictures http://migrationstoriesofnigerianigbo.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/akparabong-cross-river-region-20thcentury.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zPRPilcOBxY/SwEeL7j3kPI/AAAAAAAAUIQ/xmnrDQEw9fo/s1600/0+Yoruba+mother+holding+her+twins.+Town+of+Share,+North+Oy o.+Deborah+Stokes+1980.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zPRPilcOBxY/SwEeLn4jkOI/AAAAAAAAUII/-16kc3M3Xmk/s1600/0a+Yoruba+mother+with+memorial+figures+of+her+deceased+twins+Selia+Alaka,+town+of+Ikoyi,+Ogbomoso.++1980+Deborah+Stokes.jpg

Work Cited http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-75373579/demon-superstition-abominable-twins.html