Ibeji

Ibeji are the sacred twins. Reginaldo Prandi's glossary defines them in a few words: twin orishas, protectors of children (Prandi, glossary, s.v. Ibejis). The name changes with the tradition being spoken of, and that is part of the subject of this page. In Yoruba studies, Ìbejì, the form John Mason writes (Orin Òrìṣà, p. 164 of the PDF); in Cuba, Ibeyi, the form of the Tratado Enciclopédico de Ifá, which writes it 71 times (Ibeyi and Ibeyis) and also calls them jimaguas, the Cuban word for twins; in Brazil, Ibeji, as in Prandi and Bastide, and in Recife, Beije (Bastide, O Candomblé da Bahia, p. 259). This is a reference page: it gathers what each source says, with the page, and states which tradition each sentence speaks of. The story of the twins in Brazil, with Saints Cosmas and Damian and the caruru, is told at more length in our blog article on the Ibeji.

Mason studies the Ìbejì in one section together with Òge, Òkè, Kórì and Dàda, all linked to birth: children who arrive with special names that speak of the circumstances of their birth. He records that Dàda and the Ìbejì belong to the family of Ṣàngó (Orin Òrìṣà, p. 164 of the PDF). The names are the first datum. Táíwò, the one who tasted the world, is the twin born first; Kéèhìndé, the last to arrive, is considered the elder; Ìdòwú is the child born after the twins, and Àlàbá the one who comes after Ìdòwú (Mason, p. 167 of the PDF). The material symbol is wooden figures. Mason calls ère ìbejì the carved dolls that commemorate dead twins (p. 166 of the PDF). Bastide reproduces a Bahian record according to which the ibeji are kept, in each initiate's shrine, in a double dish or a double vessel, with water and food (O Candomblé da Bahia, p. 261). Mason also links the twins to an animal: the Ìbejì are said to be children of the colobus monkey, ẹdun (p. 166 of the PDF). The date of the feast changes with the tradition. In Cuba, Mason records 26 September, with offerings to the deity and a party for the children (p. 166 of the PDF). In north-eastern Brazil, Bastide records the children's feast on 27 September, the day of Saints Cosmas and Damian (pp. 255 and 259). We found nothing in the sources we use to explain the colours devotion gives the Ibeji, and we would rather say so than invent an explanation.

Who the parents of the Ibeji are depends on the myth, and Prandi gathers versions that do not agree. In one, they are born of Oya and Oshosi and raised by Oshun, his first wife, together with Idoú and Alabá (Prandi, myth "Os Ibejis nascem de Oiá e são criados por Oxum"); in another, they are children of Yemoja ("Os Ibejis são transformados numa estatueta"); in yet another, of Oshun and Shango, raised by Yemoja ("Os Ibejis enganam a Morte"). In Cuba, Mason records a tradition that gives Odùa as the twins' mother and Olókun as one of those responsible for raising them (Orin Òrìṣà, p. 166 of the PDF). We do not force a single version. The best-known myth is the one about Death. Icu set traps on every road and took people before their time; priests, diviners and healers could not stop her. The twins take turns playing a small drum — one walks the trail, the other follows hidden in the bush — and Icu dances without noticing the switch, until she gives in and swears to remove the traps (Prandi, myth "Os Ibejis enganam a Morte"). In another myth, the first twins among the Yoruba are born as abiku, children born to die and be born again, sent by the monkeys against a farmer who hunted them. Only when he lets the monkeys eat in peace do the twins survive, and the diviner says the Ibejis have great powers to reward and to punish (Prandi, myth "Os Ibejis nascem como abicus mandados pelos macacos"). Mason reaches the monkey by another road: the Ìbejì are said to be children of ẹdun, the colobus monkey (p. 166 of the PDF). There is also the myth of the drought, in which the twins, playing at digging in the yard, find an underground spring and quench the village's thirst (Prandi, myth "Os Ibejis encontram água e salvam a cidade"). And Mason records, from the odù Òkànà Ìròsùn, a Cuban version: Odùa gave birth to a boy and a girl, the first Ìbejì, who had tails and spoke the language of animals and birds — an ability that allowed them to save the Òní and Òrúnmìlà (p. 166 of the PDF).

What the sources record about worship changes from place to place, and it is worth saying where each thing was seen. In Cuba, Angarica devotes a section of his manual to the Bellis, or Jimaguas: saints insignificant to some and of great importance to others, who represent the childhood of everyone who is born; and he records that the elders did not make saint to the jimaguas — that, he says, came later, with the creoles (Manual del Oriaté, pp. 38 and 45). Cabrera, in El Monte, calls the Ibeyes mellizos divinos, greedy like Elegguá, identified with Saints Cosmas and Damian and favourites of Obatalá and Changó (p. 79). In Brazil, Bastide describes, in Bahia and Recife in the 1950s, a children's feast at the end of September, with a collection round and a mass (pp. 255–256) and the children's caruru, served to at least seven children, because seven is the number of the twins (p. 258). And he adds a caveat that matters: in Bahia and Recife the ibeji do not "come down", because there they are treated not as true deities but as the mythical ancestors of twins; in Porto Alegre and the south he records the opposite, ibeji honoured as Orixá and able to come down (pp. 259–260). The caveat is regional and of its time, and does not describe all of today's Candomblé. What each case calls for belongs at the table of the babalawo — not on a website.

Two is the most evident symbol, but the sources show it does not stand alone. Prandi counts the twins alongside Idoú, the third brother, and Alabá (myths "Os Ibejis nascem de Oiá e são criados por Oxum" and "Os Ibejis brincam e põem fogo na casa"); Mason gives Ìdòwú and Àlàbá as the children born after the twins (p. 167 of the PDF); Angarica speaks of seven Bellis, counting Ideu (pp. 38 and 45); and Bastide records, in Rio, following João do Rio, Doú and Alaba alongside the ibeji (p. 260). The wooden figures are the other symbol: in the myth, Orunmila turns the twins into images so that they are never parted (Prandi, myth "Os Ibejis são transformados numa estatueta"), and Mason calls ère ìbejì the dolls that commemorate dead twins (p. 166 of the PDF). Mason also records songs for the Ìbejì, which speak of giving birth to two and of consoling the mother (pp. 173–174 of the PDF); we do not transcribe them.

The Ibeji show, in a single page, why this site sets the traditions side by side: Ìbejì in Yoruba studies, Ibeyi and jimaguas in Cuba, Ibeji, Beije and Cosmas and Damian in Brazil — with different dates, feasts and even status, from mythical ancestors in Bastide's Bahia to an Orixá who comes down in the south. None of these forms cancels the others. What the myths repeat, in all of them, is that the twins are children and powerful at the same time, and that, apart, they are not complete.