Content area
Full text
The notion that reality has two aspects (i.e., spirit/matter, visible/invisible, male/female, good/evil, essence/existence) is a universal and ancient phenomenon. However, its implications vary from one culture to another. In some, the two aspects are thought to be interdependent, as in the duality of twins or the primordial couple whose union gave birth to humankind. In others, the two may be viewed as complementary, as in Hinduism; mutually independent and sometimes antagonistic, as in the eschatological dualism of the Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and Christian Gnostic doctrines of good and evil, in which one is expected to overcome the other in the end; or eternally coexistent as in the Cartesian epistemological distinction between mind and body (see Eliade 1969, Bianchi 1978, Lovejoy 1996). This paper examines how the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin perceive and visualize this phenomenon.
The Yoruba regard the number two as sacred apparently because of the duality or "twoness" (èjìwàpò) apparent in nature, such as day/night, sun/moon, life/death, hot/cold, wet/dry, right/left, and male/female. Apart from associating the number with balance, they expect it (especially in a ritual context) to influence the supernatural and bring about a desired result:
Èjì kòkò Ìwòrì, Olúwo Ìsálòrun!...
Ki o kó reree tèmi wá á fn mi
Èjì kòkò Ìwòrì
Kí o gbé òrun gbà a wá síle Ayé
Bálé bá lé, a fojú fóorun
Èjì kòkò Ìwòrì
Súré tete wá koo wá fire tèmi fún mi
Èjì-kòò-kòò-kòò, Ìwòrì! (Adeniji 1982:96)1
Iwòrì-The-Formidable-Two, Master Diviner of Heaven! ...
Bring me my blessings
Iwòrì-The-Formidable-Two
Bring them [my blessings] from heaven to earth
When the night falls, Sleep takes over our eyes
Ìwòrì-The-Formidable-Two!
Move swiftly and bring me my blessings
Iwòrì-The-Formidable-Formidable-Formidable-Two! (my trans.)
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Yoruba are world famous for their adoration of twins (ìbejí), regarding them as wielding spiritual powers with which they protect as well as attract good fortune to their parents. This adoration easily explains why much of the previous scholarship on the significance of twoness in Yoruba art focused primarily on the rituals and images of twins. In what follows, I broach the subject within the dialectics of Yoruba cosmology, which explains the universe as an interface of opposing yet interrelated elements.
IGBÁ ÌWÀ: THE COSMIC GOURD WITH TWO HALVES