Igbo Ora
Article on Igbo Ora.
Article on Igbo Ora.
Igbo Ora, land of plenty, flowing with milk and honey. A land blessed with lush green vegetation filling a large expanse of land. An ancient town situated in Ibarapa central, in between, Igbole, Sagaun, Iberekodo, Idofin all in Ibarapa local government area of Oyo state. Igbo Ora is also bordered on the north by the fast growing capital city of Ogun state, Abeokuta. Igbo Ora is by all means a village with very few traces of development and advancement. But the people of Igbo Ora appear very content in their communal haven as they nurture kinship
ties through traditional and family activities.
Some four hundred centuries ago, Lajorun, a descendant of Oduduwa and great-grandson of Oranmiyan, sought an escape route from the Dahomean war, one out of several ethnic skirmishes that ravaged Yorubaland for one hundred years. His place of refuge was Igbo Ora.
When other war refugees discovered that Lajorun had made home out of this available land, they started off in the same direction. Thus Lajorun makes history as the founder of Igbo Ora. Drawing its name from the fertile soil, Igbo Ora still bares traces of antiquity, like the Sango groove, the Oju Alama, and the Igi Ose. These are places of worship visited by the people in ancient times according to their traditional belief.
Of particular interest is the Igi Ose. In ancient times, the women of Igbo Ora pour an offering of water over the roots of this tree, believing that this would provide rainfall. They also believe that a prayer for the birth of twins offered to the god worshiped here, is answered. But there are just as many myths peculiar to other towns in Yorubaland in different versions. So what is different about Igbo Ora?
At a roundabout junction on the outskirts of Igbo Ora, stands a statue of a woman, carrying twin children. One on her chest, the other strapped to her back. This does not immediately stir the curiosity of an unsuspecting traveller who doesn’t know that this peaceful unhurried town has the highest record of twin births in the world. Almost every household in this town can boast of a set of twins.
On arrival at Igbo Ora, I drove straight to the palace of the Olu of
Igbo Ora, Oba Jacob Oyerogba Otaobola II, the paramount traditional ruler in Ibarapa central. Oba Otaobola is well advanced in years and looks frail, but his family and subjects say baba, as he is fondly called is still agile and ascends and descends the stairs leading to his chambers faster than his children and grand children. Oba Otaobola received me warmly and recounted the exploits of his great ancestor, Lajorun. He also discountenanced the old belief that the worship of a god at the Oju Alamo groove by expectant mothers in ancient times resulted in the birth of twins.
He said, the people of Igbo Ora are unperturbed by their recurring multiple birth experience, regarded as novelty in other parts of the world. They see it as a blessing from God.
Perhaps the influence of Christianity and Islam has displaced the traditional belief in source of twin births. Prophet Sunday Ojelabi, an indigene of Igbo Ora and father of twin children says his faith will not accommodate this ancient belief. He believes only God can provide an answer to the continuous twin birth experience.
Medical research attributes this twin birth phenomenon to a particular yam diet, peculiar to Igbo Ora land. It is a special delicacy prepared with cassava flour made into Amala, and Ilasa or Okro leaf used to prepare the soup. The research conducted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital suggests that a high level of chemical found in this yam dish accounts for the release of more than one egg in the ovaries. Prophet Ojelabi acknowledges this possibility, but doesn’t accept it as an absolute.
Farming is the main source of livelihood in Igbo Ora, and can hardly be described as lucrative. Thus parents of twin children in multiple births can find it tough giving their children the best. An erstwhile chairman of Ibarapa Central Local Government said the community is in dire need of infrastructure.
Research efforts to prove this submission began in 1972, conducted by a British gynaecologist; Patrick Nylander. This result showed an average of 45 to 50 sets of twins per one thousand live births in the south west of Nigeria. Reports say twin births in recent times from young mothers in this twin centre have doubled.