Temne twins (ta-bari) should share everything: do you mean everything?

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This is a story of miniature spirit houses, elfin wooden beings, the empty shells of the dead, and the fear of sexual transgression, especially incest compounded by homosexuality. It takes place among the Temne people of northern Sierra Leone, situated in the incidence of twin births and the response of families to this rather disconcerting phenomenon. Multiple sets of twins, sometimes two and three sets in a family, are not uncommon in this region, as I have observed in several different places and had been confirmed ar the beginning of the twentieth century (Thomas 1970 1:18). However, I have found twin ritual and its effects only in the western part of Temneland, especially in Port Loko District. (1)

Miniature houses are found here and there in Temne villages and larger towns and one does not always know at a glance what each one might be. Some may be chicken coops or other small sheds for animals, although this is rare. Most miniature houses are small because they represent the dim, remote world of the spirits, less visible than the houses of the real world, obviously not useful to real people, not located in real dimensions or space or time (see Lamp 1982, chapter 3). Among these spiritual, miniature houses are the houses devoted to twins. (2) These are not where wooden twin figures are housed, but they contain symbols of twinship and of death, and they are the site of sacrifices. It is the use of the twin houses, more than the twin figures, that dominates twin ritual.

In this article I would like to introduce the readers to a form of art unfamiliar to most scholars of African art in an area not well covered in the literature. We will look at the ritual surrounding twin births and deaths, and play with some thoughts about twinship in general, and why it causes parents such concern. Twins (ta-bari, sg. ka-bari) definitely give rise to elaborate precautions. We begin with the figures, which may interest traditional art historians the most, bur which are surrounded by even more arresting visual and performative imagery.

USE OF TWIN FIGURES

Wooden twin figures take part in the ritual for the veneration of twins, particularly those who died. But they do not have a stylistic identity (Figs. 1-10). The Temne represent an amalgamation of five or more dialects which can be said to be interintelligible, and the name was recorded by the Portuguese as early as 1506, but as an ethnic group it is fair to say that they are a colonial-era construction for enabling the British to get a grip on groupings and allegiances. They have never constituted a centralized political unit, and they are culturally diverse, the southern groups sharing much with the Mende, the eastern groups owing much of their heritage to the Manding of Guinea, the northern groups allied with the Susu and Limba, and the western groups with a long history of interaction with the Krio of Yoruba and Ibibio heritage among others. It can be said equally of Temne arts that they do not form a stylistic whole. Each area and each carver often has a unique style, and it can be very hard to make stylistic generalizations, except for the fact that Temne art tends to be simple, not particularly stylized, and sometimes rudimentary. In the case of the twin figures, often carved by nonprofessional or semiprofessional artists, this is especially the case.

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Wooden figures were still being used when I did my research among the Temne from 1976 through 1980, but the practice was clearly in decline. Certainly the wars of the 1990s have disrupted much of Temne culture; the almost wholesale embrace of Western culture with its guns, diamond market, blue jeans, and Yale sweatshirts has left especially the young Temne disaffected with and oblivious to the older traditions; and I would be very surprised if the carving of twin figures has continued. Nevertheless, I have opted for the present tense, since I do not know.

Standing figures are carved as a general rule to represent the dead twin as a playmate for the live one, but they also serve as an instrument of ritual for the mother (Anwyl 1916:43; Langley 1939:77; Thomas 1970 1:114). In some cases figures are carved for living twins (Cole 1886:25; Thomas 1970 1:114), but this seems to be the exception. The carver will often carve from life in the latter case. I have never seen a matched pair, although figures in identical style are found in separate collections.

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The carvers of twin figures are usually semiprofessional artists who derive their subsistence mainly from farming, although some twin figures I have seen seem to be the work of untrained carvers. Commissions for twin figures for a family would not draw the more substantial fees that would come from work for the men's ritual society, for example, or from chiefs. In 1976 and 1979-80 I studied the work of one carver, Pa Aluseni Kamara, tracing the steps as he blocked out a piece of timber and refined it into a twin figure (Figs. 11-13). This is detailed in my PhD dissertation (Lamp 1982:92-8).

The figures are usually about 20cm-30cm (77/8" x 117/8") tall. The wood used for figures is said to be either si-gboro or ka-lap. (3) Figures I have seen are generally nude, although the Temne tend not to emphasize sexual characteristics, either primary or secondary. Some male figures are carved with shorts, and occasionally with hats, jackets, and shoes. Female and male figures sometimes are carved with rings around the neck representing crease lines, as is common throughout Sierra Leone. The figures are frequently adorned with strings of beads around the neck and the waist, and some female figures are carved with strings of beads, necklaces, and beaded or textile aprons. Sometimes the abdomen and chest are covered with carved cicatrization patterns. The detail that most clearly distinguishes a figure as Temne--although it is seldom found on the small twin figures and more on the other, larger, ritual figures--is the marking of two small, vertical incisions on each cheek, although some related groups also bear these. There is no obvious distinction of the twin figure from figures used in a number of other ritual contexts, such as healing, women's initiation, and royal display. So there is no certain way to determine that a Temne figure is a twin figure except through documentation in situ. But twin figures seem to be the smallest.

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It is the mother who maintains the figure, and if documentation from the early twentieth century still holds, it is kept near her sleeping place (Thomas 1970 1:114). She is the one who decorates the figure with strings of beads--usually white to represent spiritual protection--hung around the waist, as small children often wear. There is little documentation on how mothers use the twin figures ritually, but some information was given in the early part of the last century. The figure is sometimes placed standing before the mother when she suckles the remaining child after one twin has died. When washing or feeding the child, the figure is also washed and fed, i.e., offered plates of food, which is expected to disappear. When the living twin marries, the figure is presented to him or her and taken to the home of the newlywed (Langley 1939:77).

Procedures with twin figures seem to be somewhat idiosyncratic and regional, although there are some general practices. An expert female builder at the village of Romeni told me that when she comes to build the twin house, ka-bangka, she brings twin figures, puts them in a basket (ka-blai), places it on the family's veranda, and then proceeds to build their ka-bangka. Presumably the proximity of the twin figures to the construction site is significant. Hall (1928:4z7) reported that the wooden figures illustrated in his article were taken from the graves of twins, suggesting that they may have been intended as companions for the dead.

The figure of a twin may also be carved for purposes other than the twin ritual practiced specifically by a mother. A figure used by the Angbangbani association of diviners and circumcisers for unknown purposes is said to be a twin, and it is used, presumably, because of the association with the power of twins. Healers also use twin figures, which they keep in baskets with other items, to kill antisocial people with malevolent spiritual connections. In boys' initiation, Rabai, staffs are carved to be used as pounders by the new initiates in the final coming-out ceremonies, and these frequently are carved with a twin figure as the finial, chosen by the young boy himself as a symbol of sexual and social energy (Figs. 14-16; Lamp 1978). It is said that anyone who plays with a twin figure may get twins (Thomas 1970 1:114), so the figure is thought to have a great deal of creative power.

An early reference to twin figures was recorded at the town of Rotifunk in west-central Sierra Leone, a predominantly Temne town, by an African American missionary in 1877, revealing some characteristic ritual practices involving these figures, as well as the coercive power that missionaries wielded:

   Early next morning we reached Rotufunk [sic]. I was standing in
   front of the house. A girl passed, going toward the river,
   with an image ornamented with beads in her hand....She said it
   was a woman's child, and she was going to wash it. I spoke to
   the king, asking him to get it for me. He sent for the woman,
   who said that she gave birth to twins, and one died. She had
   this image made, and believed that the spirit of the dead
   child now dwelt in it and minded the family. She could not
   part with it. I had taken my revolver with me--the one
   presented to me in New York. I showed it to the king and told
   him if he would get the image for me I would give him the
   revolver, and an Arabic Bible for his friend, who wanted one.
   He saw the husband, and they began making country fashion and
   offering sacrifices, I suppose to get the spirit out of the
   image (Joseph Gomer, October 2, 1877, in Flickinger 1882:247-8).

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The earliest reference to what may have been twin figures among the Temne may be the Portuguese missionary Manuel Alvares, c. 1615:

   Their intercessors are idols too, for instance the
   images and portraits of their parents, children, wives,
   brothers, and so on. There is such a collection of these
   images that they have to be seen to be appreciated.
   Some are hewn out of blocks of wood with skill, and show the face
   and other features: others are only hacked out of similar blocks
   in a single blow (1990:f.64).

Later, another Portuguese missionary, Andre de Faro, in 1664 wrote with some consternation,

   ... I went to find shelter in the house of a gentleman
   which was outside the village, going to retire in the house
   with a boy who was accompanying me, I see inside two figures
   (chinas), one at the head of the bed where the gentleman
   sleeps and the other in a wall in front of it, both standing
   and decorated in the manner of a devil, in human
   form... [which he proceeded to destroy] (1945: 48).

BUILDING THE HOUSE

The ka-bangka (also called soso) may be built for living or dead twins by a number of different persons connected with the particular twinship (Figs. 17-23). Some are built by either the father or mother of the twins. Others are built by women specialists in the ritual of twinship, who are called Na-Ta-bari ('Madame Twins'). (4) Some are built by men who are ritual practitioners in other arenas. (5) A living twin may rebuild the house when it is needed. A house may be built for a single set of twins for one family, or a single house may be built for all the twins in the town. It may be constructed in the front yard, usually to the side, or on the veranda of the main house, or sometimes inside the family house itself. Ta-titi or ta-gbese are the preferred woods used to construct the house. (6) The twins themselves decide when it should be built, at least in some cases, by telling the mother or father in a dream.

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There are elaborate procedures for building the twins' house. There may be many men who come to help build it. As soon as they finish, they condemn the house and destroy it. This is repeated several times before the final version is left to stand, so it can take all day to finish a twins' house. Rice is then cooked with duiker skin and beans and first offered to a selection of collected anthills and then to the builders; they condemn the rice and throw it back into the pot, then it is offered again, repeatedly. A ritual practitioner takes leaves and rubs them on the builders and on the mother; and then he drinks palm wine (am-buya). As mentioned above, twin figures may be placed nearby to witness the building of the twins' house.

The completed house is decorated with a white cloth hung in front meant to benefit the welfare of the mother. A standard procedure is to obtain a piece of cloth, from which everyone tries to tear off a piece; the piece that is left is what's hung at the door. After the birth ritual of twins in the family is completed (as described below), a pot is put on top of the twins' house.

Within and about the twins' house are number of items important to its ritual. One anthill (kobi) for each living and dead twin to be commemorated or honored is placed on the ground within the house (Fig. 19). There are also anthills for deceased twin-ritual practitioners called Na-Gbese ('Madame Gbese'). At one village near Port Loko, two anthills in the twins' house were each for a deceased gbese (the child born after twins), tive were for dead twins, and one was for a remaining living twin. On the anthill, a white ribbon is tied around the center to delineate the forehead, as a headband. White cloth is used to drape over and cover the anthills to keep them warm and dry, as if they were the living twins themselves (Fig. 23). Anthills representing twins are also used in ritual constructions (wangka) placed on the farms and around houses, to solicit the twins' help (Figs. 24-25).

Inside the house may be also found a number of white plates, apparently always broken, medicine bottles of glass, and white flour from ka-fumak (a fungus). (7) The whiteness of these objects refers to the whiteness of the spiritual world which guides this house and its activities. One can also find calabashes meant to receive sacrificial foods, gourd rattles, bamboo gongs (e-buke) and tortoise shells (e-kuntho) intended to be used for providing rhythm for songs performed in twins' ritual (Figs. 19-21). Snail shells have also been documented (Cole 1886:24). Tobacco may be included, presumably for the pleasure of the spirits (Hall 1928:416).

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Buried underground within the ka-bangka are said to be containers of gun powder, fishhooks, thread, and a needle. These are all used in aggression against evildoers who would cause harm to the family. The twins are called upon to kill these evildoers if they should come, using spiritual methods invoked by the objects under the twins' house.

Around the ka-bangka are planted a number of reed bushes called ka-thap (Fig. 17). (8) If they die, the twins will die, so it is important to keep these cultivated. I do not know the properties of this plant, but the reed was documented in use two centuries ago in combating fever (Winterbottom 1969 2:16). Early in the twentieth century it was said that no one may approach a twin house except twins, the mother of twins, and a gbese (Langley 1939:78). I was permitted to approach and examine their interiors, always after sacrifices were made.

CHARACTER OF TWINS

Among the Temne there do not seem to be twin gods or spirit twins as among the Yoruba of Nigeria, for example, although this is not entirely clear, as certain classes of people involved in particular rituals are often said to be spiritual beings themselves. In one village, it was claimed that there are spirit twins, bur this may call into question the concept of spirituality among the Temne. Twins are said to be owned and guided by spiritual beings who share the same names. The argument for the spirit status of twins is bolstered by the assertion that twins have special towns located in the spiritual world, with names such as Rombangkang, Kayangka ('the cave', located in the forest), Romane, and Yengkesa (located by the water). Twins come from these towns originally, and they can reveal this to someone else in a dream. When they die, they return to their home of origin, as a song sung in twins' ritual suggests:

   o-ra ma-e e        Oh, where are you?
   ko ro Yengkesa     I'm going to Yengkesa.
   o-ra ma-e e        Oh, where are you?
   ko ro Yengkesa     I'm going to Yengkesa.
   o-ra ma-e e        Oh, where are you?
   ka ke-bang ka-ti   To the sea there
   ka ke-bang ka-ti   To the sea there
   te me ko           That's where I'm going.
   ko ro Yengkesa     I'm going to Yengkesa. (9)

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But one does not say that a twin has died. Twins do not die. So the spirituality of twins is certainly located somewhere between the worlds of no-ru (the physical world) and ro-soki (the spiritual world).

James Littlejohn, who worked extensively on Temne concepts of spiritual space, reported a very particular spiritual origin for Temne twins which has not been mentioned elsewhere:

  ... twins are believed to be demons belonging to the family
  of Monitor Lizard. They are river demons who have managed to
  enter their mother's womb while she was bathing in the river,
  and have been born in the form of mortals. The members of this
  family, as recounted, can live either on land or in water, and
  include all snakes (1980:228).

Perhaps the use of the snail as the emblem of twins among the neighboring Southern Bullom (Hall 1937:F-72; Pichl 1967:104) suggests the same watery origin.

Twins are thekre ('having supernatural power and vision'), considered to be in league with spiritual forces for good or bad that can effect change (Shaw 1982:101, 110). They have soki ('four eyes'). Even before they can talk, twins can communicate with ritual practitioners. Their powers may be used by others. In a dream, the twins' spirits may say, "We are looking for someone." This may result in a woman's pregnancy, suggesting that the twins are responsible for calling a newborn from the spiritual world. Hall (1928:418) reported that twins' powers are specially directed to encourage human fertility. A particular story about twins (actually 'three twins', ta-bari a-sas, i.e. triplets) suggests that twins have enormous spiritual power to do superhuman things, such as collecting all the smoke from burning wood inside a fishing net, extracting cool drinking water from a pot of boiling water, or connecting diverging roads to make them go the same place, and so resolving disputes (Sidebar 1). Conducting the proper ritual for dead twins, or simply behaving well with living twins, can bring riches. Two songs heard in twins' ritual advise this:

   Sento ngo, Sina ngo         Oh, you, Sento, Sina-ta
   mai na nga o                Let's take care of them
   man pu der de               For they've come to us.
   ta mai na nga               Let's take good care of them.
   ta de bans su               Let us welcome them.
   ta de bans o-komra o-kore   Let us welcome the pregnant woman.

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Twins are known also for extremely aggressive behavior, and are capable of severe malevolence. Tney kill people accused of being "witches" Twins can be "witches" and can cause the rice crop to fail (Sidebar 2). They can cause all manner of trouble (e.g. madness) to fall upon parents if their ritual is not properly performed. Dreams about twins can be inauspicious: Dreaming of a person wearing white beads passing in the night, or dreaming of planting the banana (e-polot) presages the death of the twin (Thomas 1970 1:88). One must never strike a twin. But twins may strike each other (ibid., p. 113). If someone hits a twin, the twin might twist the offender's head 180 degrees (Shaw 1982:105).

Dead twins communicate with their living partners. The spirit of a dead twin may visita living one in dreams to give advice on financial matters or on a journey to be undertaken (Langley 1939:77). The dead twin can torment the living twin (Cole 1886:66). In fact, the two are apparently thought to be one single being. Temne inheritance law at the beginning of the twentieth century indicates this: In case of living twins, each twin gets only half the share that would normally fall to an individual heir (Thomas 1970 1:165).

Most commentary on the birth of twins suggests that it is dreaded, although the proscriptions are ambivalent. Certain behavior is said to elicit twin birth. If a man or woman eats a banana (e-polot) from a banana tree planted for twins, the wife or the woman herself will bear twins (ibid., p. 88). It was reported in the late nineteenth century that if two women walking on the road separate to allow two men to pass between them, this would cause them to bear twins (Banbury 1888:185). Anyone who plays with a twin figure is likely to bear twins (Anwyl 1916:43). A story that I recorded in the village of Ropapa (Sidebar 1) tells of the mother of a twin who was discovered to be a witch. all the foregoing seems to indicate that it is one's transgression that brings twins into the family. Besides, twin births promise to bring heartbreak to the family, as one song from twins ritual suggests:

   anggbal ang-gbathang      They sweep the veranda
   ka-ting-o                 For nothing-ka
   ta do-rang a yira-o       They sit behind the house--
   ang-gbathang an tse tho   The veranda remains empty.

Literally, the song says that sweeping the veranda is a waste of time because the men just abandon it anyway to come sit behind the house where the women are cooking. The analogy is: To bear twins can be a waste because as soon as they are born, they may just "pass behind"--i.e., die--so the mother has suffered in vain.

Three separate songs sung in the ritual for twins advise that some parents ought not to have twins if they cannot care for them:

   kum ta-bari                 Bear twins
   o ba ye apla                She doesn't have rice.
   oya ka Sento                The mother of Sento--
   mo yo yana                  What makes her do so?
   o kum ta-bari               She has borne twins.
   o ba-ye a-pla (...)         She doesn't have rice
                               (money/shirt/cassava/
                               potatoes).
   to me yo-e                  How will I manage?
   a mera ang-gbasa ka-linke   My heart is swinging
                               off-balance [tormented].
   to me yo-e                  How will I manage?
   fisa nato                   It's better (for you)
   narofisa naro lenken        It's better over there
                               [at the neighboring house].
   ma pat e-lel aro bot mere   When they cook beans, they
                               put salt [in it].

But a comment by one of my Temne consultants suggests that transgression could deny the arrival of twins to one's family: If someone in the family is not "clean;' twins will go to another family to be bom again. One Temne consultant said that if the mother of twins wishes to give birth to twins again, ceremonies are performed for her at the ka-bangka, so occasionally a family sees benefits in the birth of twins. And ceremonies for the birth of twins are expressions of pleasure.

The family with twins needs to take special precautions, or the twins can harm the family or themselves. Twins love contradictions, and parents speak to them with contradictions. This is to get them to have "separate minds" (Thomas 1970 1:114). Twins are associated with the rubbish heap (a place usually to the west, with enormous symbolic content) because of their ambivalent power; if they cry too much, become ill, or are simply troublesome, they are placed there for a rime, which would put them on the line toward the world of the dead, perhaps as a warning (Shaw 1982:106). There are special dietary prohibitions for twins. Twins must never eat ta-titi sticks (the wood used to construct the shrine) or they will become deaf (Langley 1939:78), nor snail, which causes crawcraw, nor iguana which causes deafness (Thomas 1970 1:113). These are all emblems of the etiology of twinship, so to eat them would be cannibalistic. When a twin is sick, the mother takes medicine in a bottle from the twin house and rubs it on the twin. White flour (from ka-fumak) and oil is rubbed all around the face. The twins may be given medicine baths inside the ka-bangka.

There is a special relationship between twins that is characterized as a sexual bond, if only symbolic. Male and female twins are called husband and wife. When girl wants to be married, her twin brother ("husband") must be paid before he gives his consent. Eberl (1936:135) tells a story of a twin brother who saved his twin sister from marrying a tenacious bush spirit. Thomas (1970 3:75) tells a story of twin brothers who "loved each other well," and who made a pact, "that where you die, I will die" (Sidebar 3). It is impossible to know from the evidence available here exactly what is meant by the word "love". Clearly much of the data indicates that a pair of twins is considered a single person, for which

the implications of mutual love are complex. Among the neighboring Kuranko, same-sex twin pairs seem to be considered a single sexual entity, as twin girls must marry the same man and twin men must marry the same girl (Parsons 1964:42). (10) We will return to these data later in a discussion of the fear that twins engender in their families.

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There are special twin names (although these are not always used): Boys may be called Hassan (Sana, Lansana), Alusein (Seni, Sine, Sina), Bali, or Keru, and girls may be called Sento, Seru, Sina, Seno (Suni), or Nene. Momo (m.) and Nana (f.) are also known. E. Langley (1939:78) gave also the names of Nase, Sere, Tinka, without specifying gender.

THE RITUAL CARE OF TWINS

Ritual for the twins is usually conducted by a person with the official name of Na-Gbese ('Madame Gbese'), a practitioner in charge of twins. Gbese is the name given to the child who is born after twins and receives the same ritual as the twins. (11) Na-Gbese seems to be always a child born after twins herself, although this is not entirely clear.

On the day of birth, the most extensive ritual is carried out. This is the ceremony called wongko. all other twins are invited to participate. First, an anthill is put in the twin house. Then the participants fill some cups with rice flour, scatter it on the path from the ka-bangka to mother's house and back to ka-bangka. In ritual, the firstborn is always handled first. The newborn twins are now carried, cushioned on a cloth, in a rice fan (ka-theme), from house to house. Each house gives them dual gifts. As they travel around the village they beat the musical instruments, the bamboo gongs (e-buke) or tortoise shells (e-kuntho) taken from the ka-bangka. The people sing a number of songs expressing great pleasure:

   e-ya-yi                       [exclamation]
   e Bali, Nene-o                Oh, Bali, Nene [twins' names]
   o ya o                        Oh, mother
   Bali, Nene                    Bali, Nene
   o de ba kali-a                Oh, come and look!
   o ya-e                        [exclamation]
   ta-bari aro pufuntha          The twins have laid down--

   [chorus]
   Sento, Sina                   Sento, Sina
   oyo owe                       [exclamation]
   Sento ya Bali-eng             Sento and Bali
   e-e Sento ya Bali-eng         Oh, Sento and Bali
   hali a than ba-yeng           Even as small as this
                                 [showing hand]--
   a bot ta mi ka am-pepe        They put [gifts] for me in
                                 the calabash.
   o ya e, ta-bari Nene-o        Oh, Twins Nene.
   o ya e we-a, ta-bari Nene-o   Oh my, Twins Nene.

Then they carry the twins to the ka-bangka. The twins are set down on a mat for a few minutes to show them that the house is theirs. Each twin is given a mild beating to prevent the twins in the world of the dead from coming to take the newborn. They are washed, set down in front of the twin house, rubbed with white flour (from ka-fumak) and oil on the naval, chest, and back. The parents then eat this concoction (Thomas 1970 1:113). White beads are tied on the twins (ibid., p. 88). Now the diviner uses his methods to determine whether the twins have come to stay or not. It is the role of the anthills, representing the particular ancestors mentioned above associated with twinship, to help to determine this. The twins are placed on the ground with their heads toward the entrance of the ka-bangka: It is said that if the baby lies still, its life will be short, but if it turns with feet toward the door its life will be long (Langley 1939:76-7). But one can barely imagine a newborn child repositioning itself (this would be possible, on the other hand, for newborn reptiles). At the end, a banana tree is planted for the twins' special use (Thomas 1970 1:88). When the twins are weaned, sacrifices are taken to the shrine again as at birth, and the announcement is made that they are weaned.

Annual ceremonies are held for the honoring of twins, in either August or March, that is, in the middle of the rainy season well before harvest or in the middle of the dry season, one of the hottest times of the year, when harvested grain dwindles, the fruit trees are not quite ripe, the gardens are not quite mature, and food is scarce. The mother collects leaves in the woods and makes medicine with them, and cooks bland rice with no pepper in the sauce. She mixes the fungus, ka-fumak, with palm oil, feeds it to the twins, places it on each twiffs tongue, chest, back, and feet. The twins then drink the prepared medicine (raised to their mouths a ritual three times). The mother splits kola and divines with it to determine the proper course of action over the next few months. She may also take a piece of gold, speak to it to inquire whether anyone is wishing ill, then diga hole inside the ka-bangka and bury the gold in order to fight the potential evildoer.

There are also special ceremonies at the death of the twin, held at the ka-bangka. An anthill is placed in the ka-bangka, if one has not already been placed at birth, and covered with white cloth to keep it cozy. Rice flour (ang-gbera), valued for its symbolic whiteness, is made and offered to the deceased, poured on the ground before the door of the twin house. It was said earlier in the twentieth century that medicines were rubbed on the cadaver and dropped into his or her eye (Langley 1939:77). A new white doth is then hung in front of the ka-bangka.

Na Ta-bari then removes the white cloth from the anthills, leaving just a strip. The remaining strip of white cloth is used as a headband on the anthill, resembling the white headband characteristically worn by the paramount chief, o-kande--dead twins are regarded as o-kande. The mother of twins then goes into the woods to gather leaves and make a potion for the remaining twin. People in the village cook food to leave for the dead twin at the ka-bangka in order to restore health to a mourning mother of the deceased twins.

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The deceased twin, if an infant, is said to be buried under the wall of the family house. But earlier in the twentieth century, it was said to be buried in the miniature house, the ka-bangka (Hall 1928:416; Langley 1939:77). One must never say that a twin has died, only that he or she has gone to fetch salt, etc., or has gone away. When my Temne assistant, Jacob, asked an adolescent girl, Sento, where her twin was, not knowing that the other twin had died, Sento replied, "My husband has gone on a trip." Friends do not express sympathy, but tell the mother or the remaining twin, "I hope he (or she) will have a good journey."

SPECULATIONS ON PARENTAL FEAR, FANTASIES, AND THE SEXUAL ASPECTS OF TWINSHIP

Parents are often shown to be fearful of twins, accusing them of sorcery (Sidebar 1), even trying to break them up, to the point of wishing one dead, as one story tells (Sidebar 3). There are many sources of this tension. Twins can kill, twist a person's head off, make someone pregnant, cause more dreaded twin births, implicate the witchcraft of the mother, and die on a whim. Their very name, ta-bari, sets them in the noun class not of human beings (which is the o- class) but of small animals and insects, somewhat troubling in itself. This relates to the testimony given to Littleiohn that Temne twins come from the sea or the forest and are members of the reptile family, and it recalls Evans-Prichard's data on the Nuer of Sudan that "a twin is nota person..., He is a bird..." (1967:136).

Considering Temne ideas of twins as sexual couples, the extensive documentation on sexual prohibition in Africa, the great fear and awe that many African societies have for twins, and the attention lavished on representing them aesthetically in sculpture and architecture, it seems to me that we need to factor in the sexual dimension to any discussion of the culture of twins, especially monozygotic (identical) twins, whose lives together are probably more intimate than any other coupling. Twins are associated in several ways with hypersexuality. I would like to propose that an important factor in this fear that parents have, and the elaboratealltual in which they engage, is the fear of incest and homosexuality, whether or not the fear is well founded.

I would like to return to some of the data relative to the anecdote above on the identity of twins as a sexual couple. Temne traditional law sees twins as inseparable, a single person. We see in one of the stories about twins (Sidebar 2--probably monozygotic triplets) that twins should always agree and if one says "Let's do this" the other must follow the same path. Another story (Sidebar 3) tells of the great love that a pair of twin boys had for each other, to the extent that they were prepared to die together. Dizygotic male and female twins are said to be husband and wife. Marriage, for the Temne, clearly is a sexual bond for the purpose of bearing children. Is (or was) this twin marriage a sexual unity? There are no data available to answer this. Suppose the twins are monozygotic, or simply dizygotic same-sex. Does this same sexual bond (whether symbolic or physical) still hold?

Longer ago (actually, not so long ago) it may have been unthinkable to propose a homosexual theory of African religious practice. Bur in the past couple decades, some of the scattered and ignored data on homosexuality in Africa has been gathered and published, with extensive, reliable documentation on the prevalence of same-sex relations among men and women alike, especially in the arena of ritual practitioners (Beckwith and Fisher 1999; Drewal and Drewal 1983; Evans-Prichard 1970; Lamp 1978, 1996, 2004; Murray and Roscoe 1998; Some 1993). Twins are, by definition, ritual practitioners, and inhabitants ofa space somewhere between the physical world of cultural norms and the spiritual world where many of our familiar codes are inverse. They are in many ways the "gatekeepers" betwixt and between dual realms. This is not to argue that ritual priesthood and ritual mediumship is by definition homosexual but simply to say that there is a significant prevalence documented in ritual contexts well above that documented in quotidian life.

[FIGURE 22 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 23 OMITTED]

My own work has concentrated heavily on male initiation, in which I had ample opportunity to observe the behavior of adolescent boys (Fig. 26). Although I have worked also with female initiation, I have not had, obviously, the same opportunity to observe the behavior of adolescent girls. Those of us who were, at one rime, adolescent boys (no matter how distantly past that may be) know something from personal experience about the sexuality of that period.

Adolescent boys are bursting with hormones and find themselves with erections at the drop of a hat (or a pair of pants). Adolescents are extremely curious sexually and otherwise. This is a period of utter amazement by both boys and girls about the unbelievably rapid transformation of their bodies. They become eager explorers of this exotic world.

Boys especially, at this point, are programmed also to distance themselves from their parents. When pubescent boys find themselves alone in small groups, especially in twos, there is frequently some sort of sexual play, and if they are alone together and nude, the likelihood that one will get an erection is high, and the likelihood that mutual exploration will take place is also high. In my three years living with the Temne, I found frequently that groups of boys left to themselves, whether at their special bathing spot at the river or piled into bed five deep, often engaged in sexual play. Among the Baga in Guinea, where I spent two years, I have already documented the prevalence of teenage homosexual behavior (Lamp 1996:73-4). I want to make it clear that what I am describing is behavior, not necessarily sexual preference, and certainly not a permanent status as the word "homosexual" is commonly used in the West. I use it as an adverb and not as a noun. While in the case of both the Temne and the Baga this behavior is certainly known to, and probably expected by the adults who, of course, all went through this phase themselves, it is not necessarily condoned. It happens always away from adult supervision.

[FIGURE 24 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 25 OMITTED]

Kinsey and his collaborators (1948) noted that male adolescence is a time of strong homoerotic fantasies for most, whether they are acted upon or not. Frank Muscarella (2000) has suggested that this is a necessary mechanism of adolescence in establishing social hierarchies. Those of our ancestors who could utilize homoerotic bonding as social manipulation in alliance formation may have climbed the social hierarchy more effectively and thus, in a Darwinian sense, obtained better and perhaps quicker heterosexual mating opportunities.

The study of sexu rity in general is hampered by stigmas and outright opposition in Western scholarship and particularly in the United States, where the greatest funding for medical and sociological study exists. The few Western studies on homosexuality among twins and among siblings have been fraught with conflict. A study by Pillard and Weinrich (1986) showed that brothers of gay-identified males were four times more likely to identify as gay themselves than brothers without gay male siblings. Bailey and Pillard (1991) published their study to considerable argument over their finding of a 52% concordance for homosexuality among monozygotic twins and 22% among dizygotic twins. That is, if one twin is gay, the other is also likely to be, to the percentage given. But their studies invited only gayidentifying subjects, not a random sampling of the general population, and they did not test for or give statistics for the rate of occurrence of homosexuality among twins as opposed to the normal rate among the general population. One might surmise that the occurrence among identical twins is one half again that of the general population if twins, taken as single entities, follow the normal rate. If not, then perhaps the rate of occurrence among twins is even higher. A recent study (Kendler et al. 2000), however, sampling twins in general and their siblings, found that male twins, both monozygotic and dizygotic, report the same percentage of non-heterosexual identity as the general male population (3.1%), but female twins reporta considerably higher rate (2.5%) than the general (1.5%).

Twins have been regarded internationally as a class apart from other humans. "They are thought variously to be magical, godly, beneficent, demonic, blessed, incestuous, and/or fruits of animality or adultery" (Pector 2002:196). The literature, both fiction and nonfiction, on sibling incest is vast, from Egyptian texts to the Wagner Ring Cycle. Incest between male and female twins is assumed in some cultures around the world. For example in Bali it is understood to take place between opposite-sex twins while they are in the womb, which prompted the researcher J.A. Boon to say that "twinship is the incest of birth order" (Stewart 2000:720, original emphasis). The theatrical piece I La Galigo, directed by Robert Wilson and drawn from traditions from South Sulawesi in Southeast Asia, is a classic tale of the dread that parents have of the incest of their children. The male and female "Golden Twins" are separated by their parents at birth for fear that they would consummate in life the intimacy they had nurtured in the womb. The incest of twins would bring disaster (Cohen zoos). In the novel El Cuarto Mundo by Chilean writer Diamela Eltit, there is the account of a twin sister and brother who violate the incest taboo, and this is described as a "catastrophe" Nevertheless they repeat the act, always under the watchfui eyes of their parents, as the catastrophe is irrevocable (Hines 2001). There is some literature traced back to Sigmund Freud on the tension between sibling desire and guilt.

Some documentation on monozygotic twin incest exists. As a prelude, this might include that of Burlingham, who observed identical twin boys in a nursery in England: "The other children of the nursery would often watch Bill and Bert, laugh at them and with them, and sometimes would try to join in the game; but the twins paid little attention to them; they preferred to amuse and excite each other" (1949:64). One researcher, Rene Zazzo, was told by two twin brothers:

   to make love is a good thing but to join with a woman for
   life is foolishness....You are not a twin, you cannot
   know. A man like you probably searches another self in
   love....But for us twins, this "alterego,"
   this double, we have it already and we've always had it....When
   one has known the intimacy of the twin couple, any other intimacy
   seems incomplete, disappointing ... (1984:190).

Michael Myers (1982) documented the longstanding sexual relations between two monozygotic twins, who openly declared their deep love for each other, were erotically drawn to each other, and were intimately familiar with each other's sexual fantasies. Among female identical twins, there have been rare cases of incest reported (Perkins 1973).

There exists quite a large body of homoerotic literature and photography in the United States involving male twins who are presented as gay partners (Underhill 1999, Bianchi 2002:19-20, Keefer 2004, Weiermair et al. 1994:33, 79, and numerous calendars and greeting cards). These are all extraordinarily beautiful young men who demonstrate a deep, passionate, unqualified affection for each other that any reader would covet for himself, but which would happen only in fantasy. In the film Dead Ringers, directed by David Cronenberg and based upon the nonfiction book Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, a pair of identical twin men (one gay in the true account but not in the film), share an intense sexual appetite for the same woman and their inseparability is interpreted as mutuai desire for each other--"Whatever is in his bloodstream goes directly into mine," the one says of the other (Oster 1999; see Myers 1982:144 for another true example). The Country and Western music uber-hunk, Toby Keith, sings of his fantasy of Bobbie Jo and her twin sister, Betty Lou, who approach him together, "feelin' kinda wild tonight" in his song "I Ain't as Good as I Once Was, but I'm as Good Once as I Ever Was." In The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by "Thornton Wilder, the twin brothers Manuel and Estaban are plagued with a deep shame about being identical, which overlays their forbidden sexual relationship. When Manuel falls in love with a woman, the unity of their being is destroyed, and it ends in the death of one and then the suicide of the other (Burlingham 1945:209).

All these examples represent fantasies about identical twins, which Burlingham (1945) reports to be common. Many people entertain fantasies about the relationships of twins which may or may not correspond to reality.

   It is a conscious fantasy, built up in the latency
   period as the result of disappointment by the parents
   in the oedipus situation, in the child's
   search for a partner who will give them all the
   attention, love, and companionship he desires and who will
   provide an escape from loneliness and solitude....This twin
   is meant to fulfill many of the daydreamer's
   longings ... (Walker 1980:23).

Mitch Walker has coined the terra "magickal twinning" to describe mythological traditions on the psychological dynamic of same-sex bonding:

   The action of Magickal Twinning is a kind of duplication
   where the spirit-essence of one object is infused into
   another, making spirit twins, yet where the two duplicates
   are bound together through their common spirit-essence into
   a third object, an indivisible unity (1980:23).

Certainly Temne parents of twins entertain fantasies about them, often negative (they cause the crops to fail by witchcraft, they can make you pregnant with twins, etc.), and they view them as a single, spiritual entity. They are seen as two halves bound by an intense love, even as a sexual unit.

[FIGURE 26 OMITTED]

But there is equally some opposing literature on inherited, innate sibling sexual aversion going back to Edward Westermarck at the end of the nineteenth century, aligned with Darwinian theories of the survival of superior species, that is gaining some credence today (Richardson 2000:558-63). All these theories had to do with heterosexual incest, and the social as well as biological implications of childbirth from such unions. Essentially the theory goes that the elements of strangeness and the exotic play an important part in sexual attraction, and that siblings or other children raised in close contact have little interest in each other. But the question of consensual homosexual incest between siblings, which does not have all the same implications, has seldom been addressed. In some studies of male twins, however, gay-identifying twin partners overwhelmingly denied any mutuality in overt sexual relations, claiming to have developed their same-sex attraction independently and often far apart from each other (Kallmann and Baroff 1955:308, Holden 1965:862, Perkins 1973, Myers 1982). Ross Brooks (2004) follows the erotic imperative that "opposites attract," citing several studies showing that gay men overwhelmingly sought men unlike themselves (passive-active/juvenile-mature/masculine-nonmasculine, etc.). This would suggest that perhaps twins would only rarely turn to each other sexually. Some studies suggest that the expectation of an emotionally close relationship among same-sex twins, in which each twin's needs and feelings are automatically met and understood by the other twin, may cause anxiety and confusion for the twins who do not conform to the stereotype, and who, in fact, fight constantly and distrust their twin (Stewart 2000:728).

Nevertheless, no two people live constantly in more intimate circumstances than twins, especially identical twins. The opportunities to be alone are numerous, and the mutual affection of one twin for the other is frequently expressed by those I have met. To love one's twin is the ultimate narcissism, as Freud (1955:60) suggested, "a stage in the development of the libido which it passes through on the way from auto-eroticism to object-love" Among the many aspects of twinship that may cause parents concern and even occasion great fear, the sexual prospects must be among them. Fantasy heightens these fears and may be unfounded but it can still play an important role in ritual. What people think is the case is often more important to their ritual behavior and even to quotidian behavior than what is actually the case. For the Temne, their elaborate rituals of precaution in regard to their twins characterized as sexual mates, yet expected to take on normative sexual roles in producing heirs, must be predicated in part by this tension.

1) THE MISTRUSTED TWIN

[The story begins with a song: "Family please come--it is time to eat" This is the refrain sung periodically throughout the story.]

There once was a king who had a great family, and among them was a (single) twin who was always accused of being an o-ser [witch]. In fact, however, it was the child's mother, the wife of the king, who was turning herself into animals in order to destroy the farm. Whenever the rice in the farm was destroyed by animals, they would seize the twin and give him a flogging. The child accepted this because he was alone.

One day the child went to see the soldier bird (Pa Lulu) and said, "Pa, there is something that is discouraging me. My father always flogs me. He says that I am the one who is destroying his work." Then the soldier bird performed a divination for him and said, "Do you know what you should do? Go carve some small balaphones (ta-gbelbentha)'.' So the child went and carved the balaphones. "When it's time in the evening to return to the town, go and hide along the road. You will know the reason."

So the next day the child went and hid himself, leaving his parents cooking at the house. They looked for him all over the farm, but they couldn't find him.

Whenever the people were on their way home in the evening, the king's wife would always say that she forgot something in the farmhouse. No one knew that when she went back she always transformed herself [into an animal].

[Repeat song]

With the singing of the song, a tail began to protrude from her. Then the farm crops were destroyed. When the people came in the morning they saw that the crops were destroyed, so they seized the child and flogged him. The child said, "It doesn't matter."

He carved the balaphones and put them on top of the farmhouse. His mother was pounding rice, and the father sat relaxing, just home from the harvest. The child began to beat the balaphones, playing the song of the birds [i.e., the witch]:"ka-wur-eng" (escape, i.e., transformation). The woman [the king's wife] then said to her husband, "We have a law in our country that forbids this beating of the balaphones. Make him stop doing it. It is a sacred prohibition (masam)" But the child continued to beat the balaphones: "ka-wur-eng, ka-wur-eng, kawur-eng" And the tail continued to come out from the woman. She said to her husband, "Like I was telling you, make this child stop"

[Repeat song]

As the tail continued to come out from the woman, the child slowed the beating and stopped. The woman said to her husband, "I told you if your child does not stop this, I will go to my own country. The father said, "Gbana [the child's name], you--stop your attitude. And the woman said, "Husband, this beating is rnasam in our country, so make him stop doing this. The father advised the son, "If this woman leaves, you will have no more opportunity."

But Gbana took up the song again. And the woman's tail got longer. She went back to the forest. And this is the reason why the Muslims forbid the eating of monkeys, as they are human beings (told by a child at Ropapa, January 10, 1980, original in Temne)

2) THE THREE TWINS (TRIPLETS) WHO DISAGREED

The story I'm coming to tell today is about a woman who gave birth to three twins (triplets). After she had given birth to the twins, she advised them never to disagree with one another until death, that everything that one starts, the other should support, and that if they go on a journey they should not disagree with each other. If one says "Let's do this;' the other should agree. After she had these twins and had given them this advice, God took her life. As the children were growing up, their uncle raised them.

After they had grown, they decided one day to go on a journey in search of wisdom. So they went on this journey, walking all day and all night. They didn't find a town. They saw nobody, just woods and animals. After they had traveled for three days, they came to a fork in the road.

One said he's going to go on the left-hand road. The other said he's following the right-hand road. But the third said, "Our mother advised us never to disagree with one another. Now that we've decided to go on a journey and we've found this fork in the road, you have decided to disagree with each other. It's not right" When he was finished, the other two ignored his advice. Since they disagreed, he said he was not going anywhere. "You go on your different roads--I'm going to stay at this intersection."

The one who took the left road went a long way and found a burning woods. Before he had left for the journey, he had taken along a fishing net, which he carried on his head. When he found the woods on fire, he wanted to cross through, but he couldn't because the smoke was too thick. He couldn't see the road, and there was no way he could go further. So he took all the smoke from the property and stuffed it inside this fishing net. Then he put the net on his head and passed through, continuing on his journey.

The one who went on the right-hand road traveled a long distance and came across a groundnut farm. On this groundnut farm was a very old hut. There was an old woman who was digging groundnuts. When this man arrived, he was very hungry, and be entered the hut. He was also thirsty. The woman had been boiling water in preparation to cook. She had hot water as well as cold water. He took the cold water and drank it without asking the woman. After drinking the cold water, he poured the rest into the hot water. When the woman came and found the man in the hut, she asked him, "My son, where are you from?" He replied, "Ma'am, I'm going on a journey in search of wisdom. I am with my brothers but they decided to go on different roads" Then he said, "I drank the water. After I drank, I forgot, and put the cold water into the hot water" The woman also was thirsty. She wanted to drink but there was no cold water. She became angry. Then the young man took the cold water out of the hot water and put it back into the kettle. The woman was happy. Then he went on his way.

The one who stayed at the intersection took the one road and the other and joined the two together. He sewed them together. Then be walked along the road and met his brothers and they continued on their journey.

So the moral of the story is: if your mother or your parents advise you, it is not right to disagree with them. Because our people say that anyone who is older than you has more wisdom than you have. Anyone who has a bigger head has more hair than you. So be it (told to me in New York by Alex Koroma, then Sierra Leone Ambassador to the United Nations, June 24, 1978, original in Temne).

3) UNEQUAL LOVE FOR TWINS: MORBA AND KEREYOMBO

Long ago, there lived a rich man who had two twins. These twins loved each other very much. The children used to go fishing often, they learned to set traps for birds, and they used to go also to pick the fruit of a tree near the cave of the evil ang-karfi (sg. o-karfi, a nonancestral spiritual being). The twins found that each rime they tasted the fruit of this tree, they felt happy. But unfortunately, two snakes lived in the same tree where the twins went to pick the fruir. The two snakes living in the tree where the children went to pick the fruit were on top of the tree, and also the fruits were on the very top of the tree.

The boys were in the woods eating the fruit when they heard a pitiful cry from the town. They ran back to the town but when they reached it they found that their father had died. Despite this, the children returned laughing to the tree in the woods. But, alas, when they reached the spot, the ang-karfi captured them and took them to their evil cave. They made the two boys dance a dance, that is, to wear the mask. The ang-karfi were in good humor at the rime and did not kill the boys, but told them, "Go tell your people that you have joined the "medicine" (initiation society) of the ang-karfi. But the important matter regarding our masks is that they not get wet, and every day while the sun dries them, if they get a little damp--if they get wet--the boys will die"

Keep in mind that the boys have only their mother and no father. Their father is dead. The mother did not love the one boy, Morba. But one day Morba and Kereyombo went fishing, and their mother dried the masks, as they were a little damp. While they were fishing it grew dark and threatened to rain. Morba said to Kereyombo, "Let's return to the town because mother cannot carry my mask in. If the mask gets wet, we will have to die". Before long the rain came. His mother took the mask of Kereyombo, and left that of Morba outside so that it would get wet and the ang-karfi would kill him. But as Morba knew that his mother did not love him he told Kereyombo, "All right, today I told you that my mother cannot carry my mask in from the rain. I told you today to go there. And now I have only to go and die. But let us go die." However, Kereyombds mask was not wet. Morba took the mask, headed straight towards the woods, and entered the woods. Kereyombo said, "Wait, so that we two go and die together." Morba replied, "No, I will go alone, go die alone, because I broke my promise." But Kereyombo said, "Oh, but I put a promise in my mind that where you die I will die. So let us go, let us die today." "All right" he said, "Let us go and die on the road." Sadly, they went on the road where they used to eat fruit that they picked from the tree. They were not yet close to the cave (Kayangka) when they heard someone terrible coming before them. Morba said, "Let us come out to go and die. There is nothing else we can do." So they came out, and the okarfi took them and carried them to the cave. The ang-karfi had ten mouths each with which to eat the boys there. When they came right up to them, they stooped down and ate them both up.

So if someone has children, let that person behave toward them equally, not differently (Freely retranslated from Thomas 1970 3:75-78; original in Temne and English).

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Notes

(1) My research on twin ritual was conducted initially in 1976, but more thoroughly in 1979-80.

(2) T.J. Andridge (1901:149-52, Fig. 52) described and illustrated similar twin houses among the nearby and related Southern Bullom of Sierra Leone--a larger one for the firstborn, and a smaller one for the second. Alldridge reported that such twin houses were found throughout the territory of the Mende and the Southern Bullom (Sherbro). H.U. Hall, in his field notes (1937: F-65-75) described the twin houses and ritual in some detail.

(3) The former possibly Euphorbiaceae Ricinodendron africanum (or Ricinodendron heudelotii), the "African Wood-oil-nut tree" (Dalziel 1937:159). The latter is probably Spondias monbin (ibid., pp. 341-2).

(4) It is not clear whether these specialists are the mothers of twins themselves, but this was suggested at the village of Rowal.

(5) As suggested at the village of Romeni.

(6) The term e-titi is given by Thomas (1970 1:113), or Heisteria parvifolia (Dalziel 1937:294).

(7) Lentinus tuber-regium (Deighton 1957:117).

(8) Probably Costus afer, used in a number of different medicines in Sierra Leone. Among the neighboring Mende this plant is laid by ah anthill when twius are bom (Dalziel 1937:472-3).

(9) This and all other translations are my own, from my own transcriptions of performances.

(10) I use the nonparallel "man" and "girl" because this is commonly the nature of marriage traditionally in Sierra Leone, where males generally must become financially secure before taking a wife, and females are generally offered in marriage by their families as adolescents.

(11) The same name has been reported for the neighboring Mende (Hall 1937:F-68) and Vai further to the south (Koelle 1854:177), so it maybe of Manding origin, although different names are reported for the Kono and Kuranko.

FREDERICK JOHN LAMP is the Frances & Benjamin Benenson Foundation Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. He has conducted research in Sierra Leone and Guinea, with numerous national fellowships. His publications include See the Music, Hear the Dance, Art of the Baga, and many articles. [e-mail]