Here are all the works I have found relating to this topic thus far. Most of them have contributed to this web site. I would like to thank Dr. Barbara Winter for the opportunity to create this site. Dr. Diane Lyons for allowing me to indulge my own research interests with an honour's degree. To Dr. Ian Fowler and Dr. David Zeitlyn, Dr. Mitzi Goheen, Dr. Misty L. Bastian, Dr. Philip Leis and Dr. Eugenia Herbert for providing me with references and kind words to keep me digging through every book for a line or two concerning the treatment of twins! Also to all my Cameroonian contacts, both here and in Cameroon. I would like to include a complete list of these people as soon as the ethnographic portion of my work is completed. And most of all, my twin sons who set me on this study!
 

Ardener, Edwin.  1956 Coastal Bantu of the Cameroons. London: International African
       Institute.

PAGE 83
Among the upper Kpe, formerly, when a woman knew she was pregnant, the husband would kill a pig to mark the occasion. He would then send her to her mother’s village for a series of pregnancy medicines. Although the pig is apparently not now normally killed, it is still general Kpe custom for the woman to undergo the rites. Usually a visit is made by a female relative to a diviner (mwanb’ a lianga) in order to discover which kind of medicine is suitable and the woman herself then goes to a doctor specializing in it. The basic pattern is known as litu (pl. matu), literally “small pot”, from the practice of putting the medicine in a pot about 7 ins high with a small neck, although the use of such a pot is not universal. Generally speaking, the woman visits a doctor (nganga) who prepares a bundle of leaves which he rubs on her stomach. She then takes it home and boils it in a pot, the water being put into an enema, with which she is purged by her husband or by another woman. The enema medicine (wosongi) is common to all Kpe medical rituals, even the ingredients being usually the same, the power of the specific nganga determining the type of sickness it is intended to combat. The form described is the simplest. Others demand a goat, a puppy, and one or two fowls, whose blood is mixed with the medical leaves before they are cooked, in this case by the doctor, in a litu. The woman takes part of the mixture in an enema at that time, and keeps part of the mixture to take home.

The general aim of these medicines is to prevent miscarriage, difficult births or the production of twins (because of their frailness and their difficult delivery), but the rituals vary in complexity and nomenclature, some occasionally involving other women of the women’s matrilineage. All are related to the concept of yowo, or supernatural sickness, and are best treated in detail in the relevant section. Common pregnancy rites are known as lilala, you’ a mesuma, you’ a mokosa,  and sometimes you’ a mondo.

PAGE 84
Although the Kpe welcome twins, as other children, they are recognized to be less easy to deliver, and to be difficult to nurture. The rite is you’ a mesuma is often said to prevent twins. It is a common belief that twins, when infants, may dislike the homes in which they are born and decide to die. No-one should give anything to one twin and not to the other, for fear of offending the latter, and making its hold on life precarious.

PAGE 90
Twins and first-born children dying in infancy are buried with no coffin, in mwendene leaves (these grow to a large size, up to 1 ft. 6 ins. In length), the reason for this being to prevent such children being born again.  [NOTE: I’ve been told that some children belong to the underworld and are born just to vex their parents by dying in infancy again and again. When such children are identified, by a diviner or the parents themselves (the parents will recognize this because each time this child is born it stays for three months and then dies), to prevent this from happening the above rite is used, or in the South-West province they will cut a limb, or finger or toe off the deceased baby so that the underworld will reject its return and it will be forced to be reborn to the parents and live. One account of a girl in Kumba holds that she had been born and died five times to the same parents. They cut her left arm off just below the elbow before her final burial. The next child born to these parents was missing an arm below the left elbow. This applies to twins as they are also considered children of the underworld. This accounts for their mystical and magical powers accredited to them.]

PAGE 94
There is a general belief that people are reborn after death. Thus the abnormal mortuary rites for twins and first-born are intended to prevent their returning again.
 
 
 

Bah, Njakoi John. 2000. Some Oku Rituals (Western Grassfields, Cameroon). Unpublished
        work.

Personal observations on his own people’s rituals. There is one chapter dedicated to descriptions of twin rituals. Describes some material culture, for example a mother of twins carries a long neck calabash with a dracaena plug. Mothers of twins, fathers of twins and twins themselves are the only ones allowed to wear two garlands of a creeping vine at once. Seems quite significant, perhaps they are buried with this? At birth the twins are given a salt (brown salt for twins, white salt is used for every day uses) and palm oil mixture. It seems that palm oil and salt is fed to only highly regarded individuals and wouldn't be an ‘every day’ mixture.

Twins are not given any masks or sculptures in the Oku kingdom, but N. Bah describes some interesting objects specifically for twins. They are not given anything separately but share each ritual object. They are given a single bag, a single clay soup pot and a decorated clay wine pot. The pots are painted in the middle with a large eye, black in the centre surrounded by white. Three horizontal white lines are drawn with a finger at its mouth…the white colour is made from kaolin (a chalky white clay also known as Calabar chalk). This pot sits on a circular base of banana leaves with a garland of kefu feyin creeper tied round the mouth of the pot.

When a twin dies it is buried as fast as possible with two leafless neck garlands. If one is living, it is given salt and oil and the twin rite is performed. If both die before the ritual, then they are buried with no ceremony, the Oku do not believe in reincarnation and once a child is dead, it is gone. At birth the placentas are buried in two separate but adjacent graves, if the twins die at this time the placentas are still buried but are buried at the twin specialist’s home while the twins are buried at the father’s home.

Small reptiles and insects are considered the animals of twins, they can transform into these, and must not be killed by the parents of twins.
 
 
 
 

Bah, Njakoi John. 2000. The Death Celebration of Fai Ndongdei. Unpublished
work.

Description of a burial rite in the Oku kingdom of the Grassfields.
 

Banadzem, Joseph Lukong. 1996. ‘Catholicism and Nso’ Traditional Beliefs.’ In  African
      Crossroads: Intersections between History and Anthropology in Cameroon. (eds.) Ian
        Fowler and David Zeitlyn. Providence: Berghahn Books.

PAGE 130
During the burial of important persons, the ancestors are invoked to bestow peace, abundant food, good health and also many children on the officiant and the lineage at large. These formulae, described as the ‘three hands’, are also observed in Kom and Bum, close neighbours of Nso’………

Three other forms of sacrifice need to be mentioned briefly. Saay anyuy (lit. Graves of the gods) is performed following the death of those individuals who had ‘baptismal post’, kiing anyuy set up in their compounds. These pots are used in the final naming of twins or other children born with special signs, and also for their medication. Such individuals [note 5] were offered sacrifices at a road junction leading to their compound, rather than at their graves. They were held, in their after-life, to prevent evil from entering their lineage homestead. [note 6]

NOTE 5 PAGE 140
They may be recognized by their twin-parent names such as Tanle (father of twins), Yenle (mother of twins) and Tabiy (m), Yeebiy (f) and Yeekon for single children.

NOTE 6 PAGE 140
Fr. Emonts says that this road-junction sacrifice will mislead a ghost (Kimalen) who wishes to do harm, while a well intentioned one will find the way.
 

PAGE 138
After the introduction of Christianity….
Particular rituals, such as those associated with twins and special children, have been fading away and the names associated with them have been replaced with names compatible with Christian connotations such as Kinyuy, Berinyuy, Suinyuy. These began to be used some two decades after the introduction of Christianity.
 
 
 
 
 

De Crits, Ammanuel. 1992. ‘Excavations at Banock, Grassfields, Cameroon.’ In  Nyame
Akuma. 38, 13-16.

Description of archaeological excavations going on in the Grassfields. Ties in the depth of occupation in that area as well as gives some description and sketches of clay pieces found at the site. Shows the value of the twin study in interpreting early material culture.
 
 

Diduk, Susan. 1993. ‘Twins, Ancestors and Socio-Economic Change in Kedjom Society.’ In
        Man. 28, 551-571.

Anthropological study of twin births among the Kedjom on the Grassfields of Cameroon. Diduk looks at the increase in ‘single’ twin births even though only double twins are considered powerful.

Twins are considered to be children of God and are treated as such. Gods are worshipped at conspicuous places such as waterfalls, pools or the base of striking and unusual trees. People join at these places to ‘feed’ the God on a shrine that consists of a large, flat stone approximately 18-24 inches in length. Planted on either side is the nkung plant, a type of dracaena. This is a fast growing green plant that remains such in times of drought. This plant seems to be associated with twins all over the Grassfields. These shrines are placed in compounds in the village at the entrance of the father of twins’ compound. They are identical to the one made for Gods. If there are two boys, the shrine is placed on the right of the path leading to the compound, two girls means the shrine is on the left and one of each allows this shrine to be on either side. The plants are placed on either side in the same position.

A striking and prominent shrine is also found within the kitchen of a twin mother. This consists of a collection of large and small clay pots and calabashes, a rattle and two snail shells. These are used for mixing the medicine and food used by the twins, their parents, their siblings and any other parents of twins who visit.

As twins are associated with fertility, a garden space is dedicated to the twins. Parents of twins plant two beds of plants in the centre of the farm and a dracaena seedling is planted on either end. The special status of these beds is marked by four corncobs tied together by the twin’s mother and left at the site. The corn harvested from these beds is kept aside and used as the seeds for the next year’s crops.
 

Gufler, Hermann. 1996. ‘Yamba Twin Ritual’. In Anthropos. 96, 35-51.

Description of Yamba twin rituals on the Grassfields of Cameroon. Mentions the Bali people’s custom of erecting a fence in front of a house where twins were born. Two bells are placed in a room where the twins sleep and must be quietly rung before a person enters.

In Bali when a twin dies in infancy the body is taken far into the bush and left sitting upright on a rock with props to keep the twin in place. The bearers then run as fast as they can from the place without looking back.

The Nsei people confine the mother and twins behind a fence for several years. When the fence is taken down, there is a great feast. A twin pot decorated with a large red spot surrounded by a black circle is put in the mother’s house. This post contains palm wine mixture with some large snail shells.

Yamba use twin pots in the house and fill them with oil and meat at the birth of the twins and on the shrine every new moon.

The twin specialist places a number of plants across the threshold of the twins’ house. These are secured in place with forked sticks stuck in the ground.
 
 
 
 

Herbert, Eugenia W. 1993. Iron, Gender and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African
        Societies. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

PAGE 31
Forging, however, does require immense strength in the upper torso. Incidentally, in the Bassar region, three of the four smiths interviewed in 1985 were lame, providing a curious corroboration of Norse and Greco-Roman mythology: what would have been an impossible handicap for farming and hunting was no impediment to smithing since they had powerfully built shoulders and arms. Physiologically women may not be able to develop the same sort of strength, although anyone who has taken a hand with the heavy wooden pestles African women wield year in and year out must wonder… The one exception I have come across demonstrates that women were physically capable of smithing. Formerly, Gbaya women who were born twins could exercise all male occupations and roles except warfare but including forging. Here, cultural beliefs about twins clearly predominate over other determinants of gender.

PAGES 75-76
Full of information to do with twins and metal working!!

PAGE 87
Thonga (Mozambique) belief elaborates this close association of fire and birth. A “child is the product of successful firing,” which must be followed by a ritual cooking and then a gradual cooling down as it is integrated into the patrilineage. Here the process is equated first with firing a clay pot without cracking and then a kind of smoking that protects the infant against the dangers of the external world and enables it to move from the interior of the maternal hut to the external social space. According to de Heusch (1980), the catalyst for the intrauterine firing of the embryo is, in fact, the menstrual blood, which gives off heat. Twins, interestingly enough, are viewed as the result of excessive intrauterine firing and carry a death-dealing power.

PAGE 92
Sometimes the food in question [in the smelting rituals] may be shared only by other designated groups. Thus, among the Ekonda only smelters, hunters specializing in elephant traps, and fathers of twins may consume the prescribed menu of chicken, fish, palm oil, cane rat, and bananas.

PAGE 168
Not only does the hunt carry inordinate prestige for the LeLe but it serves as “a kind of spiritual barometer of village well-being” (ibid.:13 cf. Vansina 1978:200). And this well-being is directly compared with female childbearing “as if they were equivalent male and female functions.” Bad hunts are believed to coincide with barrenness and death, and both are under the direct control of nature spirits. When things go badly, diviners prescribe remedies that are distinct for the two spheres but lumped together by the populace. Incidentally, the only time a Lele woman is allowed to hold ritual office is when she bears twins. In this case both she and her husband become diviners on an equal footing, and both perform special rites concerning hunting and fertility.
 
 
 

Jeffreys, M.D.W. 1947. ‘Notes on Twins: Bamenda.’ African Studies. 6, 189-9.

A purely descriptive work on twins in the Grassfields around Bamenda. Contains several inaccuracies that need to be corrected. Mostly about the village’s belief around twins’ magic and the ritual names assigned to each twin.
 
 

Jeffreys, M.D.W. 1953. ‘Twins births among Africans'. South African Journal of Science. 50,
        89-93.

Scientific examination of the twin rates among West African tribes. Jeffrey’s set out to determine if ethnic groups killed their twins because such birth were rare, a common theory of the time. It was found that twin births are in fact quite common in West Africa and Jeffreys postulates that killing twins is a learned behaviour, as worshipping them is.

Has an excellent chart of ethnic groups twinning rates, includes four references to groups around the Grassfields. Also has some references from historical accounts of twinning rates.
 
 

Knox, George, M.D., M.R.C.P., F.S.S. and David Morley, M.D., D.H.C. 1960.
        ‘Twinning in Yoruba Women.’ In Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the
        British Commonwealth. 67, 981-984.

Scientific examination of twinning rates amongst the Yoruba in Nigeria. Look at selective factors and biological factors. It was determined that the rate of twinning went up with each subsequent pregnancy. For a first pregnancy it is around 2% while the seventh or later pregnancy the rate is 11%. The reason for this is unknown. It is also interesting to note that twinning rates reach a yearly peak in August of 7.87% and are lowest in January at 2.97%. Once again it is unknown why this happens.
 
 
 

Nylander, P.P.S. 1971. ‘Biosocial Aspects of Multiple Births.’ In Journal of biosocial
        science. 3, 29-38.

Biosocial look at the differences in twinning rate in Aberdeen, Scotland and  Ibadan, Nigeria. Specifically the author looks at the influence of maternal age and parity, maternal height, and variation within social class and ethnic background.

Nylander found the twin rate in West Africa is four times that of the western world, and that these twin births are elevated due to dizygotic (fraternal) twins. Dizygotic twins occur when the ovaries are stimulated to release two eggs at ovulation, but Nylander did not make any assumptions as to the reason for this in West Africa.
 
 
 

Nylander, P.P.S. 1971. ‘Ethnic Differences in Twinning Rates in Nigeria.’ In Journal of
        biosocial science. 3, 151-157.

The author examined the twinning rates among Nigerian women in Ibadan. He found that the twinning rates of mothers of Western Eastern, Mid-Western and Northern Nigerian origin were 45, 45, 31 and 21/1000 births respectively. Monozygotic (identical) rates were fairly consistent with world populations, but dizygotic twin rates were highly elevated.
 
 
 
 

Oruene, Taiwo. 1985. ‘Magical Powers of Twins in the Socio-Religious Beliefs of the
Yoruba.’ In Folklore. Vol. 96:ii, 208-216.

Myth of why twins went from being slain to being cherished in the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria. Interesting link between twins, monkeys and rain making. Discusses Ibeji figures and the curation of such figures if one twin dies.
 
 
 

Renne, Elisha P. and Misty L. Bastian. 2000. Re-viewing Twinship in Africa. Unpublished
        work.

Looks at the importance and lack of research in West African twin studies. Anthropological basis but covers the history of twin research in West Africa. Points out that the greatest amount of twin research has been through Art History and the ibeji figures of the Yoruba in Nigeria. These figures can be used to trace a family over generations through the lineage carving style.

Discusses in brief the practice of infanticide among the Yoruba in southwestern Nigeria. This practice was abandoned in precolonial times except for the Igbo people of Onitsha. They held on to the idea that twins were an abomination that must be killed up until the introduction of Christianity. Now twin shrines and special observances have replaced traditional infanticide.
 
 
 

Rowlands, Michael and Jean-Pierre Warner. 1996. ‘Magical Iron Technology in the
        Cameroon Grassfields.’ In African Material Culture.(eds.) Mary Jo Arnoldi,
        Christraud M. Geary and Kris L. Hardin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

PAGE 59-61
The discourse about the smelting process is cast into the idiom of gender and procreation. However, we shall see below that the paradigm of procreation as a metaphor is problematic, even in the eyes of the informants themselves. The smelting process is likened to the progress of pregnancy and delivery. Besides charcoal, two types of inputs are fed into the furnace through the chimney: a “male” ore and a “female” one (lit. “male smelting stone” and “female smelting stone”). The male ore is a ferralitic gravel collected about 6 km north of We, by the road to Isu, on the hillside, about midway to the top, in a grassy and fairly dry area. The female ore (not an iron ore at all, perhaps not even a flux) is a clay, collected in the banks of a local stream. Once collected, the female ore is dumped in the stream, soaked and pounded. It is then mixed with crushed slag iron dust from the smithy. This is then shaped into a cake that is left to dry. Once dry, it is pounded again and broken into pieces. The male ore is never washed. It is kept dry and pounded into small bits. Then it is roasted, mixed with the female ore, and fed into the furnace. The male ore is said to be like semen. It is perceived as “dry” and powerful, whereas the female ore is said to be wet and weak “like a woman”. Unfortunately, further questions on the pregnancy process in women did not produce a clear answer, and we were unable to assess the presence or absence of possibly significant differences from the smelting process.

In iron production, the conjunction of these two principles—male and female—is seen as the cause, as it were, of the conception of the bloom in the furnace, and of the pregnancy-like reduction process. The bloom is seen as a fetus of sorts, to be delivered when mature through the door, at the bottom of the furnace. The furnace is considered as being female, an as participating in the fertility associated with the female gender, with dampness, humidity, water and “coolness” and with a lower position consistent with the women’s lower position during sexual intercourse, as stream and water are found downhill. Male ore, on the other hand, is found on high, dry ground, far above the streams. It is kept dry, and made more powerful by being roasted.

The furnace is not shaped as a female body with breasts or other female attributes, contrary to what is found in some other West African smelting industries.

Wasgman Chi, an old We man, said that every now and then, the bloom would come out in two separate lumps. It would then be considered that the furnace had delivered twins, and then the smelters would perform the same birth celebration as for twins, with twin dances and songs. They would slaughter a goat and the whole ward would rejoice. Indeed, in the Grasslands, twins are considered as gods and are believed to work wonders.
 
 
 

Schmidt, Peter R. 1990. ‘Archaeological Survey in Northwestern Cameroon.’ In Nyame
        Akuma. 34, 10-16.

Details of an archaeological survey in the Cameroonian Grassfields. Ties in the history of the are with the research I am doing in today’s culture.
 
 

Tardits, Claude. 1996. ‘“Pursue to attain”: a royal religion ’ In  African Crossroads:
        Intersections between History and Anthropology in Cameroon. (eds.) Ian Fowler and
        David Zeitlyn. Providence: Berghahn Books.

PAGE 150-151
Next we examine the regulation of access to the Palace graveyard and the burial sites of the lineages, as well as to certain other sacred sites such as the ‘house of the country”. Only the King, the counselors of the kingdom, the freat officers of the Palace who were of palatine origin and those twins who were responsible for guarding the site had access to the Palace graveyard. Access was strictly forbidden to the King’s brothers, whatever titles they held, and to his sons. The same prohibition applied to agnates of the nzi at lineage level. Breaches of this rule were punished by reduction to servitude.

The fear was that the kinsmen of the King, and lineage heads likewise, would take their place at sacrifice and appropriate their benefits. This concern implies that sacrifice was seen and as a compelling act…
 
 
 
 

Website : http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Came.html

Mother in Law’s language:
MUNGAKA (BALI, LI, NGAAKA, NGA'KA, MUNGA'KA) [MHK] 50,100 (1982 SIL). Bali Subdivision, Mezam
Division, North West Province; southeastern Galim Subdivision, Bamboutos Division and northern Bafoussam Subdivision, Mifi
Division, West Province. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Wide Grassfields,
Narrow Grassfields, Mbam-Nkam, Nun. Dialects: BALI NYONGA (BALI), TI (BATI), NDE (BANDENG). Ti may be a
dialect of Bamenyam. People are called 'Bali'. Different from three languages in Zaïre called 'Bali', Bali of Nigeria, or Bali which
is a dialect of Chamba of Nigeria and Cameroon, although many of these people have Chamba ethnic origins. Related to Baba.
25% to 50% literate. Traditional religion, Christian. Bible 1961. NT 1933. Bible portions 1929-1952.
 

Twins in this language are called Sama for a boy and Nah for a girl. Two boys are called Samjella (first twin) and Samgwa (second twin). For two girls if is Nahjella (first twin) and Nahgwa (second twin).

Father in law’s language:
BANGOLAN [BGJ] 6,300 to 15,000 (1994 SIL). East of Ndop and south of Jakiri, Ngo-Ketunjia Division, North West
Province. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Wide Grassfields, Narrow
Grassfields, Mbam-Nkam, Nun. The most distinct linguistically and culturally of the Ndop languages. Most closely related to
Bambalang. Cameroons Pidgin used as second language. Traditional religion, Muslim, Christian.

Twins are called Mumeh (first twin) and Ndueh (second twin) for either sex.