Daily Times

The sign greeting visitors at the entrance of Igbo-Ora in southwest Nigeria welcomes people to “TWINS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”. The sleepy-looking town boasts of having the highest concentration of multiple births of any place on the globe. To celebrate its self-proclaimed title the town hosts an annual festival, now in its second year, that draws hundreds of sets of twins from around the country. Donning different traditional clothes and costumes, the twins — male and female, old, young and even newborns — sang and danced at the latest edition this weekend to the appreciation of an admiring audience. “We feel elated that we are being honoured today,” Kehinde Durowoju, a 40-year-old twin, told AFP as he hugged his identical brother Taiwo. “With this event, the whole world will better appreciate the importance of Ibeji (twins) as special children and gifts from God.” Around them, twins moved in procession to show off their colourful outfits as magic displays and masquerades also entertained the crowds.