Blog

Ejiogbe twins are Prince Taiwo and Kehinde Olabode of Ejiogbe Cultural Centre, Inisa.

The Ejiogbe twins are the owners and managers of the Ejiogbe-Ibile Stone Carvings Gallery, Ejiogbe Cultural Centre, Inisa. They are carvers, traditional medical practitioners, painters, dancers, craftsmen and farmers.

Omo-Oba Kehinde Olabode, who personally had an interview session with me, related to me some of their works. They were born in Odo-Otin area, Ekunkun, Inisa, Osun State.

Ejiogbe: Early Life

They were born in the early 1950s. Both twins (who are now fathers) are carvers, painters, traditional dancers and craftsmen who have showed their potential to the world beyond Nigeria. They have been to many places including America, Japan, China and others to show their ‘talent’.

According to Omo-Oba Kehinde Olabode, they never learned the art from anyone; it is a talent, natural potential which Eledumare has destined for them. He has carved stones and woods to make sculptures, painted walls, weaved Aso Ofi (traditional attire), and engaged in tie and dye and many others.

Their mother was the third wife of their father. He, together with his twin brother, is the 11th child of their parents. Their parents had lost one of their born twins (a boy) previously in the past before they later gave birth to them.

The Babalawo revealed to their parents that they would be carvers, traditional medical practitioners and farmers in the future. 

Ejiogbe Cultural Centre

Today (during the time of writing this), they’ve built a house (where the museum is located) on the portion of land that was given to them as an inheritance of their father.

In the house, they built a centre, Ejiogbe Cultural Centre which is a centre for Yoruba arts and culture.

Ejiogbe: Career

Kehinde Olabode started to carve stones and woods since age 10. It all started with sand work and drawing images out of the formation of the cloud in the sky, according to him. They attended Ansarudeen Nursery and Primary School, Inisa.

He would make known images and imaginations from cloud formation in the sky and sometimes made drawings on the sand with his hands. So, the inspiration and the desire to engage into carving started from this age.

Whenever there were celebrations like anniversaries and others in their primary school, they would be the one to carve woods they were going to use in the anniversaries. They carved woods to look to like priest and shrines in many cases during their school days.

Travels

Their works have taken them to many places in the world to perform. These places include America, China, Japan and others. During their travels, they also sold few of their materials abroad.

Conclusion: Observation

As at the time of getting this information, they live in their house where the museum is located in Odo-Otin area, Ekunkun Street, Inisa, Osun state.

I also noticed something during my interview with them, one does not like media  and one does. Prince Kehinde Olabode attended to and provided me all the necessary information I asked for and also had several pictures with me.

Because of this, I was unable to get and snap them together. During the entire process, the second brother of Prince Kehinde Olabode was observing while seating beside a carved stone at the entrance of the gallery. Both of them are good anyway, just my observation.

Resource

Interview conducted by Tadese Faforiji for the Ejiogbe Twins in their museum in Inisa, Osun State on July 26, 2022. Original publication; TADEXPROF