Florence Taiwo Olawoyin and Eunice Kehinde Adeniran are 55 year olds who share much more than being born as identical twins.
They got married on the same day, gave birth on the same day and founded a church, where they and their husbands are all pastors.
They have been inseparable from birth and currently live in the same compound with their respective families in Ibadan in south-western Nigeria.
“We had lots of disagreements growing up, especially on house chores, but we didn’t allow a third party to settle our disputes, not even our parents,” said Ms Olawoyin, the older of the two.
In Yoruba culture, twins are always named Taiwo, which means “first”, and Kehinde, which means “last”.
However, although Kehinde was the second to be born, she is considered the older, or more senior, of the two.
This is because the Yoruba believe the first born is always sent into the world first as a scout – to make sure it’s safe for the second twin to follow.
“While in high school, whenever each of us was to be punished for an offence, we shared the strokes of cane equally,” said Ms Adeniran with a twinkle in her eye.
Sharing strokes of the cane was not the only mischief the identical twins engaged in, as they also wrote class tests for each other without their teachers noticing.
