Densely populated with intricate patterns and active figures, this painting depicts a Yoruba ritual. The Yoruba believe that infants who die shortly after birth are continually reborn into the same family. These reborn spirits are known as abiku. The scene depicts mothers bringing their children to a divination priest, who performs a ritual intended to break the cycle of new incarnations and entice the child spirit to remain with the community.
Healing of Abiku Children is dominated by a large mother-figure, who faces the viewer as she awaits guidance from the priest framed in a doorway to her right. The scene teems with people engaged in various tasks; their large, prominent eyes and the linear scarification marks on their cheeks represent traditional Yoruba ideals of beauty.
The artist is the only survivor of seven sets of twins. Formerly known as Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale, he changed his name to Twins Seven-Seven in the early 1960s, when he first became successful. His work fuses personal vision with classical Yoruba elements, resulting in a distinctive style characterized by rhythmic designs that often fill the entire picture plane. Some of his works, like this one, cross categories by realizing a sculptural quality due to the layering of cut-out and painted wood. Trained in the workshop of German painters in Nigeria in the 1960s, Twins Seven-Seven is one of that country's most prominent and versatile contemporary artists.
An abiku [is] a child who, according to Yoruba belief, is born to die.
-Dele Jẹgẹdẹ, 2000